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Northeastern Pa. | Yes and no. I have been no-tilling for 35 years and do custom planting and combining. I don't know your soil or conditions. I have always used coulters. The old AC 333 had coulters that you could raise to any position you wanted. I would adjust those as needed. I then switched to a JD with frame mtd. and it was hard to adj. them. I carry a battery impact wrench to adj. them if I need to. I only run the coulters at or just below the depth of my seed V coulters in most normal conditions. There are a few unit mounted planters that the conservation office rents out. They will not work good in heavy sod. I have been hired on occasion to plant where they can't. I have a customer along the river who has good pope soil but has gravel layers running through it on knolls etc. He went to some meetings where they suggested you didn't need coulters. He removed them. I combined his corn and he lost a lot of yield where the true V would not plant good in the gravel. I suggested he might want to put them back on. He had very even and good stands last year. So your question is tough to answer. All the hype about precision farming and no-till is great but why not come up with a simple way of changing coulter depth. I guess that maybe out there on some of the high end planters if it's in a guys budget. Just running or not running the coulters is just part of properly setting up a planter for no-till. If you run fertilizer on the planter your weight will decrese as you plant. Your coulter depth could decrese as your fertilizer runs down. Adjusting closing wheel pressure and type of closing wheels used all makes a difference too. I would try it in different conditions and really watch it very close. Like in and out of the tractor non stop. I really think leaving them on and properly adjusting them is a big insurance policy of a good stand ! | |
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No-till coulters yes or no?
