What I have been asked to present is how we adopted direct seeding on a low budget. I have tried to make it a historically correct presentation rather than a "This is the way you do it" presentation. Knowing what I know now, I may have approached things in a different manner. One-thing remains unchanged is that direct seeding can be suited to any size of operation.
In 1988, I received a diploma from the School of Agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan. Armed with this new knowledge and brimming with enthusiasm, I returned to the family farm just north of Lebret on the edge of the Qu'Appelle Valley. The farm consisted of 650 cultivated acres and enough hillside pasture for about 70 head of cattle. At the time, it may not have seemed like it, but life was very simple. We grew board grains and were pretty much in a 50/50 rotation.
Looking back, I would have to say that my first step towards direct seeding was brought about by frustration. Agriculture is a well-developed science, yet we still had dust storms reminiscent of the 30's. Anyone that has farmed at all knows that a jet black field might blow or wash away, but we were willing to take that chance. we took the chance because that is the way Dad grew good crops and Dad did it because his Dad did it. In 1990, I got an off-farm job with the Save Our Soils program as the District Soil Technician. I realized pretty quickly that I could hardly promote soil conservation unless I cleaned up my own act. I felt I had to lead by example.
The original approach of the Save Our Soils program was pretty simple. We were just trying to modify the practices of the area farmers and not suggesting radical change. The simple message was to keep a better trash cover on your fields. When I tried this on my own farm, it became pretty obvious that the double disc drills we were using were not going to do the job. Half way through seeding in 1990, I purchased three sections and 21 feet of Noble hoe drills. The Noble is a pre-historic version of today's air drills. The whole weight of the drill is supported by castor wheels and the packers. The drill has 9-inch spacings on three rows and the shanks are straight tubes. The straight tubes need less room to provide good trash clearance. The distance between the castor wheel and the packers is quite short, which allows very accurate depth control. I knew that the drills would do the job for me under a minimum tillage system, but in the back of my mind I knew that I could dabble in zero-till. Keep in mind that in 1990, zero-till was a term that was only spoken in hushed voices and the price of Roundup was double of what it is today.
The next major step was in 1991. I chose one 50-acre field and a goal that no matter what it takes or what happens, this field will be zero-tilled. The field had a poor mustard crop on it the year before. Residue management consisted of straw spreaders on the combine. For a burnoff, I made the classic mistake of using 2,4-D. I seeded spring wheat straight into mustard stubble, applying phosphate with the seed at our usual rate. I put on liquid nitrogen with the then state of the art spoke injector. There you have it; I was in the zero-till business.
The next year I seeded wheat on wheat stubble. I chose to deep band anhydrous to supply the nitrogen requirement. The banding operation had also helped out with the residue problem. That same year, I expanded direct seeding to another field and seeded peas into wheat stubble. At the time, direct seeding peas was an easy choice. I could put all the fertilizer requirements with the seed. Up to this point, I had grown three crops under zero-till and was confident that direct seeding could work on my farm. I had not done any modifications to my equipment yet. The next step I wanted to take, was to put down all my fertilizer requirements when seeding. Since I was using drills, the only way I could put on a large volume of fertilizer, was to use liquid. I thought that I might be able to mount a set of spoke injector wheels in front of the drills. I threw this idea out to Rick Pattison of Lemberg, who developed and manufactures the spoke wheel injector. He thought that would be overkill. Rick had several customers that were meeting their nitrogen requirements using a liquid kit. The kit is a manifold that supplies fertilizer to each shank through a small hose. By letting this hose the hose drag behind the shank, there would be enough separation to prevent any burning of the seed. When the drill is in the ground, the fertilizer hose is buried. From what I can tell, the fertilizer is being placed above and to the side of the seed. The hose does not wear and will last for hundreds of acres. I have not replaced a hose yet that has worn out from dragging.
The openers on the noble are kind of crude. They are just a straight chunk of iron 1-1/2 inches wide. The original openers that came with the drill were pretty worn and needed to be replaced. The openers did do the job for me, but I wanted something that would slice through the soil a bit better and reduce the draft. I found some weld-on point from Gen Manufacturing out of Coaldale, Alberta. The cost of the points was less than replacing the original openers. The new points were welded onto the original openers. I have been satisfied with the weld-on points, but I don't know if they reduced the draft all that much. I have not seen anything that I thought would work better, keeping in mind the section is not that great for drills.
