Our latest Ultimate Guide focuses on direct, min-till and disc cultivator drills, with the listings providing a snapshot of every make, model and variation in terms of format, specification and retail list price.

The direct and strip-till drills are defined as those designed to establish cereal and oilseed crops direct into stubbles without prior cultivation across a wide range of soil types and conditions.

Download the spec tables in full (PDF)

In the guide tables they are separated into machines with disc coulters and those with tines, reflecting the choice available to growers according to their soil types, typical autumn sowing conditions and individual preferences.

In some cases, these implements are also capable of working into cultivated seed-beds, and several of the tine coulter models have soil-working elements in line with the coulters. These produce a band of tilth and form an exit route for rainwater, as well as fissures to ease the passage of deep-seeking oilseed rape roots.

See also: Custom-built cultivators offers money-saving alternative

Among the tine drill listings is a steadily expanding Claydon Hybrid range, the Dale line-up easily converted between 125mm and 250mm row spacings, the new Brock, Virkar and Triton designs, and the revamped Primera produced by Amazone.

The direct disc drills category includes the new Horizon Agriculture range with its big choice of row widths, an expanded Avatar line-up from Horsch, newly revised EasyDrill models from Sky Agriculture and a larger range of Weaving GD drills.

The third category covers trailed cultivator drills, all running disc openers and equipped with a variety of levelling, packing and (mostly) disc cultivating elements.

These machines offer a versatile solution for arable crop establishment, including direct drilling onto stubbles – albeit with full-width or strip cultivation on the implement creating a comprehensive tilth – through to post-ploughing operation.

In this category, established players such as Amazone, Horsch, Kverneland, Lemken, Pottinger and Vaderstad have been joined by Bednar, Farmet and Kuhn, with Kockerling returning to the category with the new Vitu drill.