Over recent years, cereal growers faced with deteriorating financial returns have been obliged to take a very serious look at their production costs, with the cost of crop establishment being high on this list.

To large-scale grower of cereals, oil seed rape and pulses, Mr. Peter Philpot, who farms medium to heavy land in Suffolk and Essex, the economical use of machinery has long been a key factor in containing establishment costs.

If I look back ten years or so, it took four or five passes with discs with rolls behind to prepare seedbeds on our London Clay soils, but that was when there was money in farming," says Mr. Philpot. " When there is a lot less money in farming it gets the brain thinking, so when we were approached by Vaderstad, some four or five years ago, to help them evaluate and develop the Rexius Twin concept we were very interested to see how it would fit into our system."

"On chalky boulder clays we generally plough but, until now we have been reluctant to plough the heavy land, because we did not have a satisfactory method of getting a good seedbed. We have had all sorts of packers and we've even made our own on the front of the tractors, but we have never in the past had what I would call the ideal machine."

"On our first wheats we disc, subsoil and then pack with the Rexius Twin in front of a Rapid drill. The arrival of the Rexius Twin has, in my mind, also given us the ideal machine to enable us to plough more of the heavy land, in order to get better control of blackgrass."

"The tines in the front knock off the top two to four inches, depending on the seedbed or how level the ploughing is, whilst the levelling board carries soil forward all the time to fill in the lower ways. The final and very important feature is the shape of the press rings. The substantial shoulders on each ring, together with the scalloped flange do an excellent job of breaking down clods. The shoulders also stop the ring from sinking into the soil too deeply. I have seen other machines sinking in as much as six inches and that must make them much harder to pull. The three elements of the Rexius Twin, tines, levelling board and press rings, combine to produce a level, well consolidated and quite weatherproof seedbed which is ideal for the drill to go in. We have also found that we are using less slug pellets after the final seedbed has been prepared with the Rexius Twin."

We now run two ten metre wide Rexius Twins, each pulled by Claas Challenger 85E's and two Rapid drill and Claas Challenger 75E combinations, driven by the best operators we can employ, on a 24 hours a day basis. Speed at all costs is not our aim, but by being properly equipped we can cover as much ground as possible in the shortest time, for example, in a 40-45 acre field the Rexius Twin will cover up to 20 acres an hour."

As a continuous wheat grower on heavy clay soils in the valley of the River Tay to the east of Perth, Mr. David Hay is faced with a relatively short post harvest period during which cultivations and drilling of the next year's crop must take place.

"At home we farm about 505 hectares of predominantly winter wheat, with some of the land being down to continuous wheat cropping for the last 25 years, without showing any yield penalty, and we also rent land locally to grow about 150 hectares of potatoes," explains Mr. Hay.

"As a result of the relatively narrow weather window between the end of cereal harvest and the sowing of the next year's crop we were looking for a means of speeding-up our crop establishment operation, without necessarily moving away from our power harrow and drill combination. Before we bought the Rexius Twin we had demonstrations of three other similar pieces of equipment, but I was most impressed with the way the press rings on the Rexius Twin crushed the clods to produce a level and firm finish and I was also impressed with the build quality. Even though the Rexius Twin was the

most expensive of the four machines, the impressive job it was doing combined with the high build quality made it obvious that it was going to be the best investment for us in the long-term."

"As far as the establishment of our winter wheat is concerned, it is now our policy to plough and press as normal, but we then take the Rexius Twin over the top of the land to do two jobs; to level and firm the land to form the primary seedbed which also helps control slugs when it comes to sowing the crop itself."

"For sowing the crop we use a 200 hp tractor with a four metre wide power harrow mounted on the front and a similar width combination drill on the rear. After using the Rexius Twin we quickly found that, because the primary seedbed was level and firm, the power harrows only had to create the fine tilth on the top. We also found that because the seedbed was firmer the tractor operating the drilling combination did not make as deep wheelings as before and, therefore, we did not have to work the soil so deeply to remove them. These two factors reduced the amount of power the tractor had to produce, resulting in less fuel being burned and a higher forward speed being possible, a factor which resulted in a doubling of the work rate of the drill from 40 to 80 acres a day."

"This improvement in productivity was not cost-free, but the benefits in terras of the greatly improved limeliness of our drilling programme and a reduction in wear and lest on our drilling combination more than makes up for the capital cost of the Rexius Twin and its running costs."

In recent years, unsettled weather, in many parts of the country, has made the timely establishment of autumn sown grain crops a difficult and often costly task. With this potential problem in mind, Suffolk farmer Mr. John Brand decided to re-evaluate his post harvest cultivations policy, even though he was a confirmed enthusiast of the plough.

Mr. Brand, with his son Clive, farms some 1700 acres of land with widely differing soil types in the valley of the river Stour on the border

between Suffolk and Essex.

"In the past, I have believed that ploughing is the best way to control grass weeds and give the new crop the best conditions for establishment," says Mr. Brand. " However, the need to speed up primary cultivations in order to improve timeliness of drilling has meant that we have decided to adopt a minimum cultivation technique for almost half of our total 1450 acres of combinable crops, most especially for wheat crops following a break crop."

"When choosing the equipment to carry out minimum cultivation we decided that we needed a disc and tine combination to mix in the crop residues as effectively as possible and so we went for a Simba Solo. On some of the lighter soils however, we experienced problems with mixing the soil and large volumes of crop residues using the Solo, so we had to resort to ploughing. To follow the Solo we then decided to use an existing press and roll combination in a separate operation to level and consolidate the seedbed. Unfortunately, in the autumn of 2000 we were badly caught out by the weather. We had worked the seedbed down too flat and then we got a lot of heavy rain which made the soil very difficult to dry out prior to drilling. In fact on some fields we did another pass with a spring lined harrow, just to get the soil opened up to become dry enough for drilling."

