REGINA, Sask. – Row after row of machines in blue, green, gray, yellow and red. Touted as larger, wider and better than ever.
Yet one large, red machine stood out and attracted the gaze of nearly all who passed.
Four metres tall, 12 metres long and 13 metres wide with four granular tanks, plus anhydrous ammonia, computer control, video monitoring and its own steering. Jim Halford, of Indian Head, Sask., managed to turn a few heads with his latest product at last week’s Farm Progress Show in Regina.
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Three years in the making, the Conserva Pak 5400 air seeding tank allows farmer to blend seed and three other dry products without leaving the comfort of the tractor cab. The grain and anhydrous tanks and integrated floating hitch trail a 13-metre-wide double chute seeding tool with steering built into the seed cart.
“As input costs rise and rise and as seed becomes bred to control problems genetically, its price is rising as well. Nobody can afford to be applying too much or too little of any product. That was our motivation behind this system,” said Halford, president of Conserva Pak.
The design of the machine provides individual air runs from the tank to the seed boot, video cameras give the operator a cabside view of each run from the product metering rollers inside the grain cart’s air plenum.
Product metering is regulated via computer-controlled hydraulic motors or can be handled by more traditional ground drive methods. Baffles inside the product tanks can be removed or relocated to provide smaller or larger tank sizes depending on the type of seed, inoculant, fertilizer or micro nutrient being applied. Power can be provided through tractor hydraulics, p.t.o. or tank mounted engine.
“Farmers can’t be spending extra time making several operations over their land. They need more and more land and have less and less time to devote to it. We’re trying to provide equipment that will allow for one pass complete seeding,” said Fred Butuk, Conserva Pak designer and Yorkton-area farmer.
The 5400 tank and minimum tillage seeding tool system will be available in the fall of this year with an expected sticker price in $100,000 range said Halford.
