DIRECT DRILLER – ISSUE 34– SUMMER 2025
Cutting per-tonne costs, boosting yields, maximising income and building healthier soils; these should be key priorities given the challenges facing the farming sector, says Jeff Claydon, Suffolk arable farmer and inventor of the Claydon Opti-Till® direct seeding system.
25 May 2025
Hanslope series clay certainly brings significant challenges and makes timeliness essential, but this spring I feel extremely fortunate to farm this type of soil. My sympathies are with those on light land because as I write this article our weather station has recorded just 63mm of rain since February, only 2mm of that in the last three weeks.
Driving around the farm this morning I was reassured to see all our crops looking well. Established at minimal cost after only two passes with a Claydon Straw Harrow and Evolution direct drill their uniformity was certainly a major topic of conversation last week when we opened the Claydon factory and farm to visitors.
It was the first time that these annual Open Days had been held since 2019 as those planned for April 2020 had to be cancelled due to the lockdown. Since then I and my team have been fully focused on developing new products to meet the needs of farmers in our home and export markets whilst expanding our global network of dealers and distributors.
Following a five-year break there has been a lot of interest in seeing the Open Days return and we were delighted with the positive response. Visitors from all over the UK came to learn more about improving soil health and reducing ‘per-tonne’ production costs, whilst maintaining or increasing crop yields to maximise income.
Agronomist Dick Neale, Technical Manager for crop protection specialists Hutchinsons, discussed how Claydon Opti-Till® benefits soil health, James Lane, Digital Services Specialist for Omnia highlighted the advantages of using a standalone farm management system, while Grant James of Sea2Soil outlined how organic soil improvers help conventional and organic farms.
At a time when government support for farming is diminishing and many are reconsidering how they establish their crops, these events provided an opportunity for growers to find out how to future-proof their businesses and achieve a better work-life balance by reducing the cost and time involved in establishing crops to as little as 20% that of plough-based or min-till system. Claydon’s ‘Think’ campaign shows how Opti-Till® achieves this (Think differently with Claydon).
Feedback from customers using Claydon Opti-Till® shows that they are very happy with the cost/time savings, crop performance, yields and soil health benefits, which has also been reflected in high prices for used Claydon equipment when it’s due for change. We are constantly evolving and in the last two years launched the Evolution mounted direct drill and toolbars (which can be fitted with front discs to work very effectively through cover crops and in most conditions), front hoppers, mole drainers and straw harrow hoppers.
DON’T DELAY
One of the points which I emphasised to our guests was the importance of applying for grants as soon as they become available. On the Claydon farm we made sure to do that at the earliest opportunity last year and were fortunate to secure £88,995 in annual SFI rotational options payments and £5408 in Whole Farm Management Payments. The scheme is for three years, and the first quarterly payment arrived in May.
Compared with IACS, the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) scheme seems unfair because the cap on funding and its sudden closure this year meant that many farming businesses could not benefit. Hopefully SFI 2025 will bring equally good opportunities but be sure to act and be ready as soon as the next funding round is announced.
On the Claydon Farm we will drill cover crops on all our land immediately the combine leaves the field, then spray them off before the winter wheat goes in. This will further improve soil structure/health and the SFI payments for catch/cover crops and direct drilling will easily cover the cost.
The need for speedy action also applies to the Farming Equipment & Technology Fund (FETF) 2025 grants, for which the application window opened on 29 May and will close at midday on 10 July 2025. There are three main categories in which new Claydon machinery qualifies for funding.
- FETF44 covers direct drills. All Claydon Evolution mounted drills from 3m to 6m wide and Claydon Hybrid trailed drills from 3m to 8m qualify for a payment of up to £15,067.
- FETF207 is for an ‘air drill for establishing cover crops’ – the new Claydon NutriSeeder qualifies for £1,575.
- FETF208 is for a tractor mounted stubble rake and any Claydon Straw Harrow from 7.5m to 15m wide qualifies for a maximum of £6,720.
