Long-term use of no-till can be a challenge in high-residue crops, leading many to throw some tillage into their fields at a regular interval.
A company with roots in Australia, Canada and now the U.S. has a solution, a jet of high-pressure water to carve open the soil so that seed openers and placement technology have the best chance to put the seed exactly where it should be.
Opener discs can “hairpin that residue into the soil. And when they do that, they’re not going to get seed germination or yield,” says Michael Cully, CEO of Susterre, which is developing the water jet seed trench opening technology.
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Susterre has licenced the technology from I-Cubed Industry Innovators, an Ontario company that specializes in industrial uses of high-pressure water and automated manufacturing solutions. I-Cubed remains an investor in the company and does the manufacturing of the system.
I-Cubed brought the idea to Ontario from Australia, but isn’t focused on agriculture, so was happy to have a startup company take on the final development and commercialization of the technology.
Michael Cully, CEO of the company, made a pitch for funding to a group of venture capitalists at the Agri Tech Venture Forum in Toronto recently.
Susterre is one of the first projects funded by Carrot Ventures, a venture studio administered by Verdex Capital, formerly known as the AVAC Group.
Carrot Ventures takes direct aim at the Canadian inability to commercialize enough of its research and technology compared to other countries. It looks for great technology or innovations, then forms a company to manage it, recruits a CEO and helps take the product to market.
Cully was recruited to manage Susterre after a career that involved work for AGCO, JCB and another agriculture technology startup.
The Susterre system attaches to a planter’s toolbar so that the water is sprayed in front of the disc openers and seed placement and closing system.
A ski presses down the residue and then water jets move water at 60,000 lbs per square inch to cut open the ground. A fine jet of water is all that’s needed to open the residue by one-seven thousandths of an inch before the disc openers make a wider slit for the seed.
The jets “cut metal, so they can cut through anything in the field,” says Cully.
The system needs about 10 gallons per acre and starter fertilizer can be used as the cutting liquid, so standard liquid fertilizer bins are good enough.
“It takes the planter and puts it on steroids because the delivery of the seed to depth is so much better with our system,” says Cully.
Another advantage, says Cully, is that there isn’t as much need to wait for the ground to dry with a water jet opener. If the tractor can get on the field without making ruts, then the planter can run.
The limitation is horsepower to power the pumps as they take about 12.5 horsepower per row so a 12-row planter needs about 150 horsepower just to run the pumps. On a planter with up to 18 rows, the intensifier pump can be run by hydraulic pumps powered by the power take off (PTO). Larger planters will need an external power source, at this point a generator on a cart between the tractor and the planter.
The system is aimed at crops with row spacing above 15 inches. Cully says they expect farmers who currently plant using no-till and farmers who have held back from using no-till because of the challenges of excess residue will be customers.
“We can be installed on any make or model of planter, so we could take a conventional farmer, add our system and they would be a no-till farmer.”
Cully says they believe that the system would pay for itself in two years with the reduction in costs around no-till, reductions in overseeding and a yield increase.
