That Darned Air Seeder

This story all started with a walk in the tree row outside of my workplace. Now if you haven't read my bio, I work as a state agricultural researcher on top of being a farmer. There are often some fun finds within the tree row or old machinery equipment line. And that is where this story takes place. I needed to stretch my legs, so I took a walk outside my office one day in March, I believe. I stumbled across a piece of equipment that I was not expecting to find. There in the tree row appeared to be what is known as an air seeder, except that this one was only 15 feet wide or so. If you aren't familiar with farm equipment, an air seeder is used to plant the crop. It is different from a box drill, however, because it does not use gravity to drive the seed into the ground. Instead, air is used to force the seed through a tube and ultimately into the ground through a shovel. Air seeders typically are larger than box drills and it is not uncommon to find a drill that is 40 feet wide or wider. So, when I found this tool, I was excited because it was something that would be useable with the current equipment and land we had. I talked to the appropriate people, and they agreed that it was not being used, so I was allowed to tow it home. Little did I know that this would soon become a project drill. I figured that I would be able to walk into John Deere and get the needed parts to repair it, however I soon learned that this had been a prototype drill and did not match the manufactured drill. As a result, I had to either make or have custom parts made.

That first year we seeded durum wheat and flax with the drill. At the time we didn't realize it, but the drill was seeding twice the rate of seed that we had desired. We realized that we ran out of seed prior to finishing the field, but we attributed it to not knowing exactly how much seed we had loaded into the drill. The second year with the drill we attempted seeding durum and peas together as an intercrop and flax. Once again, we didn't notice any major issues. One issue that this drill had was that there were no closing wheels on the back. Closing wheels are important because they make sure that the seed has adequate soil contact. I found an old Case Drill and robbed all the packing wheels. The first major upgrade that we did to the air seeder was to mount these wheels onto the existing frame. That was an intense project that took up most of the spring prior to planting. However, I found a lot of comfort and enjoyment in being able to build and fabricate on this drill.

The next year we seeded canola, and this is when we noticed problems. Canola is supposed to be seed at very low rates, like four pounds of seed per acre. I ordered enough seed to seed exactly 60 acres. However, I completed about 30 acres when I realized that I had run out of seed. That was not a good problem, because canola seed is very expensive. We had to purchase some more canola seed in order to complete our desired acreage. This made us realize that several revisions needed to be made. We spent the fall trying to figure out how to cut down the seeding rate. We would have seeded our first intercrop with the drill, however as a result of tractor issues we ended up borrowing my in-law's drill and tractor.

In year three we were able to seed 100 acres worth of crop with this drill. This was the first year that we seeded yellow peas and canola together. Because of some modifications I made, we were able to seed alternating rows. The crop turned out very well that year and I was happy to see some improvement. I began to call this "Justin's Deere", because I felt that there was very little "John" left in it. Twenty-twenty-one was the final year that we would use this drill. Our final crops included spring wheat, flax, intercropped yellow pea and canola, and intercropped yellow pea and flax. I set the drill similar to the year before, but we still had some issues with the drill using too much seed. All of these problems finally made us realize that it may be time to move on. Despite all of the headaches with this drill, we were able to make it work for us for 5 planting seasons.

In the fall we purchased much larger air seeder which gave us no-till planting capabilities. We are looking forward to being able to use the new equipment and improve our efficiency. However, we realize the importance that this custom drill played in our farming journey. Even though I had some welding experience, this drill really helped me in improving my technique. This drill also furthered our problem-solving abilities by allowing us figure out how to address the multiple complications that we encountered.