No-Till Drill Lifts Stubble Over Seed

No-Till Drill Lifts Stubble Over Seed NO-TILL EQUIPMENT No-Till Equipment 21-4-39 A British farmer-inventor thinks he may have found the best design yet for a one-pass planter, according to Farmer's Weekly Magazine. John Gossop, who farms in East York-shire, England, tried numerous no-till planters before coming up with a totally new approach. He wanted to completely avoid having to plant into crop residue and didn't like any of the exising methods available for moving it out of the way. So he designed a machine that looks somewhat like a potato harvester. It has a set of tillage shovels up front that dig down to a depth of about 5 in., lifting all soil and crop residue onto a chain conveyor that moves rapidly upward at a steep incline. On the way up, soil sifts down through the chain slats. At the top of the conveyor, all material left drops onto a horizontal moving sieve with larger openings that allow clods and rocks to fall through. Anything that doesn't fall through the screens, is thrown off the back of the sieve. By the time the last material reaches the ground, the crop has already been planted into clean soil by the rear-mounted grain drill. Following the drill openers, a row of rubber tires pack the ground and also support the back end of the machine. All drive components on the machine are mechanical, although Gossop plans to add hydraulic drives to his second prototype. That would allow the operator to adjust conveyor speed to ground speed. Ground speed and conveyor speed must be synchronized for the planter to work properly, notes Gossop, who says he can plant about 3 acres per hour with the 6 ft., 6 in. wide planter behind an 80 hp. tractor. He plans to build a wider model later this year. "There is very little moisture loss from the soil, and straw residues and soil are thoroughly mixed," says Gossop. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, John Gossop, Goole, East Yorkshire, England.

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