Over the years, BEDNAR has earned the trust of the Driot family

At around one hour to the east of Paris, in a region known for its cheeses, the Driot family has been managing a farm specialising in arable cropping for generations. In 2017, they bought a STRIEGEL-PRO PE 12000 straw harrow, the first machine of the BEDNAR range to take its place on their farm.

The Driot family’s cropping is wheat, winter and spring barley, rape and sugar beet. It also produces corn for customers within their region.

We met Olivier Driot, the farm manager, harvesting sugar beet, and his father-in-law, Marc Solvet, working in the fields, using one of the farm’s two SWIFTERDISC XE 12000.

“On our farm, we are concerned about the structure of our soils. We minimize our traffic on the land and limit our compaction thanks to the use of tracks. Our fields are prepared on the first ten centimetres only, using disc cultivators. It is not very usual for us to use tine cultivators or chisel ploughs,” Marc Solvet said.

A first experience with the STRIEGEL-PRO PE 12000 straw harrow

“A few years ago, seeing our cropped area expanding, we developed more minimum tillage, to improve our daily-outputs. With ever stricter rules regarding chemicals, and the fear of the abolition of glyphosate, we sought to implement other practices. The BEDNAR brand was still young on the market, but their STRIEGEL-PRO PE straw harrow, with its robust design, convinced us. We have had it for 6 years; it is very suitable for initiating the germination of weeds and reducing the unwanted seed stock on our land. We use it mainly for sowing cover crops, after spreading of seeds with our fertiliser spreader.

Thanks to the high aggressiveness of the spring tines, this machine is also very suitable for difficult seeding conditions. It is a strike force that we deploy when we have a very short time to seed our cereals. These are spread on the prepared soil using a 36-meter fertiliser spreader then buried by the straw harrow, equipped with its TURBO mulching discs. We have already sowed more than 250 hectares in 20 hours, thanks to this process, and harvested 10 tons by hectare,” commented the owner of the machine.

The Driot family’s straw harrow, generously loaned to their dealer, BOUCHARD Agriculture, during a field day

After several bad experiences with other machines, the SWIFTERDISC XE 12000 established itself

“Several years ago, we only had tined cultivators, then, on a trip to England, I found a cheap, second-hand 6-meters disc cultivator. So, I brought it back to France and we were immediately impressed by the quality of the work done, however, the cultivator did not support our conditions and we spent our winters repairing it. Given its potential, we decided to change it for the higher range of the same brand, with a new 8 meters machine. More robust in appearance, this cultivator quickly began to have the same problems as the first and after only a few seasons. Seeing our straw harrow working without incident, we decided to take the plunge and invest in our first SWIFTERDISC XE 12000.

Marc Solvet, wiping out cover crops and preparing the seedbed for winter wheat

We’ve had it for 3 years now, it’s equipped with aggressive 520 mm diameter discs and double V-RING roller. Its design and robustness quickly won us over so more recently, we purchased a second machine of the same type, in the same configuration, but with a single V-RING roller. These two different configurations allow us to have a machine adapted to each type of soil. In light soils, we appreciate the high compaction provided by the single roller, however, it is less effective in heavy soils so we therefore use our other SWIFTERDISC, with double roller.

These machines work 1,500 to 2,000 hectares each year, with an average working speed of 18 km/h, with peaks of more than 20 km/h, they remain very stable at high speed and are very easy to handle. We finally think, we have found the machine suited to our needs,” Marc Solvet said, driving his CASE QUADTRAC.

TERRALAND TO 6000 for sugar beets seeding

As indicated previously, the Driot family is very concerned about the structure of its soil, so they try to limit as much as possible the use of chisel ploughs and tine cultivators. However, they purchased a TERRALAND TO 6000 chisel plough in 2018 for sugar beet establishment, during the spring.

TERRALAND TO 6000 and Case QUADTRAC at deep loosening

“Sugar beet must develop its roots deep to tap the moisture that it requires during dry periods, such as during the summer, on parts of our fields, hard soil layers make a barrier between the roots and the moisture. We therefore needed a chisel plough on our farm for this scenario, the agronomic window for preparing beet seeding is short, so we were looking for a tool with high throughputs, this is why we chose the TERRALAND TO 6000. Each year, this machine is deployed on only 200 hectares, but over a short period, we work at a depth of 30 cm, with LONG LIFE carbide points. These elements are still original and have never been changed since the purchase of the machine. After having done 1,000 hectares, they are still as resistant and will still be used for several years before being changed”, Olivier Driot commented.

JOY OF FARMING
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BEDNAR FMT s.r.o.