Disc coulters providing accurate placement for Carlow contractor

Dan O’Neill and his son, John, run a mixed livestock and tillage farming business and a contracting enterprise near Tullow in Co Carlow.

The two-man operation have tillage stooped in their veins, and grow a variety and crops across 100 to 120 acres. They also sow and look after a few hundred acres of crops for local farmers. From ploughing to sowing to baling, the O’Neills undertake other work such as slurry spreading and beet washing.

At this time of the year, tillage is the big focus for the family. Over the past two decades, all sowing has been carried out using Amazone one-passes.

Dan bought his first one-pass over 30 years ago, which was a Rabe power harrow, coupled with an Accord seed drill on Suffolk coulters.

A few years later, this was upgraded to a new Rabe power harrow; this time with a Rabe drill, which was also on the same coulters.

In 2006, the system was due to be upgraded. Dan found himself opting for a new Amazone combo; this time on disc coulters, which he said was a game-changer. This machine served him well over the years.

With the system pushing on in age, three years ago Dan’s mind began contemplating a change, and he demonstrated a new Amazone machine; this time equipped with a disc harrow rather than a power harrow.

“We did a demo in the fall of 2021, and we were very impressed with the disc and drill combo.

“We were impressed with the output capacity of the drill mounted on the disc harrow. Over the following months, we applied for TAMS grant aid on the non-inversion one-pass, and ended up buying a new unit.

“Always keeping a difficult winter sowing campaign at the back of our mind, we decided to also invest in a new power harrow. This left us with the option of swapping the power harrow and disc harrow, depending on the conditions at hand,” explains Dan.

The O’Neills took delivery of their new Amazone Centeya Super 3000 ahead of the spring 2022 planting season. With two years’ experience under their belts, we visited the father-and-son duo to find out how it has performed to date.

The drill

The Centeya is Amazone’s trusty one-pass pneumatic combination drill offering. It comes as grain only or in a grain-and-fertiliser combo.

The pneumatic seed drill can come in combination with a power harrow or a disc harrow and is available in working widths of 3m, 3.5m and 4m. It comes with hopper capacities from 1,000l to 2,000l. In terms of coulters, it’s available in two variants, either with the RoTeC pro single disc coulter or the TwinTeC double disc coulter setup, with the O’Neills’ machine being the latter.

Grant aid

Availing of the TAMS II Tillage Capital Investment Scheme grant aid, the family purchased the minimum disturbance non-PTO powered version, which saw the pneumatic drill sit on a 3m CombiDisc mounted compact disc harrow setup.

As mentioned, Dan also bought a new power harrow in the same deal. This was a 3m heavy-duty KG 3001 (10-rotor) power harrow. This gave him the flexibility to run the piggyback seed drill on either his disc or power harrow, depending on the conditions and job at hand.

To switch between the disc and power harrow or vice versa, Amazone has incorporated a QuickLink quick-release coupling system on the Centaya combination. Dan explained that you would change between the two in 20 to 30 minutes. It’s attached through three coupling points, which allow tool-free coupling and uncoupling.

With a choice of three different packer rollers on the power harrow, the O’Neills opted for the 580mm wedge ring roller on both the disc and the power harrow.

Metering

The Centeya utilises Amazone’s own metering system. It comes as standard with an electric metering drive and is controlled by the manufacturer’s own AmaTron 4 terminal or through any other IsoBus terminal. In conjunction with the electric drive, the calibration process is automated.

The O’Neills run the drill through the Amatron IsoBus terminal, which is mounted beside the tractor’s own GPS guidance system. The drill is typically operated on a John Deere 6175R.

The seed is fed from the hopper to the distributor head via an air stream that passes up the high-rise tube. Amazone claims that its large diameter distributor head guarantees precise lateral distribution of the seed.

“Once the desired rate is set on the terminal, I take a sample using the foldout bucket, weigh it and input the results into the screen on the side of the drill. We’ve found the drill to be very easy to calibrate, and it’s always accurate when we take the second measurement. We are very happy with how easy and how accurate the metering system is,” explains Dan.

The segmented distributor head is positioned behind the seed hopper directly above the coulters.

The optional electric half-side shut-off enables the machine to be manually (via the terminal) or automatically (via GPS) switched off to reduce over-laps on the headland, etc.

With the aid of the tramline shut-offs, up to six seed rows per side can be switched off. Amazone says that the correspondingly wide tramline wheel tracks are suitable for tyre widths up to 1,050mm on a 15cm row spacing or 875mm on a 12.5cm row spacing.

Depth adjustment

The O’Neills’ machine is equipped with the TwinTeC double-disc coulter system. The coulters are mounted on rubber elements for shock absorption.

The individual coulter pressure can be adjusted from 0 to 40kg. The coulters feature maintenance-free bearings and are followed by 50mm depth control/press rollers with optional scrapers.

The sowing depth of each individual coulter is set on these depth guidance rollers, which are positioned behind each double disc coulter.

The depth guidance roller can be set from 1cm to 6cm. The placement depth is centrally set via a spindle in the middle at the back of the drill. Behind these are optional, adjustable (150mm travel) following tines. The entire drill unit can be hydraulically raised and lowered from the cab.

“We are very impressed with the double-disc coulter system and the accuracy of the seed placement. With 700 to 800 acres sowed to date in varying conditions, we still haven’t blocked any coulters,” the duo explained.

The machine comes with a 1,000-litre hopper as standard, while an additional 500l extension brings its total optional carrying capacity to 1,500l. The power harrow with the wedge ring roller weighs in at 1,861kg and the drill weighs in at 1,310kg, which totals 3,171kg.

Dan O’Neill said: “We are delighted with the drill. It’s working out very well for us. The move to the drill-mounted disc harrow is working well. It’s allowing us to get through more ground and burn less diesel versus the conventional one-pass system.

“You want the clay a lot drier for the disc harrow, but it’s saving us at least five to 10 litres of fuel per hour.

“In good fields and good conditions, we would sow 60 to 70 acres/day with the disc harrow combo.

“In similar conditions, the power harrow combo would be sowing in the region of 40 to 50 acres/day. We’d estimate that we are now sowing probably 70:30 with the disc harrow over the power harrow.

“However, for heavier soils and in wetter clay, especially in the autumn, the power harrow is the only solution. We are really happy with the seed placement; the coulters have never blocked on us. All going to plan, we hope to get 10 to 15 years’ work out of the drill,” Dan said.