VONDA, Sask. Ñ In 2003, Bernie Denis switched from dry to liquid fertilizer. The switch accomplished two things: it gave him better seedling safety, especially in dry years, and it nearly doubled the acres he could seed between fills.
“Before that, we were using a tow-behind dual airseeder, putting fertilizer and seed down two separate pipes Ñ double shooting,” the Vonda farmer said.
“We used several openers Ñ the ones that came with the Morris air drill and some Atom Jet units.”
He said he moved away from urea because he heard liquid fertilizer caused less damage to seedlings.
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Most of the setups Denis had seen were with liquid tanks pulled behind air seeders.
“I’ve got a brother with a similar setup, but I found that too long of a train behind,” he said.
“So I decided to build one frame to hold both units.”
In the winter of 2003, Denis dismantled two pull-type combines, using the heavy steel in the hitches to build the sides and ends of the main cart frame.
“They’re six inch by eight inch, 3Ú8 -inch thick. It’s pretty heavy duty steel.”
His existing air seeder tank was a ground-drive Eagle. He mounted the air seeder tank and a new 1,200 gallon liquid tank on top of the new cart frame.
The front castor came off a 7721 John Deere pull-type combine and the back axle is from an IH 1482 combine. The 21.5 x 16 front tires came off the original air seeder cart. The back tires are 28L x 26.
Denis pulls the new dry-liquid cart behind a 40-foot Morris Maxim II air drill. The dry section has two tanks with 160 bushels all together: 60 percent for seed and 40 percent for dry fertilizer.
“The seed is metered through the air seeder cart and the fertilizer gets moved with a dia-phram pump,” he said.
“The fan is hydraulically driven, while the fertilizer pump and the metering for the seed is ground drive, from the back wheels of the cart. The metering of the liquid fertilizer and seed is all ground driven, so if you speed up or slow down, the rates stay the same.”
A lever between the tanks allows Denis to switch the hydraulics from running the fan to the fill auger. An electric box on the cart frame contains the controls for the liquid fertilizer.
“In the cab of the tractor, we’ve got a rate controller. With that, we’re able to adjust our rates, either on the go or when stopped. All the liquid components on the drill are off the shelf.”
Denis generally applies phosphate with the seed. The rest of his fertilizer is side banded.
“We’ve got Bourgault openers that side band the liquid. We put the seed down the pipe with probably 20 pounds of phosphate, so there’s a little nitrogen with that blend. The rest is liquid, which is nitrogen, or if we’re seeding canola, a blend of nitrogen and sulfur.”
He said the new setup has allowed him to increase his seeding capacity without adding more equipment.
“Our dilemma was with the small air seeder, we were putting quite a bit of fertilizer down at seeding, so we were stopped more often. With this, we’re able to go from 60 to 80 acres, depending on what you’re seeding, without a fill. Before, we were doing 35 to 40 acres, so in some instances we’ve doubled the acres. That’s how it speeded up our operation.”
Not counting the labour, which took about six weeks in the shop, he said he spent close to $10,000 on the liquid-seed combo cart, including the old combines and the pumps.
