Big drills could be on the way out!!

[bigzee]

Know of a large farm that ran 2 86' Borgaults with 950 tanks for couple yrs possibly three. They traded everything went to 2 76' with 700 bu tanks. They claimed too much compaction, and a very heavy unit to pull. They spent a lot on weight kits to gain traction. I run a 72' Seedhawk with 700 tank and a 51' Flexi Coil, and like those footages.

[northfarmer]

First year with our 950/76 ft drill tank we had compaction issues but they were related to tractor as the compaction was only on upslope passes. Next year we got rid of that tractor with tires (was properly ballasted) and got tracks. Problem solved.

I had same concern with big tank but with the tires under them they have the least loaded ground pressure rating of any tank BG has ever sold. Lots of tires under those tanks. Yes heavy pull when full but a tractor with proper traction/hp will solve that.

I am convince that is you need something with 500 hp or more in the field it should be on tracks, IMHO.

[tweety]

Cuz 76' is now small.

[fjlip]

Autonomous tractors with 30' drills will soon be the norm, all the BIG stuff will be scrap iron, sorry boys.
Local guy has 950 on tracks, and 620 quad in front of 66' BG. A mess of compaction when this wet.

[northfarmer]

Agree on the autonomous tractors, that will change everything, but that is still years away from large scale roll out.

Sometimes it is just too wet to seed lol, been there done that.

[MBgrower]

I agree on 500+ hp tractors, they need to be on tracks. Many famers here are now on tracks, combines on tracks also becoming very popular.

[ajl]

Diseconomies of scale. Once interest rates start to creep the optimal farm size will shrink and the 120 ft drills will be obsolete. Happened in the 1980's. Same goes for 45' headers and tracked combines. Trouble with tracks is once there are hours on the unit, track maintenance becomes a constant headache. I can see some role for autonomous for some operations like grain carting but wide spread adoption still a few years away.

[Ache4Acres]

From what I've seen, the ladies like it when your equipment is bigger... it's been working for me for years.

[bgmb]

In many areas 60-70 ft is ideal/max. Dont like the seedmaster idea of 14 or 16 inch spacing, maybe for canola its ok but not for pulses and wheat. There is no tractor on the market to pull 86 ft of paralink on a wetish year in out area.