REGINA — Morris Industries has an idea that will put 1,000 bushels of up to four products into an air seeder cart in less than 10 minutes, saving up to two hours of seeding time per day.
The extreme sizes of farm equipment being adopted by prairie producers prompted the Saskatchewan company to examine the demands that large units create and where efficiencies could be found at seeding time.
“I struggle with how large some of the carts are getting,” said Don Henry of Morris.
“I know farmers want them so that they can cut down on reloading time. We decided to look at seeding systems and found there are ways to improve seeding efficiency.”
After analyzing seeding processes, Henry and his team quickly discovered that improving refilling times could make producers more efficient without the need for ever-expanding cart sizes.
They brought in some industry veterans, including Terry Frigstad of Flexicoil fame, to think through mechanical system approaches that would create field efficiency.
The result is a 1,000 bushel cart.
Dallas Norek with Norenda Ag seeds 30,000 acres near Gerald, Sask., and has been using the Morris prototype.
“We were slow to move into grain carts and super-Bs. We won’t be slow to get into tender carts. Gains of about two hours a day (per seeding unit) can be found with a tender cart,” said Norek, whose operation runs five seeding units.
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“We are measuring from seeding to seeding time. The guys without the tender carts can seed a lot less in a day.”
He said the cart keeps the semi units out of the field and the air seeder from having to move to the approaches to load.
“The tender cart is in the middle of the field waiting for you, you stop, fill and 10 minutes later you are back to seeding … instead of 40 minutes with trucks,” he said.
“We can feed three units without any issues. I am sure this would work also for a 4,000 acre farmer that is using tandems now.… We float our sulfur and potash on in the fall and it can tender for the floater and keep it running for a day and half in (a remote location).”
The back to front tank size matches Morris’s Nine series air cart. The Digistar load system weighs in and out as two 10 and two 12 inch augers move product, driven by a power take-off, twin pump hydraulic system.
Electric over hydraulic brakes are applied whenever the tractor brakes are used.
The augers fold away in transport and can be set for a wide variety of spacings of loading hatches.
“It will work with other manufacturers’ air seeders, not just ours,” said Henry.
The unit can be used as a grain cart when it is not supplying air seeders, and all four augers can be grouped together for filling B-trains and straight trailers at harvest time.
Price hasn’t been established yet.
To suggest names for the new implement, visit www.morris-industries.com.
Contact michael.raine@producer.com
