He Likes VW Openers

He Likes VW Openers DRILLS Larry Monson Monson Family Farms Wolf Point Mont: “I installed 60 triple opener seed tubes from VW on my New Holland P2060 air drill in 2013 ph 406 460-3810; www vwmfg com What caught my attention about this product was the fact that the point that goes in the ground is flared to put seed in 2 rows 3 1/2 in apart Some manufacturers have wider points but the seed gets scattered The seed comes out evenly on these at a uniform depth so the seedlings emerge uniformly For the past 10 years I had used a paired seed boot that placed the seed behind the shank It had a separate opener in front called the ‘stealth’ This system required more maintenance as parts wore out faster “Another unique feature I like on the VW opener is the square tube on the back that has 2 pieces of 1/4-in tubing inside They end up just above where the paired seed comes out I use these tubes to inject liquid phosphorus It’s applied real close to the seed but not on it With the other boot I had injected liquid right on the seed and it made a mess I was also limited on how much I could apply because it was going right on the seed “I use the main fertilizer tube on the VW boot to apply liquid nitrogen about 1/2 in deeper than the seed This boot is smaller more efficient and without as much drag It has carbide surfaces on the point the underside and back edges so it shows a lot less wear The only complaint I have is that the liquid tubes weren’t uniformly cut or mounted in the same place They were off by 1/4 to 1/2 in which caused some plugging in wet soil conditions “I really like the way this point pulls in the ground and the fact it puts on 2 different types of liquid fertilizer at once Canola which is planted fairly shallow is very important to have at a uniform depth and these points do an outstanding job I also used the points in the fall of 2013 to plant winter wheat on CRP ground that had been worked with a Summers vertical tillage tool The seed was well distributed and the young plants came up very uniformly “I spent about $17 500 on these openers for my 60-ft drill and this included 5 extra points and 2 additional seed bodies and I hope to plant about 10 000 acres with them I had 5 of the points break on the outer back edges when I hit rocks This is a bit concerning because I never broke a point or seed boot on my old Flexi-Coil system although they did wear out faster ”

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