Out With The Air Drill and In With.....?

[Andrew_D]

Well, a quick search showed little difference between Class A (BG) and Class B distribution (Seedhawk, JD, etc.) systems: http://www.bourgault.com/LinkClick.a...language=en-US on Canola.

This one: Bourgault Air Seeder Pulse Seed Handling showed very little damage in pulses, a crop that I would have expected to see more damage!

Now having said that, if using single shoot and cranking up the air so that the fert doesn't plug the lines, those seeds would be slamming around more than a double shoot/double fan system where the air speed for the seed could be slowed right down.

Andrew

[Haystack]

Andrew, I doubt if the velocity that the seed is actually moving would be much different even though the fan speed would need to be higher. I think the air pressure is higher but the product will travel at about the same speed. It's only when the product velocity drops below a certain threshold that it is inclined to stop in the line. Any velocity just above having stopages, would be fine I would think.

[ninety420]

I would be leary of a 3310 without using mrbs. They seem to work best using only a small opener on the shank. Other wise with a wider gouger going into the ground the opener just keeps going deeper because there is no firm ground for the packer/gauge wheel to ride on. Just sayin

[Andrew_D]

Originally Posted by ninety420

I would be leary of a 3310 without using mrbs.

Since I put my NH3 down in the fall, there's no point in using MRB's. If I used them for the PKS blend, it would be too far from the seed. MRB's are for Nitrogen. If I ever go to single pass, I'll switch to MRB's in a heartbeat for N placement. PKS needs to be closer to the seed.

Originally Posted by ninety420

They seem to work best using only a small opener on the shank. Other wise with a wider gouger going into the ground the opener just keeps going deeper because there is no firm ground for the packer/gauge wheel to ride on.

Hmmm... I never thought of that. So any idea how wide an opener would be too wide?

I just checked on Dutch's website and I see sideband is 1 3/4" wide, paired row can be either 2 1/2" or 3 1/2" wide. So assuming that the widest packer wheel was used (5 1/2"), that would still allow at least 1" on each side of the packer on firm ground. Is that a wide enough packer?

As a side note, Dutch also offers single shoot in 3/4" - 4" wide.

Andrew

[Andrew_D]

Today, I looked at that Morris C2 I spoke of earlier. It was folded up, but 3-section, about 35-40 feet I'd guess. It's getting a brand new JD1910 3-compartment air cart with conveyor. The twin row spread is about 3 1/2" (Morris calls it a 4" opener). It uses a 5.5" semi-pneumatic packer. That's a factory option available on both the C1 and C2 from what I could find.

Does anyone here have experience with that setup? Does the packer stay up on top OK, or fall down in the trench?

As far as C2 vs. Paralink.....I think the Paralink looks heavier, overall better built. I was surprised by how low the hitch attaches to the frame. (About 12" below the main frame.) Is this common among drills today? (All? Just independent opener machines?) I tried googling a front picture of a Paralink, but couldn't find a good one to see what it looks like.

Still like the flat fan distributors.

The 4x4 bar at the rear for hooking up the cart looks questionable. It's bolted side-to-side to the 8x8 beams going to the rear wheels. Also has braces going forward to the rear 4x4 on the main frame in 2 places. I was hoping to see some angled braces too, but maybe that would interfere with raising the openers???

Andrew

[ninety420]

I was told max width of the opener should be no more then 50% of the packer tire. So with a 5.5 packer that would only be 2.25 wide. I'm only repeating what I heard from a guy who had one of the first para links and tried to use to wide an opener and had no end of depth control issues. Also he said the paralink was bad for stepping the first rank when using the wide opener. Dirt from the second and third ranks was placed on top of the first rank and made the seed placement to deep in the first rank row. They found that that was another reason to use a narrower boot as it didn't throw as much dirt.

[Panther325]

The 1870 packer has the most pressure on the center which is over the fertilizer. The seed is actually pressed by the side of the packer when using the paired row point. By adjusting the depth of the fertilizer point and the seed boot independent of each other plus the variable packing pressure you can adjust very precisely to all seeding conditions.I have used mine for notill to conventional summer fallow with very good results.

[jt]

Originally Posted by Andrew_D

Today, I looked at that Morris C2 I spoke of earlier. It was folded up, but 3-section, about 35-40 feet I'd guess. It's getting a brand new JD1910 3-compartment air cart with conveyor. The twin row spread is about 3 1/2" (Morris calls it a 4" opener). It uses a 5.5" semi-pneumatic packer. That's a factory option available on both the C1 and C2 from what I could find.

Does anyone here have experience with that setup? Does the packer stay up on top OK, or fall down in the trench?

As far as C2 vs. Paralink.....I think the Paralink looks heavier, overall better built. I was surprised by how low the hitch attaches to the frame. (About 12" below the main frame.) Is this common among drills today? (All? Just independent opener machines?) I tried googling a front picture of a Paralink, but couldn't find a good one to see what it looks like.

Still like the flat fan distributors.

The 4x4 bar at the rear for hooking up the cart looks questionable. It's bolted side-to-side to the 8x8 beams going to the rear wheels. Also has braces going forward to the rear 4x4 on the main frame in 2 places. I was hoping to see some angled braces too, but maybe that would interfere with raising the openers???

Andrew

Mate I've seen the 80ft Contour pull the 8650XL TBH cart and that hitch is fine. If you look at the manufacture of the Morris openers they are mortised & tenon style which gives increased strength plus they mount them to the frame with steel straps not U bolts like the others. Guys that use the paired row Morris system here typically run the 4.8" semi-pneumatic packers and they work fine also with the outer square profile giving excellent packing on the seed, but you need to watch speed, anything over 8kph and you'll start getting a lot of soil throw. The Morris also has the easiest depth settings with the cam and pin set up.

[weedkiller]

Originally Posted by Don Boles

In this area drills seem to cycle, in the mid '90s it was 75% Flexi-Coil, no Deere, no Morris, 10% Bourgault and assorted the rest.
Today it's probably 60% Bourgault, 15% Deere, 10% CNH (and falling) 5% Morris, assorted the rest.
No scientific data, just a SWAG.

Here in the Dakotas, I'd say 60% Deere, 20% Bourgault, 15% CNH, 5% assorted. Bourgault seems to be getting more popular. We have been running Deere 1860's and now an 1895. The 1895 is about as high maintenance as a planter, but does a great job. We spend about a month per winter going through it and replacing whatever it needs. Now we are converting it to liquid MRB's to go along with the stock dry MRB's and pulling an extra tank behind the 1910. From the front of the hitch to the back of the liquid cart is 95'.

The only time I have used it in tilled ground is when we chissel a rough field three times the fall before, then run a field cultivator in the spring, then our 1895. I had to run some down pressure in order to get the discs to turn, but by doing so, it left ruts for every opener. It did a poor job seeding, but wheat is forgiving. The yield on that field was only 5bu less than average.

[farmforlife]

andrew that morris three plex will be either 40 or 47, i don't think it comes any smaller.