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Morris Contour One Opener

2968 Views 13 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  northernfarmer
I have owned a Morris Contour One for 10 years. I have 12 inch spacing and have been using the Morris 4 inch paired row openers. My packer wheels are relatively flat and 4.8 inches wide. I seed at about 4.5 mph. I put down my Nitrogen in another pass so i use it as a single shoot drill. I seed spring wheat, canola, flax, and soybeans.
I do not like the Morris openers because they move a lot of dirt, leave a terrible field finish, wear out quickly, and are cumbersome to change. Despite these characteristics, the drill has raised some pretty good crops.

Late this spring on a local classified add, I purchased Bourgault bodies for the C1 with 1 inch tips. I used them at the end of the seeding season. I thought the tips left a trench and my relatively flat packer wheels rode up on sides of the seed trench and didn't really do any packing where the seed was placed.

I talked to the Bourgault Tillage Tool Representative and he recommended trying either a 2 inch, 3 inch, or 4 inch spread tip. He gave me one of each tip and wanted me to experiment and see which one worked best. They are in the $150 - $170 price range.

Another option is to keep the 1 inch tips and buy the V-shaped packer wheel that Morris makes and hope that it packs better and pushes more dirt into the seed trench. They are $149 each.

I need help... have any of you found the right solution for an opener on a C1?
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How did your crop come up with the 1 inch tips? I had a C1 and hated the paired row as well for all the reasons you listed. 2 years ago moved to a BG with 1 inch tips and the round packer wheels. I was told I should change to the V packers. I think the round ones work fine. If your crop came up ok I wouldn't worry about it. V packers also supposedly wear out faster.
We went from a Morris hoe drill with 7.5 in spacing to the C1. Our yields have only gotten better over the years but we farm different as well. You pretty much need at least a 12 in spacing with paired row and independent openers. The dirt throw is already awful at 12. We put down N with the seed so had no choice but to use paired row. If you were more comfortable with a 2 inch opener instead of a 1 inch it would still be a good improvement over the 4 inch. The BG we have now is 10 inch spacing with MRB's. It is a nice improvement over the C1 but it's a much more complicated drill. It places the seed where I want it, the seed gets covered with dirt and the packer wheel does whatever packing it can do and creates the seed row. I've never worried about how much packing it's actually doing. Depending on conditions I usually have the down pressure pretty high. If the seed is going into moisture, it's going to germinate. No reason your C1 would be any different.
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