Low commodity prices are undoubtedly making farmers cautious about spending money and the situation is not helped by confusion over the various grants. But that makes it even more important to consider a more efficient approach to crop establishment as the cost savings will quickly offset the investment.
There is a big danger in delaying ordering machinery. It could mean that even if you qualify for a grant, extended manufacturing lead times and lack of dealer stock might result in it being too late to take advantage of the savings this season. There are already savings to be made using Claydon Opti-Till® without SFI payments. But add the value of the SFI payments which you could take advantage of with the right equipment combined with the FETF grants and it’s a considerable amount. These combined savings could more than pay for your new machine in the first year, but though nice to have they should not hold you up or be the sole reason for investing. The Claydon website (Claydon Farming Solutions Worldwide) features examples of how our customers across the country have benefitted.
DRAINAGE IS KEY
One of the common questions asked by the visitors to our Open Days was how we have achieved such good crops given the exceptionally dry weather. Rather ironically, the answer is that over the last year we have focused on ensuring that the drainage system and soils are in good order. Dick Neale explained it by saying:
“Crops on the Claydon Farm are in lovely condition and very uniform, with nothing to suggest that they lack water or are struggling to grow. Although the soil surface is hard that is solely due to the dry weather, not compaction. Just add water and it will be fine.
“The very high number of worms in the soil is multiples higher than normal, which is important because crop roots use worm burrows and fissures between the soil blocks to get to depth. This structure also builds resilience, allowing water to permeate down through the profile in a controlled way during heavy rain and ensuring that the crop does not become waterlogged. Conversely, in dry times water is absorbed and stored throughout the soil profile, so the crop is always able to access moisture..”More from Dick Neale can be see here: Claydon Open Day Hutchinsons Soil Health Talk
The extremely wet autumn of 2023 highlighted small areas where drainage was sub-optimal and these were rectified by installing new plastic main drains and laterals, then moleing over the top to take excess water down to them. We moled over 200ha last autumn, but some fields which were too dry we left until the spring. In March, while the soil was sufficiently moist to form stable moles, we went through 40ha of standing wheat at up to GS31 and oats after drilling. The dry weather since then has allowed them to set hard, so they should retain their shape and last for many years.
The combination of improved drainage and growing summer covers/cover crops under SFI has done more than all the subsoiling in the world. All our crops are in excellent condition, including the Elsoms Lion spring oats which we drilled in mid-March with our 6m Claydon Evolution direct drill and twin front hopper, with fertiliser placed directly in the seeded band along with 30kg/ha of spring beans which qualify for a £55/ha SFI payment.
On land which grew what may be our last crop of oilseed rape in 2024 we were also able to place fertiliser in the band with oat seed using our Evolution drill. Given the dry weather we applied YaraMila Actyva S (15.6-14.6-14.6 + 6.5% SO3) at up to 200kg/ha as the yield potential of our heavy land justifies a significant investment in fertilisers and ag-chems. Placing N, P and S fertiliser, directly in the seeded band certainly helped the crop to get off to a strong start and this season is showing a big difference on small areas missing the fertiliser!
We are open-minded when it comes to trying out new ideas and products. Currently we are trialling Sea2Soil, a product containing amino acids and nutrients, which acts as a soil improver to feed beneficial soil fungi and bacteria around the plant rooting zones. In turn this benefits and feeds other vital parts of the soil microbiome such as earthworms which improve soil structure, drainage and organic matter. The manufacturer claims it provides a vital boost to plant growth and health especially in the crucial early crop establishment phases and works across a wide range of different crops. We will see whether it has made a difference when the trial area is harvested.
Having dropped oilseed rape, which left the farm at harvest, our biggest problem this harvest could be having enough space in the grain store for all our wheat and spring oats, so we might have to consider building another!
