Case Studies
Alistair Craig - Northern Ireland
Panbuster™ Toolbar and Agriseeder™ working in perfect harmony.
"excells in compacted and water logged soil"
I have been running a Panbuster Toolbar for two full seasons now, since the Autumn of 2022. In 2022 I approached Erth Engineering to see if they could produce a Toolbar and worked with them to develop a prototype machine which is based on their successful Panbuster subsoiler. I was involved a lot in the design process from the start but didn’t need to change a lot as the basics were already there based with the Panbuster.
We don’t have a big problem with stones so I use shearbolt rather than autoreset legs but we would have particular problems with compaction and water logging of our soil, and the soil can vary significantly from clay to sand. We were looking to address this with the Panbuster Toolbar and have found it copes with everything.
I have also recently purchased an Erth Agriseeder to use in place of my existing drill which was difficult to use in wet conditions and required a lot of power/fuel.
We were very much a plough and sow operation before getting the Panbuster Toolbar but having raised the plough so it wasn’t running as deep to keep manure and biology in the soil, we had compaction from about 6” down. We have replaced our plough and McConnell Shakeaerator with the Panbuster Toolbar. Now we basically give the ground a light run with disks to incorporate manure on the surface (1-1.5” depth) and then go over this with the Panbuster Toolbar and seed drill on behind. We have gone from ploughing to min-till and we are finding no bad points. In the first year we still ploughed a couple of fields as well as using the min-till method. The ploughed fields were very wet. The water was definitely getting away better in the fields that had been min-tilled instead.
As basically a one-man operation where I do most things myself it is also a lot easier to spreading dung, lightly disk, and then go straight in with the drill. It is a lot simpler and means less movement which is better for the soil.
Having moved to min-till with this Toolbar/Drill set up, we hope to move to no-till where possible. We wanted the drill so that we can sow grass into existing sward with no-till and to sow companion crops and oilseed rape with minimum tillage. We use cereals ourselves on our farm so we can do what suits us. The Toolbar and the Agriseeder have given us lots of options, the machines are like having a swiss army knife in your pocket. Instead of having 4-6 bits of equipment they are all I need. We have also seen areas where our large drill couldn’t get through and work due to the ground conditions so we swapped for the Erth Agriseeder and the tractor found it easy and we were able to get seed in the ground.
We have made some changes to the drill to meet our own, specific requirements so it now has three distribution heads and the Toolbar will have a distribution head as well. We are sowing oilseed rape, two types of clover and companion crops in between rye and clover, vetch and wheat, climbing beans, sunflowers and two types of maize. We will be sowing winter beans down the back of the Toolbar legs.
I hope not to need the Toolbar in the end unless I am spreading dung and to go full no-till but I love the flexibility of being able to use it where I need it in the field.
I do a variety of work with the Agriseeder including sowing grass, fodder crops, oats, maize, wheat, barley, peas/oats/barley multicrop and even wildflower mixes.
Panbuster Leg
I believe Erth’s Panbuster leg is the best leg on the market and the lowest disturbance leg available. When you are subsoiling you want the subsoil to stay where it is and not be brought up. The Erth leg does that whilst lifting the whole pan no problem. 6 legs over 4m still lift the ground.
Tractor & Costs
We are using a Valtra 240HP T214. To pull the whole Toolbar our original drill unit together I would say you would want 200-240HP. With the Erth Agriseeder on the back this is definitely easier.
When ploughing we are using approx. 12ltrs of fuel per hectare, when drilling with the Agriseeder we are using 5ltr per hectare. Adding the toolbar adds around 1.5ltrs per hectare so there is a big fuel saving with the toolbar/drill combination versus ploughing. We have sowed a whole field of maize for less than 5 litres per hectare by subsoiling, drilling and seeding saving a lot of money.
In terms of wearing parts we have done 600 acres with the Panbuster Toolbar and changed the points once. We haven’t had to turn the shins yet. If we had been using the plough we would have spent hundreds of pounds on wearing parts by now.
Name
Farm / Business
Dairy / Arable Farmer
Location
Product(s)
Area Farmed
Cropped
- Cereals
- Cover crops
- Companion Crops
- Winter Beans
- Clover
- Vetch
- Wheat
- Rye
- Sunflowers
- Maize
- Oilseed Rape
Quote(s)
“Copes with everything”
“The Toolbar and the Agriseeder have given us lots of options, the machines are like having a Swiss army knife in your pocket. ”
“I believe Erth’s Panbuster leg is the best leg on the market and the lowest disturbance leg available. ”
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