In a cropping system where the soil is the priority, the drill is not the key decision. CPM travels to France to explore a system where the drill has been designed around the crops and the soils they work.

Walk into the main shed at Ferme de la Conillais, near Nantes in Brittany France, and you’re met with a wall of Kilner jars filled with soil and seeds. Closer inspection reveals there are some 250 soil samples here, from dusty Iberian sands to fine black silts from Ukraine.

The seed collection is equally diverse –– around 120 jars, with anything you could possibly wish to put through a drill, from wheat to phacelia, obscure vetches to field beans.

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Cover crops are the main tools