Big Wheel Drills Help Plant Into High-Residue Fallow Ground

Big Wheel Drills Help Plant Into High-Residue Fallow Ground DRILLS The 36-in packer wheels on a 5 000-lb 8-ft wide deep furrow drill prototype in Washington caught the attention of farmers who are used to 26-in wheels on 1 800-lb drills But bigger wheels and other modifications appear to be what farmers need in that area Researchers at Washington State University and product developers at The McGregor Company Equipment Manufacturing Division tested modified equipment last summer that will be tweaked and tried again this year Farmers on about 3 5 million acres in east-central Washington and north-central Oregon deal with unique growing conditions They plant wheat as deep as 7 in with deep furrow drills to reach moisture in tilled summer fallow ground The region receives only 6 to 12 in of annual precipitation Soils are sandy silt loams With fine soil particles wind erosion is a huge problem so conservation tillage is advised — specifically leaving as much wheat stubble on the surface as possible The soil lies fallow for 13 months between crops “The problem is the current deep-furrow drills farmers have were designed in 1966 and they can’t pass through a lot of residue ” explains Bill Schillinger professor and director at WSU’s Dryland Research Station “Farmers are reluctant to practice conservation tillage because they are afraid of plugging their drills at planting time Since there’s such a short planting window they can’t afford to deal with plugged drills ” Taller packer wheels with higher axles help prevent residue from building up and plugging the drill The WSU researchers and McGregor developers are experimenting with various size packer wheels some split some solid wider rows from 16 to 24 in and various styles of residue-cutting coulters in front of the seed openers Despite some bugs in last year’s experiments farmers are eager to use the larger modified equipment in the future “The key to this whole thing is to allow farmers in tillage-based fallow with high residue to successfully seed through the residue with no drawbacks The payoff is that with heavy residue the soil won’t blow away ” Schillinger says Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Bill Schillinger Washington State University Dryland Research Station P O Box B Lind Wash 99341 ph 509 235-1933; www lindstation wsu edu

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