The Moroz brothers of Porcupine Plain made some major changes in their seeding operation this spring. They purchased a John Deere 1820 Flex Air Hoe Drill using a 1900 Commodity Cart to deliver grain and fertilizer to Dutch Industries new paired row opener. After the crop is all in the bin they report that they are very happy with the results.
Ray and his brother Michael farm 2000 acres of fairly flat land with a variety of textures right around Porcupine Plain. Although they tilled most of their acres in the fall of 97 they are moving to a direct seeding system next year. They plan to one pass seed a large majority of their acres in the spring of 99.
They combine with a 9600 John Deere with a chaff spreader and the standard straw chopper. They straight cut a large portion of their acres with a 30 ft. table about 8 to 10 in. high. This past summer they received good moisture and had heavy cereal crops. Ray comments that their hard red wheat ran in the high 40s and low 50s. To handle the residue that NE Saskatchewan grows with these kinds of cereal crops, the Moroz's have heavy harrowed all of their acres. This should put them in good shape for direct seeding next spring!
Last season Dutch Industries put out 6 sets of these paired row openers the Moroz brothers used. Ray and Michael ran NH3 as their major source of nitrogen placing it behind the leading knife on this opener. Seed and dry fertilizer is placed in two rows behind and above the opening this knife makes. They state that they were very happy with the separation behind this opener. Rates of nitrogen were varied from 20 lbs/acre on peas to 90 lbs/acre on canola and they felt that there was no seedling damage. They also say they found a good 4 in. paired row pattern which is quite visible even in the stubble this fall. However, they do stress the need to keep seeding speed down to 4.5 mph. Ray says that it was a big adjustment to bring seeding speed down to 5 mph. when they started out in the spring because they were traditionally cultivating at 6.5 - 7 mph. By the end of the season they were down to 4.2 mph and were very pleased with the results!
One of the bugs they encountered with the openers was a weak wing structure that forms the trenches for the paired seed rows. Norman Vertefeuille with Dutch Industries says they have made some changes to this structure and after trying them out seeding some winter wheat acres he is sure they have the problem beat. The opener will be available this winter. It uses Dutch's 1640 knife with a carbide tip and a 4 in. wide paired row attachment that gives a 3.5 - 4 in. spread. Norman states that properly adjusting airflow is necessary to get maximum separation.
The air drill the Moroz's purchased was a 52 foot, 10 in. spaced machine with 550 lb. trips, 4 in. semi-pneumatic packer wheels and a tow between air tank. They pull a large 1750 gal. ammonia tank behind. John Meinhert with John Deere Seeding Group in Regina says they wanted a drill that gave good accurate depth control and very good residue clearance. After the first season he said they are very happy with the drill. The Moroz's concur with Meinhert saying that after properly leveling the unit they were very happy with the way it followed the contour of the land. They have fairly flat land but do have a number of drainage ditches and the drill performed well seeding through these.
There are a few bugs that Ray mentions such as a retainer on the depth adjustment plates and seals at the bottom of the commodity tanks but they are confident that some updates will take care of these annoying problems. Another problem they ran into was co-ordinating ammonia delivery for maximum seeding efficiency. The problem was only encountered during the spring NH3 application rush. To avoid the time spent waiting next year they hope to apply several fields of ammonia this fall to reduce dependency on dealer deliveries during this rush.
Moroz's pull their drill with a 375 hp. tractor. Ray says you might be able to get away with 25 horsepower less but there is definitely times when they needed all the power they had. They were especially happy with the DT710 radials they put on the tractor. He says they could find no compaction or emergence problems in the tire tracks. They were also pleasantly surprised with the savings in fuel costs last spring.
Ray and Michael state that there was a lot of anxiety in making such a big investment and a major change in seeding procedures but it turned out excellent.