There are just a few changes to our Ultimate Guide to versatile trailed drills that deploy discs, tines or a power harrow to complete seed-bed preparation ahead of a bank of disc coulters.

Bigger than before – the 9m Amazone © Amazone

See also: One-pass Alien System combi pairs air drill with plough

Amazone

A 9m version of the Cirrus seed drill offers a notable increase in output potential over the 6m model that previously headed the range.

As on most of its smaller siblings, the Cirrus 9004-2C deploys Amazone’s 380mm TwinTec+ double-disc coulters.

These run at a 10deg angle to open the soil for seed to drop in, where it is arrested by a flexible “seed catcher” to prevent it rolling along and disrupting the seed and subsequent plant spacing.

Ahead of the coulters, soil is levelled by either clod-bashing Crushboard paddle tines or a tyre packer, and then two rows of serrated or notched discs set at a fixed angle and a Crushboard if not already fitted up front.

A mid-mounted tyre packer completes the process ready for sowing.

Bednar

Bednar’s Corsa CN seeding bar can be mounted on the Matador or seed cart © Bednar

Further additions to the seed drill range from Czech manufacturer Bednar slot into the guide.

The Matador MO 6000 is a 6m wide trailed implement with individual pressurised hoppers for seed and fertiliser, providing a combined capacity of 5,000 litres, which can be supplemented by the firm’s Alfa Drill 400 unit for applying small-seeded companion crops or microgranules.

The key soil-working elements are two rows of 40mm or 80mm rigid chisel tines, which are protected by hydraulic cylinders – to the tune of up to 870kg resistance and 300mm maximum lift when triggered.

Spaced 375mm apart, the chisel tines are designed to create strips of tilth rather than cultivating the entire field surface.

Working depth is adjustable to break through any compacted soil layers and fertiliser can be fed through outlets on the tines to lie beyond sowing depth, ready to give seedlings a nutrition boost.

Alternatively, fertiliser can be applied down the spout with the seed.

A row of discs, hydraulically adjustable for working depth, follows the tines and can be positioned to level or form a shallow groove in the cultivated strips.

Two rows of 280/95 R20 traction-tread packer tyres complete the soil-working process, the two-row arrangement resulting in generous spacing between each tyre to the side and to the rear, to minimise the likelihood of sticky soils clogging the assembly.

A three-point linkage at the back of the frame allows for a choice of grain drill or precision planter to provide the sowing action. Bednar’s own offering is the Corsa CN, which now has soil preparation options of its own.

Leading clod-crushing paddle tines level off the soil, or there is a tyre packer for consolidation ahead of the disc coulters, with fluted or more aggressive wavy-edge discs offering a further solution.

There is now an option with twin air distribution heads, enabling the Corsa CN to operate half-width where passes converge.