His enthusiastic comment relates to the performance of his new Sumo 3m DTS - or Deep Tillage Seeder, mounted on his John Deere 6175R tractor.
“We’ve been considering updating our drill for a couple of years now and after a lot of research, we decided on the SUMO DTS and it’s turned out to be one of the best decisions we’ve ever made.
Charlie grows around 200ha of winter milling wheat, has 580 breeding ewes, 50 beef sucklers and fattens approximately 200 bullocks to around 12 months. “We have the livestock mainly for muck” added Charlie, “soil structure on this sandy loam over Thames clay and chalk tends to be quite hungry so regular applications of farmyard manure is important to achieve yields and maintain soil structure. In preparation for drilling we always make sure the sub-structure is right.”
After harvest, Charlie’s agronomist will test the autumn stubble, checking for compaction and it usually turns out that around 40% of the winter wheat ground will require some cultivation to prepare the sub-structure prior to drilling.