REGINA – Bourgault Industries is displaying a prototype air drill across Western Canada is that the company’s research and development leader calls a new concept seeding tool that complements the rest of its seeding line.
“It’s not yet released, but we’re showing it at farm shows this year,” said Mark Cresswell, who is also Bourgault’s marketing leader.
“It’s not something that will replace the products we do have. It’s got certain advantages and certain disadvantages, just like the rest of our equipment, depending on what conditions you’re using them in.”
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Cresswell said the company calls the concept drill the 3310 PHD, or parallel link hoe drill. It uses an independent depth hoe opener, which Cresswell said means each opener is independently gauged by its own packer and gauge wheel, rather than a frame system.
“It’s not something that’s new in the industry. There are competitors that have that type of product and there’s disc-type products built on a similar idea (that have been available) for many years.
“What is new is we’re approaching it with our mid-row banding concept. With the mid-row banders you have the perfect placement of fertilizer. You won’t be subjecting your seed to seedling burn. What that also does is free up the interior of the frame, where you’re only running a single knife opener.”
Cresswell said that makes for not only a better seeding job but also less residue clearance issues. From testing this spring, he said that’s been extremely positive.
“It was beyond what we expected in terms of being able to clear residue, so we’re really pleased with how that’s worked out.”
Hydraulic cylinders provide the openers with down pressure and trip pressure. If the trip strikes something, the hydraulic cylinder will let it disengage, then return to the ground. The pressure is variable, so the operator can adjust it as required.
“The other unique thing we’re working with is the idea of a parallel link system. The advantage of a parallel link system is that you maintain absolute precision in terms of ground following. If the packer wheel goes over an obstacle where it raises one inch, your opener is also going to raise one inch. It keeps everything in the same relation,” Cresswell said.
“This is opposed to a trailing arm, where you pivot the arm up at the front, with one long solid arm that goes back to the wheel. There, you get a magnification effect. If your wheel moves an inch, depending on where your seed opener is, it may only move three-quarters of an inch.
“Also, with a trailing arm, as it rotates through its range of motion, the attack angle of the opener in the ground also changes. With a parallel system, it doesn’t. It maintains the exact same vertical orientation no matter where it is in the range of motion, up and down.
“That’s important for different type openers. If you’re just going with a vertical style opener, it’s not such a big deal. But openers like a three-inch spread knife are a lot more susceptible to issues if that attack angle is not held absolutely correct.”
Cresswell said with any type of independently gauged system, the packer wheel that rides over the row is also the gauge wheel that lets the opener follow the ground. It’s an integral part of the entire opener apparatus, which means the opener-gauge wheel-packer setup is a whole system; it doesn’t have a set of packers behind.
The prototype drills are set up with a row of mid-row banding coulters along the front of the frame and then three rows of openers at the back. The mid-row banding coulter used on the prototype PHD drill is Bourgault’s standard unit. One coulter is mounted between two seeding openers, so a drill with 50 openers would require 25 banding coulters.
The only difference is that on this machine, the frame that carries the coulters is fixed – it doesn’t raise or lower relative to the ground. It’s the openers that raise and lower.
“What we’ve done is taken our standard Series 25 mid-row bander and put on a hydraulic cylinder in place of the spring. It provides the resistance when you’re working in the field, but it’s also used to disengage the bander at the end of the field. We can move one valve and lock them out, so they’re in what we call the parked position, if you’re not applying any nitrogen like when seeding pulses,” Cresswell said.
“The other thing we’ve got built into it, because all the openers are hydraulically actuated, we’ve got the ability to lock out every second hoe opener. This is a feature that’s primarily for the U.S. market, where they like to seed soybeans on 20 inch spacing. This is a way they can do that without having to run the other openers in the ground.”
Cart compatible
Cresswell said tow-between and tow-behind carts are compatible with the drill. Bourgault researchers are now working with 40 foot, 48 foot and 55 foot wide units on both 10 inch and 12 inch spacing.
The 40 foot unit has three sections while the 48 and 55 foot units have five sections.
“If our testing works and we’re pleased with our end results, we certainly will carry this product on to larger sizes. Sixty and even 70 foot machines are becoming more common,” Creswell said.
The ground-engaging opener is one area where Bourgault is planning more work.
“What we’ve been working with so far is the ability to attach existing off-the-shelf openers. We’ve mostly been working with the Bourgault tillage tools carbide knives and that kind of thing,” he said.
“We haven’t settled on one specific size or style of opener. Our goal is, the more we can provide, the better. It provides that much more versatility and flexibility. But we want to make sure performance is there and we’re not compromising the seeding job that’s done.”
Bourgault did initial testing in spring 2005, when it tested basic concepts. This past spring it ran three full-scale prototypes in various Saskatchewan places.
“We had a really good spring for testing. We had it in everything from quite dry to extremely wet, flat and rolling land, a good range of test conditions.”
How the testing goes through the summer and fall will dictate when or if Bourgault plans to commercialize the design.
“We do have a few more things to prove out yet. Best case scenario is if everything goes really well, we will have some available for spring 2007. We generally do a limited production run of any new products the first year out and keep the numbers down to a manageable number we can handle,” Cresswell said.
“It’s a complementary product. I still believe the 5710 air hoe drill is going to be the workhorse of our seeding implements. But people in very rolling land are going to want to take a look at this unit.”
