New Equipment Suggestions

By Ken Sapsford,

SSCA Soil Conservationist

Equipment can be set up in a variety of ways just by changing the openers, packers, trips or row spacing. When a farmer is moving into low disturbance direct seeding, the seeding tool becomes very important as it will do the only tillage operation on that field. You want seeding equipment set up properly to do the best possible job of seeding.

How do you decide how a seeding unit should be set up? Some farmers have done their home work and know what they want. Others ask the dealers "How was the last one you sold set up?" One way to determine how to set up the equipment is to look at the soil texture on your farm.

But beware! Every farmer will tell you that he has a field that is "light" and another that is "heavy". Depending on the area, one farmer's "light" field may be a clay loam while another farmer's "heavy" field is a clay loam. Soil maps that show the texture of soil in all areas of the province are available at the local Rural Service Centre. Use a map to distinguish between Heavy Clay, Clay loam and Silty soils.

Heavy clay soils, like at Regina, Rosetown and Kindersley, are sticky. Many of the double shoot boots do not work properly because the soil sticks between the fertilizer and seed opening. This causes what I call a "football of mud" that is dragged through the soil. As there is not a definite trench for the seed and the fertilizer, they both fall into this one opening, more often mixed together than separated. (While this is often the case with many double shoot openers, there are some that are now working better in clay soils)

Seeding equipment that will be working in predominantly heavy clay soil should be set up with single shoot openers that give a large seed bed utilization but disturb as little soil as possible. Examples are spoon openers or spread tips from 3 to 5 in. Heavy clay soils require 450 lb., or greater, trips as clay soils have higher draft than other soils. The packers should be the flat rubber or pneumatic rubber so they flex causing the mud to drop off. If a mud scraper is put on a steel packer in wet clay soil, the mud will build up on the packer and the scraper will only carve a line in the mud.

Generally, double shoot boots work well in loam and sandy soils. Some work better than others. Check with your neighbors to see which openers are working well in your soil type. I like the single side band better than the paired row (many companies make both styles) as it disturbs less soil and seems to give more consistent seed - fertilizer separation. As most paired row openers do not leave a definite "paired row", there is more of a seed scatter over the width of the opener. The draft of double shoot openers will vary as well as the downward, or upward force on the tillage frame.(table 1) In stony land, it's better to use a low draft boot and low trip pressure to avoid breakage of boots. If there are no rocks to contend with, the trips can be set up with the higher trip force and a variety of boots may be used.

I like the steel V packers on loam and sandy soils. The V type packer is centered on the fertilizer row. It will give sideways packing on the seedrow, moving the seeds away form the fertilizer, assisting in the seed - fertilizer separation. A flat packer will push the seeds downward and closer to the fertilizer band.

Whenever you purchase a new seeding tool I suggest starting with the opener. Once you have decided on the opener that will work on your soil type, then match your trip requirements, packers and row spacing to work with the opener to give you the best crop emergence.

Table 1

The draft Index compares the draft of each of the boots to a 12 inch sweep at a depth of 3 to3.5 inches. All of the draft measurements were done in a soil bin.