The Buying Decision
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Agriseeder™
At Erth Engineering we want our machines to give our customers the most flexibility so that they can optimise the range of work which can be undertaken.
All too often the drill that is bought to establish grass becomes an all-rounder, doing significant cover/fodder crops, cereals and even establishing mixes after maize. A bit of time spent at the time of purchasing can help avoid pigeonholing.
Key question before anything else:
- Are you in an area growing maize or cover crops?
- Are their arable crops grown locally?
- What do you want to do with the machine now and what might you want to do in the future?
Chassis Definition
Chassis cannot be changed afterwards.
Everything bolts to the chassis so three elements of getting that right.
- Do I want a trailed machine
- Do I want the facility to fit different rollers
- What will be the optimal row spacing for the range of work I am going to do.
All other elements of the machine are retrofittable: tramlining, markers, hopper size, secondary hopper. But some decisions are fundamental at the start.
Mounted or trailed?
Most customers will pick a mounted machine. It is cheaper, more manoeuvrable and better on side slopes.
Very few people require a trailed machine but it has to be considered. If you think you might want to trail the machine this would have to be built into the chassis at the start. A trailed chassis can be used as a mounted machine but a mounted machine is not built to be trailed.
Why would you want a trailed machine?
It will facilitate a smaller tractor to handle a heavier drill (but not necessarily on hills as less weight on the tractor for traction).
Pro or Pro X?
Traditionally most people have bought a Pro chassis but more and more people are looking at the Pro X chassis as it has the ability to fit other rollers.
The standard steel barrel roller is what we fit on a Pro chassis. If at some stage in the future you might want to fit a different roller or you want a different roller at the start then you need to specify a Pro X chassis. If you may use the Agriseeder for cereals, it may be good practice to specify this at the start.
Row Spacing
When you buy from Erth we are specialists. We build and develop these machines ourselves and work with our customers to meet their needs. We can supply a 125mm or 94mm version of the Agriseeder depending on your requirements.
Row spacing is normally only an issue when sowing grass into chemical burn off. There is a tendency to favour closer spacing for grass into burn off. There is nothing wrong with this however more disks can limit performance when soft or hard conditions exist and may reduce the capabilities of sowing cereal mixes and fodder crops. If you are in an area where maize is grown or where fodder crops are grown or where there is the potential of sowing cereals then you may be better with the flexibility of being able to use the drill for other things. We have many customers who buy the machine for sowing grass and end up sowing large volumes of other crops.
Why put harrows on?
When grass is established after chemical burnoff the young seedling growth can be inhibited – chemical suppression.
We have found by having a harrow system on the machine we can reduce the incidence of chemical suppression and produce a more consistent strike. Our harrow system was not an accident, it was developed out of necessity. We would recommend that anyone working after chemical burn off buys harrows sooner rather than later. The harrows can be retrofitted if necessary on both Pro and Pro X chassis. Harrows produce a surface tilth.
If we add seed to this tilth we cannot define an Agriseeder by its row spacing alone as it is in effect a slot seeder with scratch seeding as well. It is not fair for you to think that the row spacing alone defines the machine for instance a 32 row will outperform a 24 row, it doesn’t work that way when we have harrows added and the facility to add seed.
Front harrow has hydraulic adjust so it can be in work or out of work very easily. The rear harrow is manual adjust by a toplink. Again can be used or not used.
What type of roller do you need?
The principal function of the roller is to take the excess weight off the disks. It should never be considered as an adequate replacement for separate rolling. It takes weight to provide consolidation however too much weight limits the size of the tractor and the flexibility to function in damp conditions.
When doing work under dry conditions rolling is important, but when using at this time very little weight is available to achieve adequate rolling with any type of roller as most of the weight is used for disk penetration.
Plain steel Roller
Nothing exotic about a plain steel roller. It is light, relatively cheap to produce, has great functionality when the conditions are damp and is extremely low maintenance and reliable. It will work on grass or stubble finish when nothing else will – it just keeps working.
Otico Farmflex Roller
(Pro X Chassis only)
When machines are being used for more arable operations and with finer tilth on the surface, the Farmflex roller provides a useful alternative. The machine must be specified as a Pro X chassis to allow fitting as standard or retrofit.
18” Coil Roller
(Pro X Chassis only)
The coil is a good allrounder and flexes on the surface profile increasing tilth in the slot. It has good all-round capabilities under a range of conditions. Machine needs to be specified Pro X chassis to allow fitting as standard or retrofit.
Other Rollers
(Pro X Chassis only)
Currently we have a new roller type going through testing. No roller system that we see available is effective at rolling the seed into the slot adequately. This may be better – time will tell. Separate rolling when the soil is in correct condition with a heavy roll is always good practice. The end game must be seed to soil contact for any seed.
The prismatic roller Question!
We often get asked about using a prismatic roller on our Agriseeder. Erth Engineering can offer this set up for customers who want it, but we do not necessarily recommend it as in many ways it restricts the flexibility of the machine.
If we were offering a scratch system and broadcasting the seed on the surface, we could see a prismatic roller working well and this type of roller certainly has its place in this scenario. But our system is not doing that. We would consider that we had failed if we couldn’t put the seed in the soil.
There is no practical reason for random consolidation of the surface when we are slot seeding in rows. If you are buying a slot seeder you are buying into the better emergence associated with slot seeding.
The prismatic roller does concentrate the pressure on a small percentage of the work area and this could be beneficial if it coincided with the slots – it doesn’t so no merit there. The prismatic roller is also a heavy roller, adding 40-50 hp to the tractor needed.
Under moist conditions a prismatic roller will clog and pick up soil and seed from the surface and carry it forward. Moisture is a massive advantage to getting the seed away quickly. We want our machines to work well and consistently under all conditions and this type of roller limits dramatically the functionality of the machine. The Agriseeder can be out there working in wetter conditions when other systems will not work at all and the success is enhanced as the available moisture is there. The 2023 season in Ireland was very wet and our machines were doing work and producing wonderful results when other systems could not even get out to the field.
Options
Hopper Size
What size hopper do you need?
- 170L hopper (E series only)
- 400L plastic hopper (10-14 bags of grass seed depending on variety)
- 1000L steel hopper
The larger hoppers are geared for users looking to sow cereals and cereal mixes.
All machines other than the E Series have a loading platform that has been designed to carry some spare seed bags as well.
Secondary Hopper
The secondary hopper has been 3 years in development and refinement. We were looking to deliver a metering system which could sow ultra-low rates right up to higher rates with simple calibration and maintenance. It will handle dust through to peas with no change of metering rollers. It has a simple two speed gear box and volumetric slide and with all stainless construction and SKF bearings throughout.
The airflow is adjusted by a simple butterfly valve near the fan. The output can be delivered direct to the venturi for sowing both products down the slot or can be sent to a separate head for distribution across splash plates on to the surface.
- Crop and fertiliser down the slot.
- Cover crop down the slot, slug pellets on the surface.
- Cereal crop down the slot, companion crop on the surface.
- Seed and bio stimulant down the slot.
- Peas and barley down the slot, grass on the surface.
Other Options
- Tramliners
- Hydraulic Markers
- Harrows
At some stage in the future if you need to add elements to the machine this can be done although with reference to the hopper it is best to get this right at the time of purchase
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