Saturated soil and increasing sales of independent opener drills mean that many farmers will be breaking new ground this spring.
Most people agree that a drill with an independent opener system works better than a conventional zero till drill in mud. However, there are significant differences in what the drill designers have to say about setting their particular drill for mud.
Last week, we reviewed the most recent mud seeding recommendations from Bourgault, JD Conserva Pak, Seed Hawk and Seed Master. This week we cover other major manufacturers.
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MORRIS
Morris agronomist Garth Massie says figuring out how to set a drill up for mud requires an understanding of how weight is carried on an independent opener drill compared to a conventional drill.
“On our Maxim II, weight is balanced between the front castor wheels and the gang packers at the back of the machine,” Massie said.
“A conventional drill like that is more prone to go down in the mud because of the castor wheels. On an independent opener system, like the Contour Drill, weight is carried on the packer wheels. You have more even weight distribution no matter what colour the paint is.”
Morris chief operating officer Don Henry said the main advantage of an independent system is that the operator can reduce down pressure and seed shallower.
“Conventional rigid frame drills have grown a lot of grain for us over the years, but they just cannot give us the opener control we get with an independent system.”
Henry farms at Milestone, Sask., on the heavy sticky clay of the Regina Plains and has tried a variety of drills.
“Last spring, we were running an independent opener drill beside a conventional drill. The independent drill let us go seeding in all kinds of places we couldn’t even get close to with the conventional drill. It would just roll up with mud.”
Seeding conditions will vary across the Prairies, but Henry said there are common characteristics that most farmers will see.
He said there are reports from nearly every region that the ground did not freeze under a heavy blanket of snow.
“I know guys who went out in the middle of the winter to load bales and got stuck in the mud.”
Farmers counting on the typical severe prairie frost to break up big clumps will be disappointed.
The other problem is all that snow becomes water and more water is not on anybody’s wish list.
However, the heavy snow pack may also have done some good.
“Snow carries a lot of weight. I think the fields that were cultivated last fall should be relatively well packed and firm this spring,” said Henry.
“The majority of fields did not get tilled. They’ll also benefit from the weight of the snow. Try to keep the crust intact.”
Massie said soft spots will be one of the trickiest parts of seeding this year. Farmers working with conventional drills would deal with the problem by lifting the shanks out of the ground.
“But with an independent style, you only want to drop the pressure, because pressure controls your trip out force. If you lift the openers completely, the weight comes off your packers. All the weight transfers immediately to your transport tires. And now you’re stuck.”
Massie said the Morris drill has a hydraulic accumulator, which is where pressure readings are taken. Operators run 800 to 900 p.s.i. in a normal year. Dividing that number by two gives them the trip out force.
“In a year like this, I’d back off to about 300 or 400 psi,” said Massie.
“I wouldn’t want to go much lower because then my openers start to physically lift off the ground, and that’s no good. I still want my openers just barely in the ground. I’d plant as shallow as possible as long as I still get good seed to soil contact. You can’t let the seed just lay there on the surface. I’d aim for a quarter or maybe half an inch depth. Just enough so I know you have some soil cover.”
Henry said speed is another critical factor in wet fields. It should be reduced whether the soil is tilled, untilled, loose or packed.
“You’ve got to stop the tractor often and get out to dig some seeds. That’s the only way to determine your maximum speed. As soon as you see extra soil thrown over the seed trench, you know it’s time to back off on the speed.”
Henry said semi-pneumatic packing tires provide flex and mud shedding, while the full pneumatic tires at low pressures do the best job of shedding mud.
However, they do not pack as well at those ultra-low pressures.
“But with this much moisture in the ground, perfect packing may not be necessary. If you can get the seed placed shallow and covered with some soil, that’s all we need this year. And that’s maybe all we’ll get anyway.”
While many farmers switch to the narrowest opener possible in wet conditions, Henry said there are benefits to paired row and side banding openers if the tractor is big enough to pull them.
“People overlook the positive aspect of moving lots of soil,” said Henry.
“These openers bring up a good amount of black dirt. That gives the sun a chance to warm up the soil and give the seed better germination. So, if you’re late getting into the field and the soil is still cool, you might consider paired row or side banding.”
He said these openers have a higher draft requirement than a single shoot opener, but they have less requirement than a mid-row-banding setup, which may make them a workable compromise.
“Weight is another factor in favour of all independent opener drills. They are generally lighter than rigid frame drills. That’s one of the biggest reasons they don’t get stuck as often or as deep.”
For more information, contact Don Henry at 306-933-8585.
CASE NEW HOLLAND
Many of the sloughs, potholes and low spots that farmers have been seeding through for years will become quagmire traps this spring.
“Guys will be doing a lot of twisting and turning around in the field, and that’s not good,” said Jason Hardy of New Holland in Saskatoon.
He said when you turn too tight, the outside tips on the inside of the turn radius actually go backward.