I now have a seeding tool that can seed, place fertilizer with the seed, and band fertilizer all in one pass. The other specs of the drill that are important to a good direct seeding job are trash clearance, depth control, and packing. This drill is comparable to most anything on the market today. The cost of the modifications was $700 for the liquid kit and $225 for the weld-on points. I was renting the fertilizer wagon, but I was not always able to get the wagon when I needed it or use it as long as I wanted. As a result, I bought a wagon two years ago for $4500.
I like using liquid fertilizer. My dealer will spot a nurse tank anywhere I need it. The product is delivered to the field, saving me time and labour, and I also don't have to tie up another truck. I don't have to worry about the product getting wet and it can be moved by a pump.
I now focused my attention onto residue management. When I was only seeding a couple of fields in zero-till, I was able to bale off the straw. To grow pulses and oilseeds, I was going to need a straw chopper. I bought a chopper from the local wrecker to fit my pull-type combine. The welding shop in Balcarres was already making larger extended fins for straw choppers. Chaff rows were the next problem. The rows were easily visible in the reduced tillage fields as well as the direct seeded ones. I just couldn't spend the money for a factory made chaff spreader. I made a bracket out of 3/8-inch sheet metal to move the original straw spreader down behind the sieve. The beaters on the spreader were removed and I bolted on a circular piece of plywood to the spreader. On each plywood disc, I made four fins out of 29 gauge metal. The drive came from a belt off the spreader drive. The chaff was easily spread from 15 to 20 feet and eliminated any noticeable chaff rows.
I have used for different chaff systems - two I made myself. I bought the third chaff system because I just ran out of time to make one. The forth system is a chaff collector, which I use today. I like to haul chaff to the yard for the cattle and feed it with an electric wire. I have to admit that it is easier said than done. A second option is to leave the piles of chaff in the field for the cattle. The only problem is that the cows don't do a good job of cleaning up the piles. I go out with a front-end loader to clean up the piles in the spring and burn the remains. If possible, I try to dump the piles in a dried up slough. The chaff piles do represent some extra work. However, chaff is a good source of feed and they help extend stubble grazing. If the fields are far from the yard or on an unfenced field, I put a metal deflector on the end of the chaff blower and blast the chaff out over the field. I thought that I might be plugging up rads by blowing the chaff out behind the combine, but it has not been a problem and I am happy with the results.
An unpleasant side effect of farming in the 90's is that you never really get to put the sprayer away. I bought a small (1000 litre) Computor sprayer in partnership with a neighbour. He is a conventional farmer that likes to seed as early as possible. The timing worked out well for us. I do my burnoff, then he has the sprayer to do his in-crop spraying. By the time he is finished, it is time for me to start my in-crop operation. I do as much spraying as I can at 12 litres per acre. One tank will do 80 acres, which is about what I can seed in a day. I get the sprayer set up in the evening, spray the tank out in the morning, and then go seeding. Cables suspend the booms of the sprayer, so the wheels seldom touch. This means that the booms are not shaken to bits bouncing over rough fields. The conventional sprayers that I could afford are just not heavy enough. I spray at 12 mph, so 80 acres takes about two hours. I like the ground drive application. I know that no matter what speed I travel, I get the same rate. Being able to slow down and apply more product is not something that I am missing out on. The burnoff has always worked well for me. I try not to get ahead of the drills more than two or three days. I have sprayed just ahead of the drills with good results. However, I have had poor results by spraying right after seeding. I get better weed control by waiting three to four days after seeding. Any longer than that and I begin to get nervous.
I try as much as possible to let the combine do all the residue management. cattle make excellent residue managers. They pick through and spread any clumps of straw. Cattle also do a good job of cleaning up the grass on the headlands. The only time I have any problems is on fields where I have had lodged crops. Heavy harrows are ideal to clean up lodged crops. The problem I have is that I don't have access to a set of heavy harrows and I really don't have the horsepower to pull them. What I did was take look at my heavy duty cultivator. I bought a set of tines that mount on the shank of the cultivator. The tines were originally designed to help level furrows and seal up the field when using anhydrous. The tines will not break up stubble like a heavy harrow, but I find that it spreads the straw enough that I can get through it with the drills. At first I took all the shovels off, but put them back on when I wanted to spread some manure. I run the shovels about one inch above the ground and it does a nice job on leveling mole hills. It may not be the best machine for spreading and breaking up straw, but I had the cultivator around and it is just not worth that much if I were to sell it. I still like to have some tillage equipment around to rip up a low spot or even for fire protection.
One of the tougher challenges I face is watching my fellow farmers using larger and newer equipment. I have had to really stick to my guns and decide what I need from what I want. Seeding with drills, especially old ones, can be frustrating. just keep in mind that once that piece of equipment leaves the field, no one can tell what kind of machine was used.