[Farmboy332]

I demo a Horsch planter last year and seeded at half the rate. The canola did not look the greatest growing compared to the conventional seeded. Unfortunately I was not able to get a very good yield comparison as the field was hailed on, but what was there the yield looked to about the same. I was wondering if anybody has any experience growing canola with a planter and how do they fertilize. Do you make a extra pass in the field or converted the planter into one pass like the air drill. I think there might be a future on the farm for a planter if I could make a one pass system.
Any thoughts or experiences you have I sure would like to hear them.

 

[wetfarmer]

I did it for a few years and the stands were beautiful. I just put my phosphate on in the fall before tillage and everything else in spring with a spreader. In those days, the years when my name wet farmer described the weather here, rain was plentiful and chased us right out of the canola business by drowning every canola crop we grew for almost a decade. So I can't really tell you about the yields except to say that the various ways I seeded in those days always seemed to yield the same. That being said the problem here is expensive seed, unreasonably expensive and a stupid reason to be changing to a planter. Talk about the Tail wagging the Dog.

 

[Windmillfarms]

sad truth is canola seed is not going to get any cheaper.
we plant all our canola, we did split in 15, and switched 100 percent to planter for 2016.
we put all our fertilizer on in fall (when it is cheaper most of the time anyways) and if we don't get the chance to we spray 28 on with sprayer and spread S15 on with the amazon so we stay in the same sprayer tracks, if it doesn't rain we harrow right after the application to blacken up the soil and incorporate the fertilizer.

never want to equip the planter as a 1 pass system.
1. nothing beats taking the planter to the field with a half tonne and plant 400 acres in a day without anybody there.
2. putting fert on in fall saves soil compaction in spring.
3. canola seed doesn't like salt in furrow.

started planting canola at 2.5 lbs, and we've been able to go as low as 1.5 if fields are smooth and its a warm spring.
if you don't feel like making the effort of making a separate pass for fertilizer than maybe don't use a planter to do canola, a disc drill might be more up your alley and use MRB for better fertilizer placement i'm sure a well set disc drill can go as low as 3 lbs if a guy takes the time to set it up

 

[DDF]

The comment has been discussed on here quite a bit. When I see pictures like Windmillfarms', making the switch becomes very tempting!

Pros
-For me the biggest pro (other than seed savings) would be the ability to use row cleaners, especially in corn residue.
-I also assume emergence would be quicker.
-Possibly more air movement through rows would lower disease pressure

Possible cons
-Multiple herbicide passes? Most of the time one Liberty pass is enough for me, I assume a planted crop would need a second most of the time?
-Flea beetles. I assume a guy would have to react quicker with insecticide if pressure starts?
-Spring Frost. Fewer plants would maybe increase re-seed due to frost damage?

 

[torriem]

Bourgault claims to now have the holy grail. An air seeder that plants like a planter. Advantages of fertlizer in the midrow banders, singulated seed in the rows. Air Planter™

For us having a one pass operation to fertilize and seed canola is pretty important. We don't have the time and man power to do multiple passes, even if you do some of them in the fall. We've been putting most of our fertilizer in the double shoot boot for years and haven't ever had emergence problems from salt burn.

A couple of years ago Farming Smarter did a brief study on different canola planting methods and they found mortality and emergence were nearly the same for all methods, which really surprised me. Further they found mortality was as high as 40% in their plots, even with planters. I wonder if some of the problems with air drills are as much to do with too high of ground speed and therefore depth variability, as much as they have to do with any kind of damage in the distributors and seed boots. We never seed faster than 4 mph.

I admit the planted rows look really nice! We'll eventually move to a planter mainly because the seed companies are pushing their growers in that direction.

 

[Windmillfarms]

We had bayer out in 2017 to “verify” why we bought double the amount of liberty than we normally would. We ran into rain right after we finished planting and we didn't get a pre emerge done with roundup. We opted to spray liberty twice because there were some volunteer weeds and the buckwheat was an issue.
When we seeded with a hoedrill we sometimes had to spray twice with liberty as well, and i see lots of guys spraying twice with disc-drills as well. We don’t always make 2 herbicides app, in 2020 we only did 1 herbicide app.

