One Pass No Till Air Drill

One Pass No Till Air Drill AIR SEEDERS Air Seeders (42B) 17-1-25 Ed Lutz, Yorkton, Sask., converted a brand new 45-ft. Case-IH air hoe drill to no-till by stacking liquid fertilizer manifolds on top of the drill's seed distributor manifolds and building a liquid fertilizer caddy that he pulls behind the drill, allowing him to plant no-till and apply fertilizer in the same pass. The air drill was originally equipped with seven seed distributor manifolds. Lutz built seven new fertilizer distributor manifolds and mounted them directly above the seed manifolds. A ground-driven pump sends liquid fertilizer from the caddy's 1,250-gal. tank up through hoses to each fertilizer manifold. "It lets us go over the ground only once without having to make a separate pass to apply fertilizer," says Lutz, who added the caddy and extra manifolds to the drill last year with the help of his son Bob. "We bought the air hoe drill six years ago and had been seeding into conventionally tilled ground, then deep banding liquid fertilizer in a separate pass. This system now lets us plant into standing stubble and apply liquid fertilizer with the seed at the same high rates that we used when deep banding. We've reduced costs while maintaining the same yields or even increasing them. "We used it last year to no-till 2,000 acres of wheat, oats, barley, flax and peas. It worked great. Liquid fertilizer is placed slightly to the side of the seed where it won't cause any damage. We apply 75 lbs. per acre of actual nitrogen. Liquid fertilizer costs a little more than thy fertilizer but is easier to handle and goes right to work the minute it's in the ground without having to dissolve rust. There's no dust and no augers to wear out, and we don't have to worry about rain. "The air drill was equipped with a ptodriven hydraulic pump that powered the blower. However, our 4-WD tractor doesn't have a pto shaft. To solve the problem we mounted a 30 hp Belarus tractor engine on front of the drill which belt-drives the pump. It works great. We bought the engine from a neighbor for $800 and spent $1,400 more to build the caddy and manifolds. "After we're done seeding, we use the fertilizer caddy as a sprayer by mounting a 91-ft. spray boom behind it and hitching it up directly to the tractor. The tongue has a 21/2-in. dia. ball hitch. It works like a fifth wheel trailer which makes it very maneuverable. A hydraulic-driven pump mounts on the caddy for spraying. When seeding with the 45-ft. air drill we overlap 1 ft. on every other round. The extra growth in the 1-ft. wide strip provides a marker for the 91-ft. sprayer to follow." Lutz used a 5-in. dia., 21/2-in. thick solid aluminum disc to make each fertilizer manifold. He drilled out eleven 1/2-in. dia. holes around the outside of the disc and threaded the holes to accept the hose fittings. He drilled a 3/4-in. dia. hole up through the bottom for the main hose from the caddy. He bolted the manifold to a rectangular steel frame that clamps to the seed distributor manifold. A valve mounted on the drill frame under each manifold allows Lutz to shut off the supply of fertilizer to the hoses whenever the drill is folded for transport. Lutz used the front drive axles and wheel rims off a pair of old Cockshutt combines to build the caddy. He cut 1 ft. off each side of the axles and welded 5-in. sq. steel tubing between the axle stubs. He used 3 by 6-in. sq. steel tubing to build the caddy frame and 2 by 3-in. sq. tubing to make the hitch which attaches to the main frame of the planter. The hitch allows the caddy's front wheels to flex up and down so that the tank's weight is distributed equally on all four wheels. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Ed Lutz, Box 213, Yorkton, Sask., Canada S3N 2V7 (ph 306 273-4207).

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.