[Gregg]

Having an issue with our new 550 bu cart. In oats especially now that the crop is up, we are seeing blank spots just after the drill has been sunk into the ground. It will be 1 or 2 manifolds each time, seed will flow for a few feet, then there will be a 6 to 8ft complete blank spot, then seed will have flowed again. After we bought the drill this winter we were warned these would have issues with oat dust building up and stopping seed flow. We clean our own seed so went as far as using our belt conveyors for all seed handling after processing to reduce amount of dust, but the issue started in our 1st field. Deere wondered how many acs we had seeded before this started, I had to tell them 1 round! Some pretty poor engineering it would appear to me. I have no idea how these drills may work with something like perenial ryegrass or something like that. Anyone else have such issues? Solution?

 

[RichM]

We were having a similar problem with it blocking up where the seed goes around the top set of pipes under the meter to get to the bottom. We swapped the hoses around at the back of the cart so the seed comes out through the top pipe and doesn't have to flow around it to get to the bottom. This cured our problems.

 

[dschill]

1. Are you 100% certain the tanks are sealed? and pressure equal? That is usually 99% of the time the issue. Check all your tank lids for leaks.

2. Check and be sure tank pressure hoses aren't plugged.

3. Check seal on the roller cartridge. Check for leaks around cartridge.

How dusty are your oats?? I've seen where a tremendous amount of static electricity can play havoc and the oats actually stick to the rollers as if they were damp.

 

[Don Boles]

Didn't know Deere built a 550 cart.
If some sort of air problem it's usually consistent.

 

[Thekennel]

Which roller were you using for the oats. We use to have the same problem but found that if you use the green roller it fixed the problem

 

[NairibinFarms]

The smaller the roller the better as long a it still feeds. The quicker it's spins the less chance of getting the pulsating effect more even distribution dropped into the manifolds. But this is an easy fix so presuming you would of already have done that anyway.

 

[keystone]

Not had that issue with clean oats, bin run for neighbors greenfeed metered ok but manifolds would plug up with straw after a while. I use blue roller 95 lbs/a single shoot with fertilizer as well.

 

[Andrew_D]

Couple local guys had this happen with seeding oats. Random blank spots in the field.

Andrew

P.S. Don: JD released the 550 last year I believe. Big compartments, but nothing small to put canola or inoculant in. In other words, Deere missed the boat on this one AGAIN!

 

[Don Boles]

Thanks Andrew.
I spent no time at Deere in FPS Regina, guess it shows.

 

[tmk]

Oats and canola can have a hang up on the rollers with static build up . Go to your Deere dealer and pickup a couple of bottles of powdered dry GRAPHITE . Give a small shot every now and then as you are filling the tank . We keep a bottle on the catwalk when seeding canola and also use it when seeding forage seeds in our Valmar . How it works is beyond me but it does . Hope this helps .

 

[chicken wing]

Haven't heard of putting graphite in. I put a bit of talc in all plastic hoppers. 1910s and ccs. It seems to work for grass seed.

 

[Blue Oval Man]

Thanks Andrew.
I spent no time at Deere in FPS Regina, guess it shows.

Didn't miss much. Goofy add on filling auger extender for under semis and another debut of complicated sectional control. The filling auger is hydraulic now so no more body building setting it up into position.

 

[elcharrua]

Hi I'm kind of new with these carts too but I just finished our Winter season drilling here in South America and I got to do about 1400 acres of oats and I also had the same problem with plugging up the rollers most of the time was the same one but as the tanks got lower the problem got worst but it only happens with oats since I also drilled wheat about another 1300 and barley no problems only plugged with oats I think it's beacause its too light.
It dones't happen all the time I have a 250bu cart and I filled both tanks, we were only applying about 44lb per acres or 50kg per hectareas which its not much and since I had sensonr in all lines I new as soon as they got plugged it was always 1 or 2 runs at a time all I had to do was removing the rollers clean em up let the oats run out of the bottom of the tanks a bit and it was all good again for a while.

I use one tank at a time because if one tank doesnt feed one run I wouldnt know cause the other still feeding some and the sensors wouldnt tell the difference, I set both tanks at the same rate and have the rear one use first then shut it off then use the front one.

I know oats was kind of a pain in the neck to drill but this has only happened to me with oats its not the tank I think,ohh I'm using green rollers I think using bigger roller might also help or maybe removeing the rings on the rollers, I have like 4 and 5 rings on the rollers since my 1890 machine it has 8 towers.

 

[Andrew_D]

ohh I'm using green rollers I think using bigger roller might also help or maybe removeing the rings on the rollers, I have like 4 and 5 rings on the rollers since my 1890 machine it has 8 towers.

If all of your towers have the same number of runs, you can remove the rings. Rings are just used to equalize the rate between towers with different numbers of runs.

Andrew

 

[Haystack]

I think too many rings in the centre would generally be the problem with long light seeds. It makes for short flutes on each side of the rings. We built a custom roller for sunflowers with the rings at the sides leaving the exposed flute all in the centre. Prior to this the thing drove us nuts in sunflowers. Again it's not a corporate recommendation, but they don't pay their share holders with sunflowers either.

 

[elcharrua]

If all of your towers have the same number of runs, you can remove the rings. Rings are just used to equalize the rate between towers with different numbers of runs.

Andrew

Yep you'r right,, tower 1 and 8 have 8 runs all other 6 have 7 runs each thats why run 1 and 8 have 1 less ring than the other 6 but still too many rings to let the oats run smoothly I was gonna remove em all and leave only 1 ring on the 1 and 8 run but never got to it was waiting to rain to do it then I jet kept seeding and I finished kind of a pain doing it too cause then we had to go back to seeding wheat I would have to put them back on not very fun!!! but I think that would have worked great

 

[Haystack]

I wouldn't take all of the tuning rings off of the yellow roller. The transmission speed would likely end up as less than 10 in some situations. That's likely too slow for the pitch between the flutes to plant evenly down the length of the row.

All of the other coloured rollers have even greater pitches, so theoretically need even higher minimum transmission speeds. Sometimes this doesn't seem like it would happen until the day you use two tanks to simultaneously make up one application rate.

 

[mbjets]

There is a high and low speed agitater setting that can be set on the right side of the cart. Newer 1910's may be different but on our 1910 you remove a bolt attached to the agitater arm near the centre of the drive sprocket and move it to the other one. High speed agitation is supposed to be used for oats and barley. Everything else can be on low speed.

 

[Gregg]

We were using the green roller in oats. It appears we had the same thing happening in some of our canola to a lesser degree. Deere guy asked which seed treatment was on the seed so this told me they had seen some other issues. We used to seed with a 6350 Bourgault, seemed simple, dump seed in, calibrate and go seed. The Deere was great on accuracy, but sure has a lot more stuff to clean up, and just seems a fair bit fussier to work with. Hopefully year 2 will be a little simpler.