At 30 years of age the Rapid drill has undergone a bit of a revamp. Central to this is the optional SeedEye system, which eliminates the need for calibration for good. We put this new metering and auto set-up feature to the test
Three decades ago the concept of a cultivator drill was something very new and very alternative. So when Väderstad burst onto the scene with its Rapid seeders the industry initially took a collective deep breath. But quickly the theory was proved to work and work well, particularly as non-inversion, ‘min-till’ practices began to increase in popularity.
Word spread fast and by the mid- to late-90s there weren’t many serious arable operations across northern Europe that hadn’t put the Rapid to the test. In fact, in those heady post-Millennium years you’d struggle to wade your way across East Anglia in autumn without seeing the work of these red-painted Swedish seeders in virtually every field. But more recently there has been a shift away from the ultra-intensive cultivation regimes that tended to have the Rapid at their core. Driven by weed control issues, minimal disturbance drilling has become a necessity for many, while no-till has taken hold with others.
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