As for bourgault claiming to have an airplanter, i dont think itll work, he hose is too long, the discdrill only has 1 gauge wheel and seed damage will be an issue.

Not even on the best day would you get the seed mortality like a planter with a disc drill. Bayer had a mortality rate of 89-96 percent on our corn stubble and 96-98 on soybean stubble. There was a reason bayer has set up their seeding rate to accommodate towards planters, its what they think that should be used in the future. And their seed pricing is sure heading that way 😡

 

[shmiffy]

Since I’ve got a case p500, I’ve been cutting my seeding rate back every year down to 2.45 lbs an acre. There has been good flea beetles pressure around slews and field edges. Probably should seed alittle heavier in those spots but I haven’t. I’ve been getting the small seed or A bags. Seed survival has been well over 85%

 

[RRValleyfarmer]

I demo a Horsch planter last year and seeded at half the rate. The canola did not look the greatest growing compared to the conventional seeded. Unfortunately I was not able to get a very good yield comparison as the field was hailed on, but what was there the yield looked to about the same. I was wondering if anybody has any experience growing canola with a planter and how do they fertilize. Do you make a extra pass in the field or converted the planter into one pass like the air drill. I think there might be a future on the farm for a planter if I could make a one pass system.
Any thoughts or experiences you have I sure would like to hear them.

Some of the older planters won’t plant canola very well. We have a new holland sp580(case 1200) and it was a disaster when we tried. It is a bulk fill will the old style mini hoppers so we can’t put seed in right at the row. The screens on the hoppers have two big of holes, so it blows canola out of them. They would all have to be replaced with newer screens. The sensors on older case planters can not sense canola so we do not know if it can plant. Back to the bulk fill, because we can’t level seed at the hopper, there is somewhere between 1 and 2 bags left in the planter when we are done. Having said that, we are interested in upgrading planters to plant canola.

 

[DDF]

As for bourgault claiming to have an airplanter, i dont think itll work

I agree. It might be okay with cereals and canola, but I cringe when then actually suggest using it for corn.
Windmill, what are your thoughts on canola on 20" rows?

 

[torriem]

Why wouldn't it work with corn? It's got singulation plates just like a planter. Corn and soybeans were the main crops the singulation system was designed for. Time will tell of course, but I can't see much wrong with the machine other than cost and complexity, both of which might be its downfall.

 

[DDF]

Why wouldn't it work with corn? It's got singulation plates just like a planter. Corn and soybeans were the main crops the singulation system was designed for. Time will tell of course, but I can't see much wrong with the machine other than cost and complexity, both of which might be its downfall.

It is difficult to tell in the Bourgault literature, but I think the lines from the meter to opener are quite long, and maybe even vary in length.
It is hard to believe, but in a conventional planter there is opportunity for seed to bounce around in a short seed tube before it is planted. So even if perfect singulation is created by the meter, there is opportunity for the spacing to be off. The latest planter technology now tries to eliminate that with the use of a belt that carries the seed right from meter to the ground.
Seed bounce in a planter tube isn't a huge problem, but I just see way more opportunity for it to be a problem in the Air Plant system.
I'm a big Bourgault fan, I hope they aced it, but I'm sceptical in a corn application. Maybe it will be okay for silage acres?

 

[8850Champion]

It is difficult to tell in the Bourgault literature, but I think the lines from the meter to opener are quite long, and maybe even vary in length.
It is hard to believe, but in a conventional planter there is opportunity for seed to bounce around in a short seed tube before it is planted. So even if perfect singulation is created by the meter, there is opportunity for the spacing to be off. The latest planter technology now tries to eliminate that with the use of a belt that carries the seed right from meter to the ground.
Seed bounce in a planter tube isn't a huge problem, but I just see way more opportunity for it to be a problem in the Air Plant system.
I'm a big Bourgault fan, I hope they aced it, but I'm sceptical in a corn application. Maybe it will be okay for silage acres?

Also the single disc opener most likely wouldn't create quite as nice or uniform a trench as your typical corn planter... would be really interesting to see some side by sides with a "normal" planter. If it has close enough performance to a planter then it could be a homerun in the canola/fringe corn belt.

 

[mayo]

Seedmaster Ultrapro metering on the UltraSR drill. TKW 4.
Seeded at 2.3lbs per acre.