This follows Claydon exhibiting at Agritechnica for the first time last November, and a number of open days held this spring, both in the UK and Germany.
The Claydon direct drill was developed 10 years ago by farmer and inventor Jeff Claydon as a means of reducing cultivation and drilling costs, whilst improving timeliness and crop performance from his heavy clay soils in the east of England.
The Claydon Hybrid drill now forms a central part of a complete Strip Drilling System that has been developed by the company and has helped increase yields by up to 26% while at the same time slash establishment costs.
The aim of the Claydon Strip Drilling System is to only cultivate the soil immediately around the seeding and rooting zones by injecting the seed underneath the soil that is fresh and clean. The undisturbed soil between the seeded rows retains its structure whilst conserving moisture to give a fast germination and unhindered root development for strong plant growth.
Available in working widths of 3.0m, 4.0m, 4.8m and 6.0m, the Claydon Hybrid drill features the unique patented 2-tine strip tilling system, which is key to providing the optimum growing environment for seeds. The key to this system is the need to eliminate compaction below the seed, both for soil drainage and to provide a free structure for root development, whilst retaining moisture for quick, even germination.
Conventional direct drills tend to use a disc to create a compressed slit into which the seed is placed; however the drawback to this is that because the bottom of the slit is compacted by the leading edge of the disc; this does not allow water to drain, with the increased risk that the seed can rot in wet weather, while hindering root development.
To avoid this, the first element in the Claydon 2-tine system are staggered tungsten breaker tines, which can be set to work at up to 18cm deep. Following directly in line with each breaker tine is a winged ‘A’ blade that is designed to lift the soil and create a ‘Y’ shaped 18cm wide cultivated band into which the seeding boot, which is situated directly behind the blade, injects a band of seed. Finally a series of levelling ‘Ski’ boards gently covers and presses the seed band, and other covering tines are optionally available.
Depending on conditions, typically a 17cm ‘A’ blade is used for most seed types, but 12cm and 7.5cm wide ‘A’ blades are also available for smaller seeds and wetter conditions, or a special knife can be used for drilling beans. The winged blades are held in place by a Bourgault Speed-Loc fitting system that allows them to be easily changed.
The drill typically works at 30cm row spacing and the 12cm area between each band is left uncultivated to retain moisture and nutrients, but also allow air and light to reach each plant. An additional benefit is that these uncultivated ridges help support machinery when spraying or fertiliser spreading and so help to avoid compaction. Also by only cultivating the area immediately surrounding the seed, power requirement is reduced.
The Claydon Hybrid drill is suitable for use with a wide variety of seed types, carried in high capacity hoppers. The Claydon Hybrid uses the well proven and reliable Accord electric seed metering unit and is controlled using an RDS Artemis Electronics control unit with mapping and manual adjustment of seed rate on the move functionality.
In the 10 years since he developed his drill, Jeff Claydon has seen establishment costs plummet and yields increase. Trials over the past five years have consistently shown a greater yield response from crops drilled using the Claydon Hybrid drill compared to those established using a conventional plough based cultivations system.
In trials conducted by Saaten Union in the UK, results from 31 wheat trial plots showed an overall yield average of 9.23t/ha, an increase of 1.94t/ha (26.6%) over the conventional plots. Similarly in oilseed rape there was a 15% increase in yield to 6.05t/ha.
When reducing cultivations with any system, effective weed control is essential.
Whilst creating a stale seedbed in order to encourage weed seed germination ahead of spraying off is nothing new, this has tended to rely on light cultivations, which can result in uneven weed germination if done too deeply.
The new Claydon Straw Harrow has a working width of 7.50m and is designed to be both quick, and so cheap to operate, and to only stir the top 1.0-2.5cm in order to encourage chitting for more effective herbicide control.
The Straw Harrow consists of five banks of hard-wearing double-coil spring tines, the angle of which can be hydraulically altered in order to achieve a more ‘aggressive’ action, and can typically be used at a high operating speed of up to 25 kph, so allowing outputs of around 12ha/hour to be achieved.
As part of their expansion into Europe and to provide a higher level of service and technical support to our customers, Claydon has appointed Ben Vion to handle Claydon sales in France and build a dealer network, and is actively seeking other dealers throughout Europe.
The Company will also be hosting a number of demonstrations and open days, both in the UK and throughout Europe, plus we will be exhibiting at a number of exhibitions and shows this summer and autumn.
