As a lone operator, Rob Morgan has always kept a keen eye on efficiency. It’s why he has stuck with Kverneland power harrow drill combinations for his 800 acres of arable drilling, which includes 250 acres at the Morgan family’s Home Farm, Acton Burnell, in Shropshire.
His combination of choice is currently a 3m e-drill Compact with CX-II coulters, sitting on top of an NG-H with toothed packer roller, and supplied by Battlefield Machinery.
“Having a power harrow drill combination helps to keeps my seedbeds weather-proof,” says Rob Morgan. “A neighbour operates a five-furrow Kverneland plough, and we often run together to make the most of each other’s kit.”
With compaction in mind, Rob chooses to operate with a four-cylinder JD 6125R tractor, but shod on 710 tyres and carrying a press up-front.
“A large footprint with a relatively small tractor helps to tread lightly on top of ploughing,” he says. “It also means I don’t have to bury the power harrow just to remove wheelings.”
Removing hopper extensions also reduced weight, and also helped rearward visibility.
“I’ve added a camera in the hopper, and this lets me cover an extra 2-3 acres/day without having to bail out early for a top-up of seed,” he says. “And it also means I don’t need to use hopper extensions.”
Growing a wide variety of crops including winter wheat, winter barley, spring barley, oilseed rape, stubble turnips and grass, he bought the e-drill in 2018 to replace an i-drill. And following initial concerns about moving to isobus and ditching the control box, he is a convert to reducing in-cab clutter.
“I was slightly nervous at not buying a control box – but the integration and control through my JD terminal is superb,” he adds. “There are fewer control boxes in the cab, and seamless integration. And with a CVT transmission, it’s a pretty efficient outfit with plenty of output when running at 10kph.”
Seed placement is great, germination is faultless and seed rate accuracy is spot-on with the ELDOS electronic seed metering system,” he adds.
