There are a variety of definitions of direct seeding among those in the agriculture business in Saskatchewan. The variations tend to be related at least in part to the region of the province they are coming from. There is a lot of validity to this regional interpretation. In talking to farmers in my region I am sure clarification on these regional interpretations will help some farmers make much better use of information coming out of the direct seeding movement.
The biggest reason I say this is that I come across farmers who are knifing in NH3 in the fall and seeding in the spring with knives and on row packing but don't consider themselves direct seeding because they are have a two pass system. Because they don't think they are direct seeding they don't utilize information on direct seeding. On the other hand I find some who are spiking with 2" spikes in the fall and then going direct into this in the spring with full sweeps and harrow packing and saying that they are direct seeding.
In the strictest definition of the phrase "direct seeding" you can argue that the term itself implies one pass. But I feel that the most important factor in identifying what is and what isn't direct seeding is what is happening to the residue. In the northeast residue is often a limiting factor for one pass seeding. I want to encourage those who are knifing in fertilizer and then low disturbance seeding (a two pass system) that you are direct seeding. This system almost always leaves a lot of stubble still standing.
We also use the term high disturbance direct seeding at SSCA. We are meaning a one pass system that uses full sweeps in the one pass that applies seed and fertilizer. This system disrupts all the residue but still leaves most of it at the surface. There seems to be more farmers using this system where residue levels are not too high. This is not typical for the northeast.
There are many different ideas out there about what is low disturbance seeding. Again for the northeast where residue levels are relatively high any tillage tool that cuts 50% or less of the soil surface I consider as low disturbance. There are a number of Concord-type seeders with 5" or 6" cut off sweeps that are still leaving a significant amount of stubble standing!
To almost all of the direct seeders in the northeast the words "heavy harrows" are not a swear word but an often necessary tool to manage residue for an efficient and practical system. They recognize the down side of promoting weed growth but the benefits of better managed residue out weigh the disadvantages.
Hope this helps clarify what direct seeding is for the northeastern part of the province.