"Being determined not to have a repeat of these problems we looked at alternative cultivation equipment. By talking to our ADAS machinery advisor and other local farmers we decided to buy an 8.3metre wide Rexius Twin because we were told that it would work well after the Solo, helping us to get a better mix of crop residues and produce a more level and firm seedbed which would be more weatherproof."

Mr Brand's son Clive takes up the story,

"We used the Rexius Twin for the first time in the autumn of 2001, both after the Solo and on our ploughed land," says Clive Brand. " It has really lived up to what we were told it would do. We work at a slight angle across the direction of work of the Solo and, as the depth of both the front tines and levelling board section of the Rexius Twin can be adjusted from the tractor cab to suit the soil conditions in any particular part of the field, we get a better mis of soil and crop residues and a more level finish. The press rings crush clods and produce a well consolidated bed which conserves moisture, but, importantly to us, the mini ridges left between the rings mean that there is a greater surface area to enable the soil to dry out if we get a lot of rain before drilling. We also get similar benefits when we are working down our ploughed land."

"We were experiencing problems getting an evenly consolidated seedbed and in any case the levelling harrow was getting very old, so I decided to go for the Rexius Twin. I was, however, a little nervous that the front lined section of the Rexius Twin might pull up stones. This worry proved to be unfounded because the ability to independently adjust the penetration of the tined section meant that the depth of the tines could be quickly and easily adjusted to suit the working conditions. For example, on some stiff bits that had been ploughed late and baked a bit dry we were able to make the tines work harder and we pushed the levelling board down to carry more soil forward to produce a level finish. In these conditions, two passes with the Rexius Twin gave us a result every bit-as good as a power harrow."

"The Rexius Twin works well in all conditions and because it leaves a firm, level but very slightly ridged surface which means that, with the drill operating ai a slight angle to the direction of cultivation,, there is plenty of free soil boiling around the drill coulters and you don't have to fire the drill into the ground to push the seed in,"

"When you walk across the fields you can see that our spring barley crops have come much more evenly than in the past," concludes Mr. Lambert."The Rexius Twin is a high speed tool in the right conditions which leaves a good finish, at a low cost per acre. It may seem expensive to buy, but it is very well built and I would imagine that it would still be going strong after fifteen years"

The need to be able to produce a level and well consolidated seedbed quickly and reliably after ploughing was the principle reason behind the decision of this Scottish farming company to purchase a 4.5 metre wide Rexius Twin. The 2,200 acres of arable land farmed by C. G. Greig (Farms) Ltd in Fife varies from 100 to 500 feet above sea level and includes sandy or sandy clay loams, some light blowing sand and peaty soils, and in some places, pockets of clay. There is also a substantial amount of hard granite stone in many of these soils.

"Because of the nature of our soils, we are traditionally ploughers," says Farms Manager, Mr. Patrick Lambert, "Although our soils vary a lot, it is still very capable land. In the past our biggest problem has been getting the land consolidated well enough after ploughing to get back on top with the drill. Before investing in the Rexius Twin, we followed our plough and press combination with a levelling harrow, with a crumbier roller on the back, to work down the ploughing in front of a 6.6 metre wide drill which also applied liquid fertiliser."

In partnership with his father, Bill and brother Philip, Mr. David Rowe farms some 1400 acres of medium sandy loam to heavy clay soils near Tamworth, to the north east of Birmingham, growing arable crops including oilseed rape, cereals, maize and potatoes. The pattern of arable cropping combined with the needs of a livestock enterprise has meant that the farm's primary cultivation policy has been plough-based with heavy reliance on the use of power harrows for seedbed preparation.

"About four years ago we bought a used 4 metre wide Rapid drill to replace our power harrow drill combination," explains Mr. David Rowe. "We already knew that much of our ground would be too stiff to drill straight into, even with the Rapid drill. We soon learned that despite using the power harrow for levelling and firming, rather than deep cultivation, we were creating a bottleneck in the drilling operation, in fact, we often had to use two power harrows, to prepare enough ground to keep in front of the drill."

"In the autumn of 1999 we bought a 5.5 metre wide Rexius Twin. Over the last three seasons we have used it in all kinds of situations; on fresh ploughing to create a stale seedbed, on fresh ploughing immediately in front of the drill, on stale ploughing, following the use of a Shakerator and also prior to maize drilling. The number of passes largely comes down to timing and soil type, but, in addition to the high work rates, another big advantage over repetitive power harrowing is the Rexius Twin's ability to work down dry cobbles and leave the ground weather proof, leaving it in an ideal condition for the drill to follow later."

"Before buying the Rexius Twin we looked at other machines, but the larger diameter ring and greater weight per metre of width made the Rexius Twin our first choice. In practice, the broad shoulders on the rings, together with the fact that the rings interlock to prevent them slipping, means that the machine works happily on the heaviest land to crush clods or on lighter sandy loams where it levels and consolidates without sinking in too much. It is also important that the finished surface is always level, well consolidated and seems able to withstand quite a lot of rain between preparation and drilling."

"Over the past three seasons we have found that the ability of the Rexius Twin to work well in a wide range of soil types and weather conditions has given us more flexibility and enabled us to establish our grain crops much more quickly and cost effectively than we have in the past when using power harrows."