[bradinalberta]

We currently have a 76' 3320 QDA that is set up as a single shoot unit. We use a large percentage of ESN in our blend to minimize seed burn issues.

The reason we stayed away from the MRB option was the fact that our land has a lot of gravel on it. Our concern was that the abrasiveness of the gravel would excessively wear the coulter discs and our other concern was that the MRB's would have a tendency to ride up and over some of the rocks leaving the fertilizer exposed on top of the ground rather than being placed where it should be. We witnessed this a few years ago when we demoed a 3310 with MRB's to plant some winter wheat. I'm not sure how big of a deal this would be. Any rain right away would still take the bulk of the fertilizer into the ground. Maybe. Hopefully.

Does anyone out there run MRB's in similarly gravelly, abrasive conditions? We don't really have many large rocks, just a lot of gravel. Are we being overly concerned with the wear on the discs? Are they standing up to these types of conditions? Should we be worried about breaking discs? Are there any other maintenance issues we might run into with these types of conditions?

We are debating about adding MRB's to our current drill or perhaps trying a side band setup. We like the ESN and think it's a great product but the cost is getting to be quite high. We're just exploring options trying to figure out what approach we want to take for next year.

Any information that would help us with this decision would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!!

 

[nicemustang]

Chances of you breaking a disc is very slim, mrb 3s are hydraulic driven and ride over obstacles nicely. You can easily adjust pressure as well. As far as wearing, it seems the hard ground wears them out, so is the gravel ground loose? Are you typical seeding in dry conditions? I have a love hate relationship with the mrbs so I don't want to sway you either way however it works for me if you can manage your straw at harvest. As far as replacing, they aren't that costly and change very easily.

 

[KLAJB]

No gravel here but extremely abrasive soil with rocks. Coulters are holding up well after about 3000 acres of use though not sure what I should be expecting. I now need to adjust my scraper up one shim because it is starting to show below the bevel of the disk. I make a lot of turns and was concerned about the outside mrbs that push dirt during turns but they have taken quite a bit of abuse and performed well. However, I do not like the high maintenance they require. Adjusting depth/closer tines/scrapers. Greasing 4 points on every bander every 50 hours. When they are worn out it is going to cost a fortune to replace all the parts.

 

[nicemustang]

4 greasing points every 50 hours??? Where? There is one grease nipple that is twice a season.

 

[bradinalberta]

Chances of you breaking a disc is very slim, mrb 3s are hydraulic driven and ride over obstacles nicely. You can easily adjust pressure as well. As far as wearing, it seems the hard ground wears them out, so is the gravel ground loose? Are you typical seeding in dry conditions? I have a love hate relationship with the mrbs so I don't want to sway you either way however it works for me if you can manage your straw at harvest. As far as replacing, they aren't that costly and change very easily.

I wouldn't go so far as to call the gravel loose but we do have a lot of it. We have taken into consideration that as a worst case scenario we may have to change the discs every year. Might be a pain but if the end result is a better crop, it would be worth the extra time and cost.

 

[bradinalberta]

No gravel here but extremely abrasive soil with rocks. Coulters are holding up well after about 3000 acres of use though not sure what I should be expecting. I now need to adjust my scraper up one shim because it is starting to show below the bevel of the disk. I make a lot of turns and was concerned about the outside mrbs that push dirt during turns but they have taken quite a bit of abuse and performed well. However, I do not like the high maintenance they require. Adjusting depth/closer tines/scrapers. Greasing 4 points on every bander every 50 hours. When they are worn out it is going to cost a fortune to replace all the parts.

A local colony is running MRB's for the first time this year and heard that they had been breaking discs. Turning on outside rounds was a concern but glad to hear you are finding that they are standing up well.

Long term maintenance is also a concern.

 

[Don Boles]

the fact that our land has a lot of gravel on it.

If you had enough gravel you wouldn't need the drill at all.
In fact farming would become a hobby!
If it's anything like our area.

 

[bradinalberta]

If you had enough gravel you wouldn't need the drill at all.
In fact farming would become a hobby!
If it's anything like our area.

I hear ya. Just sit back and watch the gravel trucks go by eh!?!?
:54:

 

[lentilgrower]

We have fairly abrasive soil with lots of cobble rock and big rocks. The banders seem to work well where the discs ride out they seem to still penetrate some then the dirt from the openers covers it up anyway. We got about 29,000 ac on the first set of discs they are only $49/disc to replace form bourgault dealer(possibly find them cheaper after market). I thought they would last the season but did not make it so we changed them. It took 2 of use with impacts about 3 hrs to do a 55 ft drill on 10" spacing so 33 discs.

