My family and I began our farming career at Minnedosa, Manitoba in 1976 following seven years of aviation experience with La Ronge Aviation Services of La Ronge, Saskatchewan.
In 1978 we started to adopt zero-tillage and have just completed our twentieth crop utilizing the no-till system. The first seven years of no-till production employed a Melroe Bettinson disc drill on seven inch spacing with a change in 1985 to an Edwards hoe press drill on eight inch spacing.
Thinking back to 1985, I recall great apprehension about the move to eight inch but the hoe-press results quickly dispelled any fears.
The same size and make of drill was utilized until 1995 when we decided to make the switch to air delivery coupled with the move to twelve inch rows. This change was made with less apprehension than the 1985 move.
The Edwards HD 812 drill of 1985 was designed for either eight or twelve inch spacing and we knew that twelve inch spacing was used by some conventional farmers in Montana and Saskatchewan. I was also aware that Dr. Guy Lafond of Ag Canada at Indian Head, Saskatchewan had started row spacing trials in 1989. My interpretation of these studies suggested that there was no correlation between wider row spacing (in many cases wider than twelve inches) and reduced yield for the crops we were growing.
These factors along with my strong desire to reduce soil disturbance in the zero-tillage system made a relatively easy change to the twelve inch spacing for the 1995 crop. At the same time a change was made to the Atom Jet opener for the Edwards drill which made the opener only 3/4 of an inch wide.
Our main concern in that first year was what we would observe for weed populations, particularly in the flax acres. To date, this concern has been of a very minor nature. Our long term theory with no-till has always been to keep soil disturbance to a minimum in the hope of reduced weed populations, particularly wild oats.
We were an early adopter of liquid fertilizer and the flexibility of a one-pass seeding and fertilizing system. Although we usually utilize some fall banding of liquid fertilizer we are not concerned about doing all of our fertilizer requirement at seeding time in a one-pass format. As with any system adequate separation of seed and fertilizer is required.
One factor that is a real treat is the enhanced machine and field efficiency. For ten years we pulled a 28 foot Edwards drill with 40 openers. We now pull a 42 foot Edwards with 42 openers with little change in horsepower requirement. The cost of seeding equipment was reduced by 20% and our fuel and hours on the tractor reduced by 30%. These factors allow for improved timelines and management of the seeding program.
A second factor that we appreciate is the ability to seed through heavy residue in damp conditions. Pea vines are relatively easy and this fall, winter wheat was seeded into chopped flax stubble without plugging. Dormant seeding of canola into heavy and difficult winter wheat stubble was not an issue.
For the past 10 years our seeding rates have been slightly higher than twenty years ago by approximately 20% for some varieties. Early indications are that plant disease levels are somewhat reduced particularly root disease.
Straight combining was a normal part of our operation prior to wider row spacing. If swathing is desired then some effort should be made to avoid laying the swath parallel to the seed row as adverse weather conditions could cause some concern. On our rolling land, the even infiltration of moisture as a result of zero-tillage makes straight combining quite feasible. In the past three years I have not experienced any delay in maturity because of wider rows.
In summary, the switch to twelve inch row spacing was a natural evolution of the no-till system in dryland agriculture - my only reflection at this point in time is, " WHY DID IT TAKE US SO LONG TO CHANGE ".