Dale Drills

Dale Drills We build seed drills for farmers who want to spend less & grow more.

Based in Lincolnshire, our range of seed drills handle direct, min-till & conventional - with a low power requirement that saves you money every season. +44 (0)1652653326 daledrills.com Dale Drills is an agricultural seed drill manufacturing firm, based in the UK, specialising in direct drills. Our drills are renowned for their excellent contour following, accurate seed placement and low power req

uirement. Capable of drilling in direct, min-till and conventional seedbeds, our range of drills are some of the most versatile drills on the market.

Twelve years on, back in the workshop.This 6m Eco L came off the line in 2014 and has just been through a full refurbish...
03/09/2026

Twelve years on, back in the workshop.

This 6m Eco L came off the line in 2014 and has just been through a full refurbishment for its owner — along with a couple of upgrades not selected when it was built.

It's now running an assembly-mounted following harrow, plus our Blender kit. That takes the two products metered from the split hopper, blends them, and delivers the mix to every coulter — at either 5" or 10" row spacing.

That's the point of building a drill this way. Straightforward to work on, straightforward to change. A machine bought a decade ago doesn't have to stay as it was spec'd on day one — it can be adjusted to suit what the owner needs now.

Off back to work shortly, and good for a fair few more seasons yet.

“Ground was like concrete everywhere so we didn’t touch anything.”That was Robert Raven’s summing up of conditions befor...
30/08/2026

“Ground was like concrete everywhere so we didn’t touch anything.”

That was Robert Raven’s summing up of conditions before the rain. When the first shower finally soaked in an inch, he direct drilled OSR with the MTD and rolled five minutes behind the drill.

“It’s all come. Low disturbance the only way this year!!”

The top couple of inches had gone brittle enough that he could have drilled it before the rain — but didn’t dare. Three inches down it’s still hard, though well cracked, so the roots should find their way.

“None of our other machines could have touched these stubbles without breaking something or pulling up boulders.”

His verdict on the autumn ahead: a good season for very narrow tine drills. Thanks for the picture, Robert.

Always surprises us how quickly the OSR establishes...The residue has barely been moved, so nothing has been opened up t...
28/08/2026

Always surprises us how quickly the OSR establishes...

The residue has barely been moved, so nothing has been opened up to let the moisture out. Underneath, the tine has worked a fine tilth in the seeding zone, giving good seed-to-soil contact rather than seed sat in a slot or under a lump of straw. That's what gets a crop away quickly and evenly.

With the rain we've had across our part of Lincolnshire over the last ten days, conditions for establishment are about as good as you could ask for.

Worth saying what it cost to put in. 4.5kg/ha of farm-saved seed at 50p, and 2 litres of diesel at 90p. £4.05/ha in fuel and seed. No pre-emergence herbicide — we'll put a post-em on once we know we've actually got a crop.

That doesn't stop flea beetle or slugs. What it does mean is there's next to nothing tied up in the field if they take it. Establishing r**e this cheaply takes most of the financial risk out of growing it.

26/08/2026

Cover crop going in with the 12m Eco XL.

The argument against cover cropping is usually the cost of establishing it — a cultivation pass, then a drilling pass, on a crop you're not selling. Take those out and the sums look very different.

Low draught means the width is workable without a bigger tractor in front of it, so you cover the acres while the moisture's still there.

Less HP. More profit.

14/08/2026

Harvest is done and it’s too dry for just about anything else, so the only sensible option was to get the classic out for a run.
54-year-old Waterloo iron taking us into the weekend.

12/08/2026

Same time last year, 12m Eco XL working in conditions not far off what we’re seeing now — only marginally more moisture in the top few inches.

This is where the Scorpion assemblies earn their keep. The Güttler closing wheels pinch the soil back around the seed rather than just dragging it over, sealing the slot and holding onto what little moisture is down there. Firm, consistent seed-to-soil contact, and no open slots left to dry out behind the drill.

Dry autumns are getting less unusual. Worth having a drill that doesn’t mind them.

📞 Give us a call to arrange a demo.

The OSR establishment window is open, and it’s the same question every August: go early and use what moisture is there, ...
09/08/2026

The OSR establishment window is open, and it’s the same question every August: go early and use what moisture is there, or wait for rain that may or may not arrive?
Going early usually means drilling into chopped straw and dry-ish topsoil. Waiting means a later, smaller plant going into autumn — and flea beetle doesn’t care about your reasoning either way.
Interested to hear what growers are planning this season, and how much moisture you’re actually finding when you dig.

06/08/2026

❄️ Cast your mind back.
January, Northants, hard frost on the deck. Robert Penn making the most of it with his 6m Eco M.
Drilling on a frost is an old trick and a good one — the ground carries the weight, so you get to travel when you wouldn’t otherwise have. But those windows are short. What matters is how much you can get done before it thaws.
Robert’s Eco M runs seed and fertiliser plus two additional applicators, so companion seed, slug pellets or micro-granular nutrients all go down in the same pass. Four products, one run over the field, on a morning that might only last a few hours.
Fast forward to now: mid-20s, soils bone dry, and frost feels like something that happens to other people.
Less HP. More Profit.
🎥 Robert Penn, Northamptonshire

02/08/2026

“Tine drills can’t handle cover crops.”

We hear it a lot. Here’s a 3m Eco S going through a thick cover, and here’s why it can cope — three ways, in fact:

1. Widen the rows. Go from 5” (12.5cm) to 10” (25cm) and you’ve doubled the space for residue to flow through the drill.

2. Drop the front tine. Take it off each assembly and fit a double coulter to the rear tine instead. Fewer legs, more clearance.

3. Fit the cover crop cutting disc. Swap the front tine for a disc, as in the video. It cuts a clean path through the cover so the tine can place seed into clean soil behind it.

Three options, one drill, no compromise on establishment. The Eco range is built to be reconfigured for the job in front of you — not for the job the brochure imagined.

Less HP. More Profit.

30/07/2026

Did you know we also make a range of low disturbance subsoilers?
Meir Soil Conditioner is our sister brand, built in the same Lincolnshire workshop on the same principle: move as little soil as you can get away with, and only where it actually needs moving.
The leg lifts and fractures the compacted layer without inverting or mixing, so you relieve the compaction without undoing the structure above it, burying trash or lifting w**d seed to the surface. No tidying-up pass afterwards either — straight in behind it with the drill.
And yes, we’ve spotted the tractor. “Less HP. More Profit.” is very much our drill message — subsoiling is the one job where we’ll turn a blind eye. Especially when it’s 300hp of 1980s Case doing the honours.
Full details on the Meir range: meirsc.com. Follow Meir on Facebook Meir Soil Conditioner

Address

Pepperdale Farm, Howsham
Market Rasen
LN76LF

Telephone

+441652653326

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