Planter / drill

[furrowtickler]

Very good points Jay - mo. There is no silver bullet for anything, and never will be.

[Jay-mo]

If you are first running your seed through an auger to fill your tank. Then bouncing it off at least a couple dead end manifold towers. Then dropping it into the furrow and with the front gang and having the next two openers through some extra soil on top and then a packer....you need to seed at least 5lb. to the acre depending on your tkw.

The argument of needing to seed higher rates because of flea beetles, frost, etc I find mostly irrelevant. We had bad frost in 2015, everybody reseeded (or should have). Did not matter what rate they seeded at. Same with bugs. If they are bad enough, they eat everything. That's my observation anyway.

I have also seen JD planter vs. FC5000 side by side canola trial. The conditions were wet to muddy and the plant establishment on the planter was terrible compared to the old Flexi-coil. I don't know what the final yield was though.

[farmaholic]

Case. But tweety's point is you're only starting with 2.1 lbs. ...not alot of room for peril loses.

There is definitely merit to this quote. If you consider tweety the Devil, I guess I'm playing Devil's Advocate on this one. But its hard to argue against the results in the pictures furrow....still impressive.

but .... if you seed 4.2 pounds and only half grows you still only have 2.1 pounds to work with . it is irrelevant ???

[farmaholic]

Absolutely its great to post "new" ideas, but the corn planter with canola idea has yet to show a benefit. Trend or not. Once flea beetles take a pound, frost another pound, cutworms another pound, that 2 pounds of seed you saved looks pretty expensive. Let alone the additional passes you need to make to fertilize, the disturbance, the erosion, moisture loss, the eq time, the....

There is definitely merit to this quote. If you consider tweety the Devil, I guess I'm playing Devil's Advocate on this one. But its hard to argue against the results in the pictures furrow....still impressive.

[Braveheart]

Obviously, the economics of a planter improve if you are using it for more crops than just canola. But has anyone put together the entire package? Ie. reduced seed costs for canola and soybeans. Healthier crops as wider row spacing gives better airflow and less disease pressure. With soybeans, quicker emergence with the competitive nature of the beans being closer together and which also results in higher first pod set.

As to final yield of one drill vs another or a planter, most often numbers aren't statistically different. Two or three bushels isn't conclusive. Fields, operators, etc can vary so much. Find what works for you.

For our farm, we are interested in a planter in the future. But because we are reduced/no tillers, we are trying to work out how to make a planter work in residue. Strip till has our attention. But there are still issues with getting fertilizer down, enough tractor for the planter, we don't have RTK, etc. Can 3000 acres afford 2 seeding systems?

Fun to look at nonetheless, and I would love to slash canola seed costs in half.

[Rareearth]

I have been thinking that the planter is the next leap forward in technology. I like the precision spacing, and depth, etc

Lots of work has been done with plant emergence. The first ones up are always the biggest, healthiest, highest yielding plants. Corn is the easiest. If you have a row put flags of different colours beside the plants that emerge on the first day, second, third etc. The results are obvious. This is why even emergence is so important.

Planters have the best opportunity currently to work with seed orientation. Again corn is the easiest. Point up or point down, long side vs narrow side. The orientation changes how the roots and plant will spend energy and time in establishment. Long/narrow has to do with the first leaves of the corn and how they won't touch the other plants, maximum solar panels and no rubbing damage. Apperantly 20% yield bump.

Maybe some day we will have small robots placing all these seeds for us, not unlike I used to as a young child in the home garden.

I couldn't agree more with you furrow . We use an old Morris maxim 2 and I don't see a drill out there I would trade with . It is very light which has been a godsend in these wet years . The straw clearance is unbelievable , clears better than our 9400 bourgault deep tiller . I am really comfortable using this drill and it really grows good crops for us , and you wouldn't get $15k for it at an auction , lol. Canola is a challenge and that is why I was interested in your planter pics . I don't see a canola crop out there this year that doesn't have issues including the ones seeded with $750 k bg' s . I wouldn't mind adding liquid to this double shoot than we could do anything with it . Anxious to see your planter pics as time progresses

[Ache4Acres]

It may be just a coincidence but we have been fortunate not to have to spray an acre for flea Beatles or cutworms .
Canola crops all around us are getting pounded daily .... just sayin tweety.
Several fields locally are getting taken out and or sprayed . Again we may just be lucky .
Regardless it's a very long way from swathing let alone harvest , so time will tell here for us.
The planter may very well hit the road after harvest, it really don't matter to us , we do not sell them , or could care less if anyone else buys one.
Or it may stay , as of today , it's ok 👌

Agree looks very impressive so far. Bring us some more pics as the year progresses. Will be very interesting to see.

I almost want to setup a campsite in our canola and watch it grow. I am hoping for some big things after this rain!!

[furrowtickler]

It may be just a coincidence but we have been fortunate not to have to spray an acre for flea Beatles or cutworms .
Canola crops all around us are getting pounded daily .... just sayin tweety.
Several fields locally are getting taken out and or sprayed . Again we may just be lucky .
Regardless it's a very long way from swathing let alone harvest , so time will tell here for us.
The planter may very well hit the road after harvest, it really don't matter to us , we do not sell them , or could care less if anyone else buys one.
Or it may stay , as of today , it's ok 👌