Deere No-Till Drill Converted To "Air"

Deere No-Till Drill Converted To "Air" DRILLS Drills (42C) 30-5-20 Tom McMillan converted his Deere 752 no-till drill into a precision air seeder and says he couldn't be happier with the results. He replaced the original delivery system (seed drill boxes) with air tanks. McMillan, who farms at Pickardville, Alberta, says that his original Deere limited his fertilizer application rate to 200 lbs./acre (in the mid-row band). "Pulling an anhydrous tank behind doesn't work well with this drill's openers, so I wanted to apply all my fertilizer at once - as dry product - with one machine," he says. "To accomplish this, I removed the original seed and fertilizer boxes and bought two used 110-bu. tanks off a Flexi-coil 1100 air seeder, along with new manifolding." The most difficult part of the project was setting the tanks on the Deere frame, a task which involved using a picker truck, according to McMillan. With the modifications, he can now apply more than 300 lbs. per acre of fertilizer and can also carry more seed and starter fertilizer. He seeded 250 acres with the hybrid unit last spring, and says the system worked quite well for the most part. McMillan says he does plan to change the hydraulics, so he can adjust each tank's fan speed independently. The total project cost was $11,500 (Canadian), but since McMillan sold the original seed drill boxes for $2,000, his final cost was only $9,500. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Tom McMillan, R.R. 2, Pickardville, Alberta, Canada T0G 1W0 (ph 780 349-6580; fax 780 349-5806).

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