LAC DU BONNET, Man. – Two years ago, Paul Mcintosh called the local helicopter service to see if it could aerial seed canola on two quarter section fields that were too muddy for machinery.
The deal was made and the seeding was done.
On two adjacent quarters, Mcintosh was able to mud the seed in with his air seeder.
When fall came, the two heli-seed-e d fields yielded seven percent higher than the two fields that were mudded in.
Mcintosh went to his calculator to try and find out why.
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There may have been numerous factors involved, but one thing was clear: the wheel tracks left by his machinery had a seven percent negative impact on the soil surface.
Not only did he get a seven percent yield bump, but he had a decent crop from 320 acres that would have otherwise grown nothing but weeds that year.
John Gibson, president of Provincial Helicopters in Lac du Bonnet, carried out the helicopter seeding with a specially outfitted Bell 206B3 Jet Ranger, the most popular helicopter worldwide for aerial application of seed and crop protection chemicals.
The seed spreading apparatus he used was developed by Alberta Forestry in the 1970s for reforestation.
It precisely meters out the correct amount of seeds and sends them spiraling to the earth through a rotating disc mounted beneath the chopper.
The seed hopper, mounted in the backseat of the helicopter, feeds seed into a rotary drum that selects individual seeds, much like the drum on a traditional corn planter.
Because seeds for canola and coniferous trees are so small, the drum is a delicate instrument, precisely machined from solid aluminum billet.
The drum meters seed into the centre intake tube of the spinning disc. From the intake tube, seeds drop into the four metal pipes extending out to the circumference of the spinning disc. Centrifugal force sends the
subscriber section=crops, none, none
WORKING IN THE MUD
seeds flying. Disc r.p.m. is governed by the electric drive motor.
The pilot dials in any seeding rate the farmer wants, then flies 10 feet off the ground at 60 m.p.h., with each pass covering a 50-foot swath.
“It does require a lot more seed than you’d put down with a conventional seeder,” said Gibson.
Canola seeding is a relatively new endeavor for John and his son, Paul, vice-president of the company. Until recently, they specialized in fighting forest fires, airlifting construction and drilling equipment, forestry management, medical evacuation, search and rescue and aerial surveying.
Also, for the past 15 years they have used the Alberta Forestry System (AFS) spinning disc for seeding reforestation projects in Ontario and Manitoba.
But Gibson decided there’s a lot of untapped potential for helicopters in agriculture. The key is to demonstrate to farmers that a helicopter can do some things more efficiently than a conventional spray plane or a tractor.
He said he believes that applying canola seed on snow might be one area where helicopters may have a niche. Using the AFS device, Gibson has seen good results spreading tree seeds on the snow in late winter and early spring.
“The seeds are dark in colour,” he said.
“If you spread them on the surface on a sunny day, they absorb the heat and begin to sink into the snow. They don’t blow away.”
Gibson thinks that if it works with dark-coloured tree seeds, it might work with canola seed. And if it works, it could be possible for a producer to seed all his canola by the end of March.
“I’d like to find a couple of farmers willing to do the test next winter. They put up the fields and the seed and I’ll put up the helicopter to do the work.
“It’s worth exploring, especially if this wet cycle continues, but also in these areas where it’s wet every year.
“If it turns out to be financially viable, it could be relevant even in non-muddy years if you have a lot of acres to seed.”
But there are drawbacks to seeding canola on snow, according to Kristen Phillips, regional agronomist for the Canola Council in Manitoba.
Phillips was the agronomist for Westman Aerial Spraying for four years, so she is no stranger to aerial seeding of canola.
“At Westman, we’d only do that on flooded fields. It was always a late-seeding situation where a farmer couldn’t get on the field.
“So we would pelt the seed into the ground for him. When seed goes through an airplane, there’s a lot of downward force. We’re actually pushing the seed into the soil.
“I would agree the helicopter should have even greater downward force than an airplane, but the seed won’t go into the soil if you put it on snow.”
Phillips said if there’s a lot of spring runoff, the water could carry away much of the seed.
“My other concern is soil temperature. Even if all the seed stays in place on a moist surface, the temperature is too cool.”
She said the temperature needs to be eight to 10 C.
Farmers have also approached Gibson to discuss using the AFS device for seeding other crops such as alfalfa.
Gibson, who also flies an airplane, has observed that seeds spread by a helicopter seem to have a more uniform distribution on the ground compared to seeds dropped by a airplane. He attributes this to the vertical downdraft created by the rotor, sending the seeds shooting straight to the ground instead of drifting. Seeds spread by fixed wing aircraft may be more prone to blowing back or to the sides by the horizontal air movement from the propeller.
There is one other significant advantage to the helicopter, whether applying seed or crop protection products.
