When a well-used combination drill was struggling with wet and difficult ground conditions, agricultural contractors MC & JM Weaver of Richards Castle, went to their local dealer, Tallis Amos in Leominster to find out what was available to help them through their busy sowing season. “I met with Simon Amos, the Sales Director at Tallis Amos and asked him what drills he would recommend that would deal with all kinds of ground conditions. said Malcolm Weaver. “lucky for me they had a three metre Amazone KG Special in stock, a combination disc drill on a power harrow and Simon assured me that this drill would be the perfect solution. He brought it out for a demonstration and it was so good, that I never let them have it back. It was doing a great job in what were nothing less than atrocious conditions.” That was in 2007 and since then Malcolm Weaver’s Amazone Drill has covered in excess of ten thousand acres, so he’s certainly tested it in every kind of soil condition that nature could throw at it and if there were any weaknesses, you can be sure he would have found them. “One of the ideal features of the Amazone is that the depth control of the disc drill is separate from the power-harrow which enables us to set it up for almost any soil type and any seed profile, and seed rates are extremely accurate. commented Malcolm. “a large diameter packer roller crushes any clods and, individual tyre rollers covering the full width of the drill, following directly behind the coulters, firms the ground and helps retain moisture. It does everything it says on the tin” he enthused, “we’ve been very, very pleased with it.” Based on the Hereford/Shropshire border near Ludlow, the Weaver’s offer a complete general contracting service within a 20 mile radius
of Richards Castle. Such is the flexibility of the Amazone that they have sown all kinds of crops from Grass seed, Wheat, Barley, Peas, Beans, Game-cover, even down to the fine seed of Clover and it has excelled in every condition. Soil types in the area tend to be a high-wearing loamy clay but the maintenance costs and replacement wearing parts for the drill have been minimal.
“we are getting around seven hundred acres of drilling with a set of points, said Malcolm, “and even after drilling ten thousand acres, we are still only on our second set of discs, so it’s proven to be a very low-cost performer. We haven’t had any major reliability issues with it in the last seven years other than a minor hydraulic fault, but Tallis Amos were out promptly and we were soon going again. Tallis Amos have proven to be an excellent company for reliability and after-sales backup, they have a great team of guys there who know there stuff, are really willing to get the job done and care about what they are doing. Any time we have a problem, they are always there to help out, you just can’t fault them”
Averaging around 50 acres a day, the Weaver’s normally drill approx- imately 1000 acres in the autumn for their customers. They power the Amazone Combination drill with a John Deere 7530 tractor with AutoPower transmission and use John Deere’s precision farming GPS system with AutoTrac. This facility means they can map the cus- tomer’s fields and set the tractor to drive perfectly straight lines, so minimising overlap, avoiding input wastage and providing accurate tramlines for following applications.
“after seven years of trouble-free drilling, when we get to the point of changing our drill, we will definitely buy another Amazone, exclaimed Malcolm, “and the new ones have an integrated ISOBUS system so it can talk to the tractor and make all kinds of intelligent output controls, helping us to continue providing the ultimate service for our customers.” he concluded.