INTER-ROW HOEING PAYS DIVIDENDS
Soil conditions this spring were ideal for inter-row hoeing, so we took the opportunity to go through 60 per cent of our wheat and oats with the 6m Claydon TerraBlade. This enhanced the already excellent control of grassweeds achieved with the pre-emergence herbicides in wheat by taking out the few remaining and potentially herbicide-resistant weeds growing between the banded seeded rows. It also enabled essential control of grass weeds in the oats as there are no chemical alternatives.
We began experimenting with inter-row hoeing in cereals ten years ago and have used our TerraBlade on a commercial scale for the last seven. When developing this very effective, low-cost implement we evaluated various commercial camera guidance systems, but they were designed primarily for use in vegetable crops, and we found difficulties working in cereals. The ideal time to hoe cereals is GS30/31 but the height of the crop made it hard for cameras to accurately define the rows, particularly on windy days and headlands where drill rows intersect, which resulted in false readings, variable results and crop damage. The cameras also added significant cost, complication and maintenance.
The standard guidance system on our previous drill tractor was much less accurate than the one we have now. Although drill rows were straight and easy to follow it wasn’t accurate enough to guide the TerraBlade, which resulted in it being manually steered.
Now the VarioGuide RTK on our Fendt 942, which is used with the 6m Evolution to drill cereals in 17cm bands, and on our Fendt 724 that operates the 6m TerraBlade, has taken inter-row hoeing to the next level. Accurate to +/-2cm, it has transformed the speed, accuracy, ease and effectiveness of this vital operation. Operating at 10 to 12 km/h, the TerraBlade averages 6 to 7ha/hr and as I sat there with the tractor steering itself it was nice to feel that we are winning the battle against grassweeds and heading into harvest with some very clean, strong, competitive crops.
THANK YOU IAgrE
In closing, I would like to say a big ‘thank you’ to The Institution of Agricultural Engineers, and to its President, Dr Mark Moore who presented me with an award for my ‘Contribution to the Land-Based Sector’ at the organisation’s Annual Awards Ceremony in May.
It is a real honour that the IAgrE has recognised my contribution to the agricultural industry since founding Claydon Yield-o-Meter in 1981. It has been an exciting, often challenging, journey and in those early days I could never have imagined that the company which bears my name would reach the position it is in today.
As an arable farmer who has always been interested in agricultural machinery I have constantly experimented to find new ways of operating more efficiently and effectively. The range of Opti-Till® machinery which I and my team have developed over the years has helped our customers to benefit from that expertise.
I believe that the role of technology will grow significantly as Claydon continues to develop and move forward. Our latest drills already incorporate the ability to place crops, companion crops, fertilisers and crop protection products in one pass, which will help the farming industry meet the challenges of the future. I think we have a design set for the next quarter-century but will always be looking ahead.
Jeff Claydon (pictured right in the orange jacket) showing visitors a crop of winter wheat in ideal condition, having been established using the Claydon Opti-Till® System.
Dick Neale of Hutchinsons, pictured in a soil pit on the Claydon Farm during the recent Claydon Open Days, explains how Opti-Till® has created ideal growing conditions for crops. Watch the video at: Claydon Open Day Hutchinsons Soil Health Talk 
The soil is in perfect condition and despite the surface layer being dry crops are never stressed.
An area of the Claydon Farm which was mole drained through the standing wheat crop in the spring, leaving barely any sign in the crop.
This field of Elsoms Bamford winter wheat was in ideal condition in mid-May, despite having received only 63mm of rain since the beginning of February.
This wheat was hoed with the Claydon TerraBlade, which removed weeds growing in the 15cm area between the seeded bands at 33cm centres.
Elsoms Lion spring oats were drilled in mid-March using a 6m Claydon Evolution direct drill and twin front hopper, with fertiliser placed directly in the seeded band along with 30kg/ha of spring beans which qualify for a £55/ha SFI payment.
Agrii blackgrass trials highlight just how bad the problem can get if uncontrolled with effective herbicide and stubble management programmes.