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Western Canada | We have been running this drill 2 years now and really like it for its precision depth control and seed placement as far as air drills go. We have however noticed a lack of emergence in the air cart tracks. Drill is a 42.5Ft on 7.5 inch spacing and the cart is a TBH 350bushel two compartment with single 21.5 castors on the front and single 28L26 R3 tires on the rear. It really shows up in our canola since that's such a low seeding rate.
I'm not too convinced yet its the typical soil compaction of having a loaded air cart and having too much weight per square inch since the emergence problem is almost exactly the same whether the cart is fully loaded or close to empty. Also it doesn't seem to matter whether seeding into powder dry conditions or good moisture (too wet doesn't happen here). It appears the mere act of having tires run on top of seeded ground causes a huge reduction in emergence. It shows up on the headlands the worst since then all the weight of the tractor and drill are also driving on seeded rows since my habit is to seed headlands first so I have a target of when to turn the drill on and off.
Now I know not to bother too much looking at tracks on headlands where the tractor has been as that is usually not that good anyway, but the moment the openers are out of the ground at the headland even the wings dual castors show emergence problems while turning on the headland or anywhere else it goes across seeded rows. The wings on an 1890 isn't exactly a lot of weight per square inch to cause compaction when its bone dry. Also doesn't seem to matter whether its direct seeded or worked ground much either.
The only solution I can come up with right now is to seed headlands last and maybe put openers in tire tracks a bit shallower and at some point switch over to a TBT cart as it appears the openers don't have have trouble penetrating our sandy loam soil. Anyone else run into something like this? | |
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Deere 1890/1910 Compaction/Emergence Mystery?