 

[stevie]

Coulters last better for bearings if you have 2 holes for greasing the hubs. Use 1/4 x 28 bolts to seal holes. If 1 hole is at bottom for taking grease ,and the other hole at the top to let air out. An artic grease flows better at slow speed. You can use a heavy needle to put grease in You can fill hub, and never push seal out.. So get a spiral tap for the cordless impact , and add an extra hole first time you services hubs

 

[bud]

I was told the MRB's use a triple lip seal, so you don't have to worry about over greasing. Dust cap is held on with a strap.

To the original question, if you have gravelly soil it is probably also sandy, so the extra safety from the MRB for fertilizer would be very important.

 

[KBF]

Bourgault actually advises to grease a bearing intil it comes out.
Lately we have been having customers knock out the liquid tubes on banders of new drills if they know they are never gonna use liquid. This give another good inch of clearance for rocks to fall through and not jam disc. Also adjust closer tines by removing the front retainer bolt and adjusting to the last hole rotating rod up. This saves a lot of rods from hard tight corners, because the rod doesn't drag as deep in the dirt and gives more.

 

[bradinalberta]

We have fairly abrasive soil with lots of cobble rock and big rocks. The banders seem to work well where the discs ride out they seem to still penetrate some then the dirt from the openers covers it up anyway. We got about 29,000 ac on the first set of discs they are only $49/disc to replace form bourgault dealer(possibly find them cheaper after market). I thought they would last the season but did not make it so we changed them. It took 2 of use with impacts about 3 hrs to do a 55 ft drill on 10" spacing so 33 discs.

Sounds like they might last quite a bit longer than we thought. Sounds like changing them out isn't that bad either. Thanks for posting.

 

[bradinalberta]

To the original question, if you have gravelly soil it is probably also sandy, so the extra safety from the MRB for fertilizer would be very important.

On the contrary we have very little sand. More of a clay base. It's mostly just areas along the hilltops that are the worst but there is quite a bit of that. There are some areas that are pretty gravelly on the flat too but mostly just the hills.

 

[bradinalberta]

When using MRB's are guys placing all the phos down the seed tube and all the nitrogen and sulphur down the MRB or is anyone just running one blend and placing the small tank down the seed tube and the large tank down the MRB hose?

 

[bigblue]

When using MRB's are guys placing all the phos down the seed tube and all the nitrogen and sulphur down the MRB or is anyone just running one blend and placing the small tank down the seed tube and the large tank down the MRB hose?

I apply a safe amount of P with the seed, and if more is required I send additional P down the MRBs with the N and S.


My neighbour runs one blend and puts a small amount with the seed and the rest down the MRBs.


I'm pretty sure both ways will grow a crop (but my way is better, of course :22.

 

[KLAJB]

Sorry I was wrong. The four parallel arm grease points are 100 hour

 

[cat man]

When using MRB's are guys placing all the phos down the seed tube and all the nitrogen and sulphur down the MRB or is anyone just running one blend and placing the small tank down the seed tube and the large tank down the MRB hose?

x

When planting peas I will put 15lbs of P down the seed tube and if any more P is required it will go down the bander tube. So a large and a small tank of P

When planting Small grain all P will go down seed tube all other nutrients will go down bander tube.

 

[kauppfarms]

Are we by chance talking Del Bonita country here?

Assuming it is, we're running with MRBs just east of you with success. As far as maintenance I can tell you that we haven't had to switch a single disc due to rocks in three years, and have generally not had a single problem outside of the odd broken ram since Bourgault upgraded the bankers to the new style. A set of discs with last 20-25000 acres. Just gotta keep an eye on the position of the scrapers and seed tubes and adjust every so often. Also we run our discs in quite deep.

I could maybe see the concerns about the discs riding over the gravelly spots but I haven't really noticed it myself. On the other hand the gravelly spots aren't going to be overly productive anyhow and they'll still get some dirt cover from the openers.

On Fert we go all NS on MRB and phos in seed tube, although we throw a small amount of s in the seed tube on wheat.

 

[bradinalberta]

How deep are guys placing the N with the MRB's?