7 best seeders on the market

The new Amazone Cirrus 6003-2C trailing disc seeder is designed to save time, money and manpower due to its ability to cultivate, reconsolidate the soil, sow and roll in a single pass.

With the addition of a GreenDrill 500 seeder box it can also sow catch crops or apply slug bait during the same pass.

Recently I had the opportunity to do a bit of sowing with an Amazone Cirrus 6006-2C at a little place called Terip Terip.

• See it here: Amazone Cirrus 6006-2C 
  

Disc seeder vs tine seeder … which is the better machine and which will give you the best results? Well, that’s a discussion that could go on forever because each has its pros and cons depending on soil type, location and preferred farm practices.

If you’re adopting minimum till, stubble and moisture retention cropping practices then a no-till air seeder is quite possibly the best option. However, if your soils require constant cultivation to maximise germination than a tine seeder may be the way to go. Then, of course, you need to factor in which style of drill would be better suited to raised bed and broadacre cropping.

• See it here: John Deere 1890 No Till Air Drill review
  

Kuhn has been developing its SD range of triple disc direct drills for over 30 years now, so it knows what works and what doesn’t.

At first glance, you can see it is a seriously well-built and heavy-duty machine, testament to this is its weight of over six tonnes.

Interestingly, up the front, it hitches straight to the drawbar of the tractor rather than a two-point linkage like many other brands.

• See it here: Kuhn SD4000 review
  

The main reason the Vaderstad Rapid has been so popular with farmers and contractors in New Zealand is the fact it’s a multipurpose drill, allowing the option of cultivating or direct drilling with one machine.

The Vaderstad Rapid 400S (seed only) 4m air seeder with additional Bio Drill carries out seedbed preparation, levelling, drilling, and packing in one pass. It also allows reliable seeding results at high working speed, hence the name.

• See it here: Vaderstad Rapid 400S review
  

Ongoing demand from Duncan Ag’s strong customer base plus a desire to produce a more versatile drill with wider working width has prompted the New Zealand company to design the Renovator AS5000.

The new model boasts a twin bin, trailing, 5m folding airseeder with an advanced electronic metering system. It can be customised to suit the demands of the customer in a number of different ways including bin size and configuration, tine spacing, rollers or harrows to name a few.

• See it here: Duncan Ag Renovator AS5000 review

Harrison Hunkin investigates why Australian farmers are heading down the path of more holistic conservation agriculture

• See it here: Special Feature: Tilling and Sowing
  

A drill is a huge investment for any operation, but Brent Lilley tested one that offers larger-scale arable farmers big savings thanks to its huge coverage.

In August I head to the heartland of New Zealand’s arable industry, mid-Canterbury, to witness the Pottinger Terrasem C6 drill. With 6m of coverage, the new drill gives an impressive output of around 3 hectares per hour as it sows processing peas on Keith Wild’s property near Chertsey.

It is pulled by a 305hp (224kW) Case IH Magnum, which has no problem given the Terasem’s recommended 10-12km/h.

• See it here: Pottinger Terrasem C6 review
  

The C-D 4000 drill is a four-metre, triple-disc drill, built by Ashburton-based Allen Custom Drills and owned by Maniototo Contracting, which operates from Ranfurly and provides a full range of contracting services in Central Otago.

Owner Ian Hore purchased the drill in September last year to replace an older Duncan Enviro drill, and since then it has clocked up over 2000ha, with operator Ricky Patterson at the wheel for much of the time. Both were pretty keen to showcase the drill and had few negative things to say about it.

• See it here: Allen Custom Drills C-D 4000 review