Few farmers will have first-hand experience of quite as many direct drills as father-and-son team Lionel and Edward Shaw.

Having got a taste for a low-till approach during a trip to Canada in 2002, Lionel worked his way through offerings from the likes of John Deere, Dale, Claydon and Sumo over the following 15 years before settling on a Horsch Avatar in 2017.

See also: Driver’s view: Lionel Shaw’s Horsch Avatar drill

“I like to do things differently, and the no-till approach was a complete novelty,” he says. “I found traditional crop establishment a drawn-out affair, so the prospect of getting over the ground quickly really appealed.”

The Avatar joined a split-tank Horsch Sprinter (2005) to cover 800ha around Luton and another 200ha of arable ground at the family’s second farm an hour east of Tours in central France.

At the time, the UK was still in the EU, which meant it was relatively easy for the Shaws to transport the drills the 460 miles between sites.

But tightened Brexit border controls subsequently made this awkward and cost prohibitive and, around the same time, they relinquished their contracting work, effectively halving the UK acreage.

That forced a rethink, which resulted in the Avatar spending most of its time in France and the Sprinter left to take care of business in Bedfordshire.

This was primarily because the French harvest tends to be wrapped up by early July, leaving a window of at least three months to get cover crops established before autumn drilling begins.

So, during mid-summer, in goes a combination of mustard, millet, buckwheat, phacelia, berseem clover and fenugreek, concocted on-site using an old concrete mixer.

By October this is often headlight-high, at which point it is sprayed off and drilled into – conditions in which the Avatar excels.

© Edward Shaw

“The French ground is predominantly sand over clay, and the cover crops make a huge difference to its structure and workability,” says Edward.

“They effectively create a microclimate, sucking out excessive moisture but protecting the soil from sun and wind that ensures it never completely dries out.

“Without them, the ground goes from concrete to bog and, once the surface is broken, one turn of the tractor wheel can have it completely stuck – to the point that we’ve chained up 1,000hp’s worth of tractors to haul a machine out.”

Chance encounter

The Shaws stumbled across the Avatar during a visit to the Sima show in Paris and were immediately struck by its similarities with the John Deere 750A.

“It was basically a John Deere drill painted in Horsch colours, with the Horsch metering system and split hopper, plus a third micro-granule tank.

“That meant we could put down seed, compound fertiliser and slug pellets in one pass – something the 750A couldn’t.”

In good conditions, the Avatar’s performance has been near faultless, with accurate, uniform depth control seeing almost every plant emerge on the same day.

“It will also penetrate the ground in most conditions, but we’d like to be able to change the coulter pressure from the cab, rather than having to do it manually,” says Lionel.

To ensure the discs bite into baked autumn land, particularly as the hopper nears empty, the Shaws have welded steel plates on the back of the drill that accommodate a 1t weight block to provide extra down pressure.

They have also revamped the depth adjustment system on each coulter, replacing the nut-and-bolt arrangement with spring-tensioned handles that quicken the process.

And they dispensed with the small rubber catching wheels designed to ensure the seed is tucked into the slot.

These tended to block in wet conditions, so have been swapped for 12cm-long plastic tongues that stop seed blowing into the soil and then bouncing out again.

Wearing metal remains an ongoing frustration, primarily because the tungsten facing doesn’t reach far enough up the seed boot.

“It doesn’t last as long as we’d like, particularly in dry years,” says Lionel. “It’s expensive and it’s not easy to replace.

“The tungsten really needs to reach 40mm higher. We’ve tried welding bits of metal on to keep it going, but it’s not very effective.”

Potential improvements

Like most Avatar owners, the Shaws are yet to find any major issues with the design, aside from a few niggles that could be fairly easily remedied.

Filling the hoppers can be awkward without a 7m-reach telehandler and bag lifter, as both wings must open to allow access to the fold-down gantry, and the steel lid is heavy.

While there are gas struts to help with opening, it needs an operator’s full weight on the straps to pull it back over centre to close.

© Edward Shaw

Lionel says: “It’s also a fiddle to get the seed bag in for calibration. It catches on the two hydraulic lines that run along the chassis rails for the folding mechanism, and access to the front tank is particularly awkward because of the tapered chassis.

“The mesh platform is hard on my knees when I’m setting it up as well.”

Return to pre-drilling cultivation

After the visit to Canada two decades ago, Lionel decided to import a 12.5m Rite Way straw harrow, which arrived as a box of parts that took three days to assemble.

“I liked the way it broke up the straw, but I learnt quickly that it was no good in the wet, as it just rolled the trash into bundles. And when it was really dry it achieved nothing.”

Despite loyal service, the harrow has found itself surplus to requirements for the past four years.

“I concluded that if we didn’t move any soil at all, both before and during drilling, then we wouldn’t get any weed seed germination,” he says.

“I didn’t really see the benefit of encouraging a weed chit then spraying it off if the weed seeds don’t have a reason to germinate in the first place. It doesn’t really get you any further.”

However, the Shaws have recently seen a big build-up of brome – something that often comes with direct drilling.

“There’s always the temptation to plough it in to reset,” says Lionel. “It’s the easy way out, but I’d prefer not to resort to that so, instead, we’re looking at investing in a disc harrow.

“We won’t necessarily run it every year, but we’re not devoted zero-tillers and it will certainly help with the grass weeds and slugs.”

What next?

Lionel says: “We’re happy with what we’ve got. In an ideal world we’d have the Sprinter and Avatar at both farms all the time – the Sprinter for versatility and the Avatar for accuracy when conditions allow.

“The Sprinter might be more ragged, and the seeding depth more variable, but it will go into everything and do a decent job, particularly with the 2in Dutch Openers.

“I’ve learnt that two second-hand drills are better than one new one – there’s no replacement for versatility.”