“That’s why they plug with mud and they need to be checked.
“And most people haven’t considered that the guidance systems we’ve all come to rely on probably won’t work as well. It’ll be back to the days of the driver actually steering the tractor.”
CNH dealers have heard that producers are seeing significant variability within individual fields. Some spots look like they’ll be dry enough for seeding at the appropriate time while others will go unseeded because of mud.
“Another variable is that many fields were partially tilled last fall and the rest of the field left alone. So that’s going to present a challenge, too,” Hardy said.
“In-cab pressure adjustment on the go will be critical this year. That’s something we can do with our new P2070 precision drill. This is an independent opener style drill. Packing pressure and trip pressure are adjustable from the cab, a big asset in a year like this.”
He said the P2070 has a new optional mud scraper design.
High flotation tires should be a priority this spring, he added. Staying on top of the ground is essential, regardless of the drill.
“There’s been a huge increase in the number of guys asking for metric tires in the 900 and 1000 sizes for their air carts. It gives them a wider, larger footprint,” he said.
“Another thing we have is the Stealth opener with special tips for gumbo clay like we have in the Red River Valley and Regina Plains. When you have that clay with the orange peeling, the mud tip helps prevent plugging.”
Hardy said producers who aren’t satisfied with the drill manufacturers’ openers can consider Atom Jet, Dutch and Bourgault Tillage Tools.
And for farmers who are really serious about seeding a swamp, there’s always the old Flexi Coil 5000, now re-named the CNH P2050.
“The 5000 has been around a long time. It’s lighter than competing drills and it has an excellent reputation for seeding into mud,” Hardy said. “If that drill can’t go through a field, nothing can. The limiting factor is often that the tractor isn’t up to the task.”
For more information, contact Jason Hardy at 306-934-3500 #340.
HORSCH ANDERSON
The Horsch Anderson drill does not have the new independent opener system, but company spokesperson Jeremy Hughes said it is designed to perform in muddy conditions.
“We do have castor wheels up front,” Hughes said.
“But instead of a smooth surface, we run big cleated tires at the front. There’s lots of tread. We’ve found that in muddy conditions, a castor tire with treads has traction. So it continues to turn.”
He said rigid frame drills with smooth implement tires up front tend to push the mud. They don’t have a big mud buildup, but they also don’t want to roll.
“First they build a mud dam in front. Once that happens, they start to sink and then you’re stuck. As long as your castor wheels are turning, you’re more or less floating on the ground, even if you happen to be in six inches of water.”
Hughes said it’s just the opposite for the packer wheels at the back of the drill, where the company runs a smooth tire with a 7.5 inch face.
He said most rigid frame drills run narrower packers, but the company had better performance with wide ones.
“It’s only logical that you want lots of tire on the ground to carry the weight of the machine. And there’s still plenty of time to change packer tires before seeding starts.”
Horsch Anderson drills were previously equipped with a snow tire type of packer with the treads overlapping down the centre of the tire for double packing in that strip.
“That worked very well in dry conditions, but in the mud, we found that the lugs were just too stiff to flex. They wouldn’t shed the mud.
“For pressure, we recommend 10 to 15 p.s. i on the wings, and leave the main frame packers at about 35 p.s.i.”
Hughes said weight distribution is one of the main factors in getting the job done when it’s wet.
There’s only a limited number of things a farmer can do to at this late date, but he said it’s worth the time to see if weight can be re-arranged.
“For example, if all your mid-row banders are on the front tool bar, maybe some can move back a row. Of course, all that’s easier on a machine like this when you have 15 inch row spacing.”
Deciding whether to install rubber tracks on seeding equipment can be difficult, Hughes said.
Anderson was the first drill manuf a c t u re r to offer a rubber track option, dating back over a decade.
“Now what I’m going to say totally goes against everything we’ve ever been taught about rubber tracks, but one of our biggest longtime customers over at Aberdeen (South Dakota) has always had McKenzie undercarriages under the cart, even in dry years.
“But now he’s gone to big duals. He says his carts pull easier in the mud on duals than on tracks. Beats me.”
For more information, contact Jeremy Hughes at 605-298-5663.
AMITY
There may be situations this spring where no amount of adjustment on the drill solves the problem, such as fields that were cultivated last fall but are still loose.
In that case, it may be necessary to look past the machine and address the field itself, said Gene Breker of Amity Technologies in Fargo, North Dakota.
He said in loose soils, after everything else has failed, farmers could use a coil packer, rotary harrow or super harrow to firm things up.
Breker said it’s easier to get into a field with a tractor pulling a light packer than it is to get into that same field pulling an air cart and a drill.
The problem is that a lot of this packing equipment went to the scrap dealer years ago.
He advises against packing unless farmers are really backed into a corner. If there’s enough of a crust to support equipment, it might be better to just wait a few days for things to dry out a bit more.
For more information, contact Gene Breker at 701-237-2161.
