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| Daryl Laycock of Russel, Manitoba, Canada |
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low disturbance direct seeding to basic fall tilling, the 8810
Culti-Drill can do
the job. Darryl tells us why this highly adaptable machine
is right for his farm. |
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"Our
farm is located approximately halfway between Russell and Inglis, in the Parkland
area of Manitoba, about ten miles from the Saskatchewan border.We seed approximately
3000 acres per year. Crops grown on our farm include hard
spring wheat, winter wheat, barley, oats, canola, peas, flax, caraway and forage
grasses.
On our journey towards less tillage, we switched some fields to full zero-till
but in the third year (spring of ‘99) we just couldn't get on the land.
The land was saturated the fall before and it rained and rained in the spring. I
was already in the initial stages of dealing on an air drill, but wasn't sure
that was what I wanted. One day a flyer came from Bourgault introducing the
Culti-Drill. As soon as I read it I was excited, heavier packers and the option
to remove
them and at the same time better contourability than the air drill. Contourability
is important to us as we have many knolls and ravines on our land. This seemed
to be the answer to the dilemma that I had. Immediately the dealing on the
air drill switched to dealing on an 8810 Culti-Drill.
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You are always apprehensive about a new
implement, but the spring of 2001 showed us nothing but
benefits.
- Our packing pressure on canola seemed good and it
emerged beautifully.
- The 10" spacing instead of the 8" creates
a much better seedbed as one shank doesn't cause soil
interference with that from another, therefore allowing
us to travel at 5.8 to 6.0 m.p.h. instead of the 4.5
to 5.0 m.p.h. with the 8800 and poly packers. Also, because
of the 10" spacing, you can set your implement
deeper to get to the moisture and still not compromise
seeding
depth because the ridges between shanks can be
higher.
- We had some windy days, therefore, instead of waiting
like one fellow I talked to (he sat for 6 days waiting
for the wind to go down so he could do a pre-seed burndown)
we took off the packers, put on the harrows and shovels
and kept going.
- We direct seeded peas into perennial rye-grass
sod. It was wet, so we were afraid of over packing.
We left
on the 3/4" openers, but removed the packers
and replaced them with harrows. We seeded the
crop, and then
harrowed it to level off any sod lumps pulled
up and then used a landroller.
The 8810 Culti-Drill worked beautifully. The field was
level, but all the seed furrows were soft, as the landroller’s
weight was carried on the land between seed furrows. I
think flexibility and not a one-track mind is the key.
The 8810 Culti-Drill allows this flexibility and we are
very pleased with its performance."
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Find
out more about 8810 Cultivators
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