I was asked to make a presentation on Direct Seeding Making Equipment Choices because I made an older airseeder into a direct seeder with a small additional investment.
In 1971 I received my diploma from the University of Saskatchewan, School of Agriculture. I returned to the family farm and began my farming career.
Throughout the 70's seeding remained much like it had been in the 60's. I seeded with discers cropping 2/3's of the land and summerfallowing 1/3. I used dry fertilizer, but not at very high rates. At the time we had IHC discers and they really would cut so the stubble was seeded without any pre working, so I guess that could be called "direct seeding" before we realized we were direct seeding. The biggest problem with the IHC discers was how rough they left the fields. In the late 70's we replaced them with a set of Co-op discers that had larger seed and fertilizer boxes and left the fields somewhat leveler. I saw a definite need for change the first year I worked some sandy land. When I took it over it had some summerfallow on it. I seeded it and the crop of wheat was up mainly in the three leaf stage and then came black Friday when very strong winds blew for over 24 hours. When I checked the summerfallow field there were areas of it where you could see the wheat kernel being held up above the ground, by the roots, as though on stilts. No more summerfallow!!! The next change happened the following year when heavier rates of fertilizer showed good economic promise.
I was beginning to grow dissatisfied with the results I was getting from my conventional farming practices and was keenly interested in the methods being tried by my neighbors, Rick and Larry Pattison. They had begun banding liquid fertilizer using higher rates than could be applied using conventional seeding practices. The benefits they achieved from banding the fertilizer were very apparent and I was determined to convert my farming practices to this new form of "direct seeding" coupled with continuous cropping.
I began in the late fall of 1980 by banding fertilizer on all my fields. By banding in the late fall I was able to conserve more moisture than I would have if I had banded in the spring. Fertilizer loss is also kept to a minimum when you band late in the fall. For several years it was believed that the deeper you banded the fertilizer the better the job you were doing of utilizing the fertilizer. As a consequence it was essential to band in the fall since opening the soil up that deep in the spring led to severe moisture loss.
The fields that I banded in the fall that were to be seeded to an oilseed crop also received trifluralin applied with a Bee Line applicator that I had mounted on my cultivator. The following spring I didn't handle any fertilizer or chemical. I seeded with 30' of discer with mounted depth control wheels. As soon as the straw was dry enough, which sometimes was within a couple of hours, the field was harrowed.
I utilized this system for 13 years and most years was happy with the results. The exception would be in years with an early winter and the banding had to be completed in the spring. The yields always suffered on those years. By the early 1990's poor falls became frequent and I started looking for a better method.
In the winter of 1994 I decided to purchase an airseeder. I found an outfit that I thought would work for my operation. This outfit is a 35' John Deere 610 seeding tool with 10" spacings and a floating hitch and a concord 1502 air tank. I mounted my Bee Line on the outfit and was ready to go.
I used 12" sweeps with a splitter boot and switched from liquid to dry fertilizer. This method worked okay, but I was generally disappointed. I needed extra labor and a truck to handle the dry fertilizer and half of my air tank was tied up with fertilizer so I was stopping to fill more often that I wanted to. Another problem I encountered was that on our soils, sweeps work fine if you go 21/2" to 3" deep and I didn't want to seed that deep.
I started to look for a narrow opener that would work for all crops and enable me to return to using liquid fertilizer without the risk of crop damage. I discussed this with Rick Pattison of Pattison Liquid Systems who told me that they were experimenting with an Atom Jet opener that they had installed a small wing on. The small liquid tube goes through the opener and is tucked in behind the wing. The fertilizer, depending on your application rate and speed, shoots out about 18" when the cultivator is out of the ground. The small opening in the soil that the wing makes has the fertilizer shot against the far wall of dirt about 12 " from the seed. I have applied up to 70 pounds of actual nitrogen to canola with no damage to the crop emergence. I have since taken off the mounted harrows and had gang packers made with 10" spacing. With the extra moisture that is retained in the soil after seeding with this system the gang packers do an adequate job. I was happier, but wanted one more improvement. I had an 850 gallon Pattison cart, which now that I had freed up my whole air tank, was causing me to stop too often. I could carry enough seed for 80 acres but only enough fertilizer for 35 to 40 acres. In 1999 I purchased a 1650 gallon Pattison cart which depending on fertilizer rates will accommodate enough fertilizer for 75 to 80 acres. I am now seeding more efficiently with less labor and less equipment.
Weed management is always a concern. I do some post harvest spraying with glyphosate and the rest with pre seeding burn off. Unfortunately along with the good comes some bad. I have experimented with putting some triflurilan on with my Bee Line when I'm seeding canola with varying results. Usually it is necessary to do some spot spraying, but the cereal crops that follow the next year will rarely need any wild oat chemical and the triflurilan has virtually eliminated wild millet, russian thistle and wild buckwheat.
While getting good control of some weeds like quackgrass, direct seeding has resulted in some new weeds to battle. Narrow leafed hawksbeard, dandelion and old foes like Canada thistle and sow thistle have become formidable foes. I try to do my own spraying to save some money, but some years a pre harvest application of glyphosate is required on some fields. More time is required for crop checking and studying what chemicals to use for what weeds.
Soil quality has improved as a result of direct seeding over the years. There is also a yield benefit especially noticeable on years with low rainfall.
H.P. requirements are not as great with the openers I have chosen. When I was using sweeps my 195 h.p. tractor had all it could handle. Now my fertilizer tank is twice as big and I can still go up one gear and throttle back.
Standing stubble is adequate after seeding to protect the young emerging plants from the wind. It also aids in preventing moisture loss. I have experimented with different ground speeds and have found very little difference in the amount of standing stubble between 4.5 mph and 5.5 mph. I found that less than 4 mph made a noticeable difference, but getting the seed in the ground early is more important in my estimation.
Residue management is as important as everyone tells you it is. I have a Case IH combine that did not have a straw chopper on it when I purchased it, so I installed one. I also offset the spreaders and installed larger platters that contribute to better straw chaff spread.
Fertilizer cost with liquid needs to be considered. I find that liquid nitrogen and sulfur are competitive but liquid phosphorous is more expensive than dry so consequently some of my neighbours use a combination of liquid and dry. I have seriously considered the same choice a few times, but I would require a larger air tank, an additional truck and more labor.
To summarize, I am able to do all the seeding myself with a system that works very well for me. My fertilizer dealer delivers the blend I request to a 3000 gallon storage tank, my truck is full of seed and while I am filling with seed I have the fertilizer transferring. Because of the large transfer pump on the Pattison cart I can be filled and ready to seed in a matter of just a few minutes. Since my airseeder is older I make certain that all the shanks are level so that I am seeding at a consistent level, not too deep or too shallow.
I have talked about more than just "making equipment choices", but when going into direct seeding you have to consider the whole picture. I have added a few points that are important to know before you make the change to direct seeding. I will always be looking for innovative methods of seeding that will be cost effective as well as increasing
my yields and efficiency. I would welcome any questions or comments and I have a new Atom Jet opener and one with 7000 acres of use. Please feel free to view them.