What is the best drill for planting different crop types?

Row Crops – Precision drills are ideal for row crops like maize

Cereals and Beans – Cultivation and combination drills are better for cereals and larger fields. Direct drills can also be used when zero-til is the goal.

Oilseed Rape (OSR) – Oil drills are used but you won’t find these on our drills page! Oil drills tend to be seeders mounted onto subsoilers because of how OSR root systems develop.

Tubular Crops – Potato planters and other specialised equipment.

What’s more important to consider is matching the drill to the soil type and possibly swap out drills as soil conditions change over the seasons.

What is the best drill for different soil types, soil conditions, and tillage concepts?

Disclaimer: This list is to act as a starting point to help form decisions. It’s best practice to discuss your land type, geographical location, planned crops, and preferred tillage concept with machinery experts, neighbouring farmers, and your agronomist to help create a detailed view of your needs.

Based on soil types

  • Heavy (clay) soils: when wet = combination drill, when dry = cultivation drill
  • Sandy soils = cultivation/ direct drill
  • Silt = cultivation/ direct drill
  • Loam = cultivation/ direct drill
  • Chalky soils = tine drill
  • Peat soils = cultivation drill

Based on soil conditions

  • Wet soil = tine/ combination drill
  • Compacted, wet soil = combination drill
  • Dry = cultivation and direct drills

Based on tillage concepts

  • Controlled traffic method = direct drill/ strip drill
  • Zero-tillage = direct drill
  • Min-til = cultivation

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