Airplanes approach the field edge at 100 m.p.h. and exit the other end of the field at the same speed. Precise on/off control of the product is difficult at that speed, especially with seeds.
Helicopters can start slowly at the field edge, accelerate to 60 m.p.h. for the pass and then slow down for the turn in the headlands. All the while, the helicopter remains within the perimeter of the field.
Provincial Helicopters charges $12 per acre plus ferry time for the helicopter.
Helicopter seeding may have the upper hand over airplane seeding but which is better at delivering crop protection products?
“The down wash from the helicopter rotors gives you higher chemical efficacy than spraying them from an airplane or high clearance sprayer,” said Gibson.
“The spray swirls around and circulates into the canopy. It puts the chemical on more leaves and stems and protected spots. That’s especially important with fungicides and insecticides.
“It’s more like the high clearance sprayers with the fans and wind skirts, except you don’t leave any wheel tracks.”
As for cost effectiveness, that depends on your location.
“The fixed wing aircraft is financially more viable in many cases,” Paul Gibson said. “We’ve done the numbers. If your fields are within 12 to 15 miles of an airport, it’s more cost effective to apply fungicides and insecticides with a conventional airplane.
“But the helicopter is more efficient once the fields are beyond that 15 mile radius.”
Paul said airplanes today can no longer cover as many acres per day as they once did because of tighter restrictions on using roads as runways.
On the other hand, a helicopter is on location at the side of the field, along with the crew, tender truck and legal landing platform constructed just above the water tank on the truck. There is no ferry time.
All of this makes for quick refills. Last year, before they had the purpose-built tender trucks with landing pads, they relied on trailers for water and the chemical handler.
The helicopters landed next to the trailers. The time lapse from the time the helicopter landed until it was airborne again with a full chemical load was 90 seconds, but dust was a factor.
However, they proved to themselves and customers that the helicopter had a time advantage.
“We were working next to an Air Tractor 502 one afternoon. We were doing quarter section fields that were exactly the same size, and we started at the same time,” said Paul.
“He’s much faster and wider. But by nightfall, we had finished our field and he was only half finished with his.
“He was 40 minutes between rounds because of ferry time. We were 90 seconds between rounds. It’s all a time management game. It’s the distance from the airport that makes the difference.”
Paul said they now have two helicopters set up for spraying and two trucks designed for the job. They expect to see their fill time drop to less than 90 seconds in 2011.
Their move time from site to site will also drop. Last year, it took about 30 minutes to pack up after each spray job, plus another 20 minutes to set up at the next site.
Paul said they found they could pack up in eight minutes with a new tender truck and set up at the next site in eight minutes.
“It’s way more efficient. We’ll give the helicopter a full load so he can either finish one field or fly over to start the next field.
“As soon as he’s off the platform, we pack up and move. By the time he’s ready for his next fill, we should be set up and waiting for him at the next location.
“It takes between 13 and 18 minutes to spray a tank load, so it’ll be tight, but I think we can make it with no wasted time. That’s the key to making this work.”
They usually schedule their work so the drive from one site to the next is minimized.
Paul pointed out a number of reasons producers are turning more to aerial application of fungicides and insecticides;
• the narrow window of opportunity requires that a lot of acres be sprayed per day when conditions allow;
• recent wet weather prevents high clearance sprayers from getting into the fields;
• there is a growing awareness of the damage to crops caused by wheel tracks, even in dry conditions.
The helicopter operates the same way as a high clearance sprayer, except it’s 10 feet above the ground and no tires touch the crop.
“We start at the field access road, and make our first run around the perimeter to set up the GPS boundaries,” said Paul.
“Then we start making our runs back and forth, according to what the GPS screen tells us. We get to the end of a run, slow down for the turn and set up for the next run according to the screen.
“The paint brush gives us the as-applied map. The entire system is exactly what you’d see on a high clearance sprayer, except we’re travelling at 60 m.p.h. instead of 15 m.p.h.”
When the spray tank runs dry, the as-applied map shows the pilot exactly where he should start spraying again.
Provincial Helicopters recently signed a three-year agreement with Paterson Grain to apply fungicides and insecticides for clients who farm beyond the 15 mile distance from an airport.
Ken Mudry, regional manager for Paterson, said he was satisfied that the spraying Provincial Helicopter did for him last year at Binscarth, Man., did a good job of putting fungicide on target.
“We still contract with fixed wing aircraft for fields close to an airport, but we found last year that a helicopter can do a lot more acres in a day than an airplane.
“With the high commodity prices and proven benefits of fungicides, we see a growing demand for helicopter application this coming year.”
Mudry said Provincial Helicopters will serve Paterson customers at Binscarth, Russell, Melita, Deloraine, Killarney, Pierson and Carievale, Sask.
