In total, Trevor sows around 930ha (2,300 acres) with two drills, one Horsch min-till unit and a power-harrow/drill one-pass unit, now a Lemken-combination.

For Trevor, regardless of machine type or brand, it has to be capable of putting seed and fertilizer down at the same time. “Seed and fertilizer are part of the culture for malting barley growers here,” he said. “My customers want fertilizer down with the seed and have always wanted that, going back to my father’s time in the 50s and 60s when he used to sow corn with an old Cockshutt seed and fertilizer drill and later with a Massey Ferguson drill. It’s something that I could never get away from.”

He continued: “I always ran a 3m seed and fertilizer mounted machine. Even before the Kuhn, Farm-Force machine, we put together a seed and fertilizer machine ourselves.”

The 3m machine suits where customers are using their own sprayers and, spraying 21 metre tramlines, a 4m machine cannot set 21-metre tramlines. He always liked the power-harrow option and customers like it too. “For different types of ground and tough ground, it’s hard to beat the power-harrow. You can get a seedbed ready in all conditions with a power-harrow; slow down when you come to a tough part or speed up in good conditions,” he said.

The Lemken choice

Trevor’s Lemken one-pass unit combines a 3m Lemken Zirkon 10 power-harrow and a Solitair 8 seed and fertilizer pneumatic drill. Diarmuid Claridge, area sales manager for Lemken, said that grain and fertilizer application in one-pass is fast becoming a must for many growers. “Placing the fertilizer with the seed is also a bonus when you consider time and fuel usage. It’s eliminating another job,” said Diarmuid.

On its power-harrow, Lemken uses 12 rotors on its 3m machine. There is a two-speed external shift on the gearbox to suit different ground conditions, plus the direction of tine rotation is reversible from normal to aggressive.

The latter allows for grass reseeding work into burned off lea or straight into stubble. A stone guard is fitted under the trough and behind the rotors a level bar is mounted on the packer roller, and is adjusted up and down on a rack and pinion system.

The trapeze packer roller aims to consolidate only where the seed is being placed, allowing the unconsolidated area between the rows to drain away excess water. Once the seed is placed in that consolidated row, the following press wheel after the disc coulter reconsolidates on top of the seed to get a firm soil to seed contact.

The drill can be mounted to the power-harrow on a quick attach three-point link system. Connection and disconnection are achieved very easily without the need for any tools. Diarmuid said that a Lemken Heliodor disc harrow can then be placed under the drill when conditions suit.

The drill element of Trevor’s combination machine is a mechanical Solitair 8 unit. Electrical metering is available in the form of the Solitair 9 drill. A split 1,850 litres hopper is used which, Diarmuid claims, will comfortably carry 500kg of grain and 1,000kg of fertilizer, allowing for a 50/50 or 60/40 ratio.

A ground wheel drives two gearboxes, one for seed and one for fertilizer, with two metering units on each supplying two seed and two fertilizer distribution heads. Air is supplied by an hydraulically driven fan which allows the engine rpm to die back without affecting the fan speed.

Diarmuid explained that to achieve accurate seed distribution and placement, all seed pipes leading from the hopper to the coulters are of equal length. The distributor heads are mounted below hopper level so the seed is always being blown downwards.

A feature of the machine’s four distributor heads is that a central plug can be unscrewed to gain access to pipes and head if a blockage occurs. Diarmuid said if the operator wants to change seed variety or empty grain or fertilizer from the tank, a hose, which is supplied, is screwed onto the distributor head and the seed can then be blown back into a bag or trailer.

With separate pipes for fertilizer and seed, down at the coulters, seed is piped to the front of the disc and fertilizer to the rear.

Coulters are all independent double disc units with press wheels mounted on a parallelogram system designed to place the seed at a precise and even depth.

The disc runs in the pre-consolidated groove made by the trapeze packer roller. Coulter pressure is easily adjusted by shifting two pins, with hydraulic pressure adjustment optional.

With 440 hectares already done this season, Trevor is very happy with the Lemken combination.

“Crops are very even after it,” he concluded.