Visitors to the AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds stand (number 1112) at Cereals 2016 will find a stark reminder of the need for attention to detail in drilling.

A Bettinson DD from the early 1980s will be on show this year, on kind loan from Lincolnshire farmer Billy Drury.

In the 1970s, the Bettinson DD was heralded as one of the ways forward for UK agriculture. It was to be an answer to labour and fuel costs, keeping farmers in business who were facing very high costs of production.
 
Mr Drury, 64, from Dorrington, has been using a direct drill on and off for the last 40 years.

“The direct drill is probably the reason that I’m still in business. At the end of the 1960s, there was a mass migration of labour and we couldn’t afford to employ the labour that we had.

“Times were tough, and very similar to how they are now. We’ve almost come full circle.

“This drill worked because we had small tractors that didn’t cause massive compaction and we had stubble burning to deal with the trash.”

Despite a 27% increase in direct-drilled acreage between 1977 and 1978, by the mid-1980s plough sales were on the rise, and the Bettinson was held up as an example of all that was wrong with direct drilling.

Harry Henderson, AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds East Midlands Manager, said: “What went wrong? Why did the system fail? And what can we learn today so we don’t get swept up in the current excitement around low disturbance, one pass, combinable crop establishment? We’ll be discussing all of this at Cereals this year.”

Asking Harry or Mr Drury, the answer that both would give would be ‘attention to detail’.

In 1988, an HGCA research review, Reduced Cultivation for Cereals, found that:

‘The picture that emerged from more than a decade of research and farm practice is that successful reduced cultivation systems require careful planning and more flexible management than conventional systems. Many farmers did not invest this quality of management and allowed problems to build up to a severity which not only caused a substantial loss of yield but resulted in a permanent change of cultivation method.’

It was very difficult, said Mr Drury, to create a correct seedbed in which to direct drill seeds. “As a contractor, I could never say I’d direct drill a field until I’d seen if the field was suitable,” said Mr Drury. “Most of the issues are with what you’ve done on the ground before, the quality of the drainage and so on. You have to know if there’s somewhere for the roots to go.”

“Direct drilling isn’t a solution. It has to go into the best seed bed to work.”

Mr Drury’s Bettinson DD has drilled some 4,500ha and is still used, occasionally, for drilling grass seed and patches in fields – but – only when the conditions are right.

Visit Cereals 2016 to find out more, and join in the debate with the Monitor Farm network, meeting at 11:30 for an 11:45am start on 15 June.

Anyone interested in taking part in the debate at Cereals 2016 should email emily.smith@ahdb.org.uk

Don’t miss….

Discuss practical approaches to measuring soil health in the ‘soil, steel and success’ zone at AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds’ stand.

Other features in this area include a cover crops tunnel highlighting cover crop experiences from around the country, information on the Monitor Farms’ involvement in the Yield Enhancement Network, and a soil pit.

cereals.ahdb.org.uk/cereals