Agronomy Library > Annual Weeds

New Seeding Technology
Author: Curt McNaughton
Date Created: November 27, 2008
Last Reviewed: November 27, 2008
New Seeding Technology Curt McNaughton Rumsey, Alberta I am a partner in MDM Aqua Farms from Rumsey, Alberta. We crop 3500 acres of canola, wheat, barley and hay along with operating an aquaculture facility that wholesales 70,000 lbs of live Tilapia annually. Rumsey is located 40 minutes north of Drumheller and our land consists mostly of a sandy loam with ranges from sand to gumbo and rolling with some larger hills and valleys. Over the past few seasons we have been investigating new drill alternatives for our farm and have taken into consideration constants such as land characteristics, topography, grain grown and the idea of staying low to no-till. We decided to come up with a list of items that we deemed necessary. They are as follows: Item #1 Wanted to be able to increase seedbed utilization from our previous drill that had a 1” opener on 12” spacing. Our concern was that the wider spacing may have been limiting our ability to grow certain crops and affecting late flushes of weeds in thinner stands. Options here included twin row openers or narrower spacing on the drill. Item #2 Wanted a drill that the openers would follow the ground contour through the valleys and over hills, while maintaining proper seed depth. Basically we separated drills into 2 styles, one style where you have openers and gang packers such as Flexi 5000, Concord, Harmon, Bourgault 57 series and the other style which is an independent opener such as Morris, Conserva Pak, Paralink, Seedhawk, Seedmaster and coulter drills. After seeing certain drills operate on our farm items that became important were: amount of travel on shank or opener to go through valleys, whether the opener remained at the same working angle as it moved up and down, if the frame or hitch style interfered or restricted opener travel and the difference between spring trip and hydraulic trip openers. Item #3 Wanted a drill that included a dealer network or at least a parts network. The manufacturer did not have to be one of the big colors but we wanted to have parts close without having to ship via bus or courier. Item #4 Wanted to see the drill operate on our farm in our soil and residues before we bought it. Everyone has different soil and different ways of handling residue so each design of drill is going to have its good and bad for each condition. Item #5 This item could rank from first to last depending on how you value your seeding equipment. COST. Is it the straight up cost of one drill versus the next or is it the value that one drill can add over another in your conditions? The drills we have owned over the last dozen years include a Harmon 4480 and Conserva Pak on 12” spacing. As well in the last few years we have tried out a Bourgault 5710 with mid row banders, a John Deere 1895 coulter with mid row banders and the Morris contour drill. We have also observed a few others closely on neighbouring farms. I will be sharing our experiences gained from using these drills and how it influenced our decision to purchase a Morris Contour Drill.