Planting Equipment For Sale in United Kingdom

About Planting Equipment

The seed drill is a fundamental piece of farming equipment that is almost as old as agriculture itself. The initial practice was simply to use a finger to make a hole in which to drop the seed. Soon, however, the ancient Sumerians realised that a simple tube drill would greatly improve productivity. Chinese farmers took the idea further and introduced a multiple-tube seed drill around 200 BC. This invention was crucial in allowing Chinese civilization to flourish by feeding its large population from more efficient rice paddies. 

Europe took a long time to catch up, and the technology of seed drills only came to Venice, possibly as a result of trade with the Chinese, in the 16th century. Jethro Tull famously improved the machine in the early 1700s, and its use spread until the seed drill was standard equipment on European farms in the 19th century.

The seed drill is generally a robust piece of equipment and it is well suited to a second-hand purchase. The used seed drill should be chosen with capacity in mind, looking at the size of the hoppers and the width of the boom. Some seed drills will be pneumatic in operation, and all will have a certain horsepower requirement, which should be checked against the tractor you are going to use.

Seed drills are sometimes combined with harrows to create a combination drill. This allows the ground to be prepared and the seeds sown in a single pass. Other machines are combined with disc coulters, rollers and rotary cultivators to achieve similar results. Such combination drills are obviously more complex in their construction than simple seed drills, and more care should be taken when choosing a second-hand combination drill. Testing the machine out with a suitable tractor is a worthwhile precaution. There is always a trade-off between the added expense and complexity of the combination drill and the increased productivity it provides. On the other hand, a simple seed drill may be slower in achieving the same results, but it is a simple, cheap and reliable machine.

The press is another important piece of sowing and planting equipment, and a wide range of used presses is available in a variety of sizes. Look out for hydraulic paddles and folding mechanisms and good-quality tines. Manufacturers include Simba, Knight, Lynx, Farmforce, Vaderstad and Dowdeswell. The press is a robust piece of equipment and buying a used press should easily give many years of good and trouble-free service.

Depending on the price and complexity of the sowing and planting machinery being considered, it may be wise to see the machine in operation before any purchase. For simpler equipment, a thorough visual inspection may be enough, but for the more complex pieces of plant, such as a combination drill, a full test-drive may be a better idea.