Bill Kuehn, Turtle Lake, ND

I started farming in 1992 on my Father-in-law’s farm. He used a 3212 Concord which he purchased new in 1984, and we traded for a new 3310 Concord in 1994. Through the years we used three types of openers before switching to banding fertilizer. These included seed placed fertilizer with a seedbed utilization of 65 percent, double shoot granular behind a sweep, and DJ tubes (wing tip injectors) with anhydrous. Seeding was our only tillage pass through the fields. Not satisfied using sweeps for seed and fertilizer, I switched to edge on shanks with the Dutch paired row opener in 2000.

The Dutch opener deep bands the fertilizer about 1.5 inches below a paired row of seed. During the first year of using these openers we saw an immediate boost in production. It maybe that sweeps are a poor comparison, but I saw better seed and fertilizer placement, more consistent depth control, a more even crop and most important a boost in yields. In my opinion, the biggest reason for the yield boost was the fertilizer placement in relation to the seed. I feel this gives the seedling an advantage over weeds and weather when finding and using the fertilizer.

This seeding system allowed us to seed and fertilize in one pass, with fertilizer rates of 100+ pounds of actual N placed below the seed. After three years of very good crops, I felt we had hit a production plateau, and I wanted more. We had good yields, but not consistent from field to field. In the same year we had spring wheat yield 70 bushels per acre with 12% protein on a couple fields and 45 bushels with 13.5% protein on the next. I wanted better seed and fertilizer placement, more consistent depth control, a better packing system and I wanted to eliminate the stepping problems associated with the Concord.

After two years of shopping around and talking to about 50 farmers, I narrowed my search to three machines. Not one of them was what I had ideally pictured for no till seeding equipment, but in my opinion they were the best the market had to offer. In the fall of 2002, we purchased a new 4412 Seed Hawk.

The Seed Hawk has two knives per opener, one fertilizer and one seed, and a packer wheel on every opener. Both knives and the packer wheel are fully adjustable in relation to each other. I have them adjusted so that the fertilizer is 1.25" to the side and 0.5" deeper than the seed. I have the packer wheel adjusted so that the seed is covered with 5/8" soil. This places the fertilizer band approximately 1.5" from the seed band.

We saw immediate benefits with the Seed Hawk system. Our seed and fertilizer placement are very consistent, the packing system and seed to soil contact are near perfect, stepping between seed furrows does not exist, and our fields are left significantly smoother than before. The depth control is very consistent between all openers. I have the depth set so that the seed is covered with 5/8" soil, and I mean 5/8". Not 0.5" and not 3/4", But 5/8". This depth is very consistent across all 44 openers. The result is very even emergence across the entire field. Our production is also more even. This year our spring wheat and Durum yielded 60 bushels to the acre with 15 protein, plus or minus 4 bu. Our Canola yielded from 2000 lbs to 2300lbs per acre.

The packing pressure and shank trip are hydraulic. The packing pressure and trip pressure are adjustable from the tractor cab on the go. I did not adjust the packer wheel depth once all season. My seed was always at the 5/8" depth, including wheat, canola, flax and soybeans. When I wanted the seed to be deeper in the ground, I increased the packing pressure which placed the entire opener deeper in the ground. This allows me to place the seed in perfect moisture without burring it under two inches of soil. The wing cylinder hydraulics are active with the opener hydraulics. This ensures that the last opener on the end of the wing has the same packing pressure that an opener on the main frame has.

May 3^rd, 2003 we were seeding flax, and I had the packing pressure set quite high, 1450psi, so that the seed would be into moisture. The result was a seeding depth over two inches deep, but the seed was only covered by the 5/8" soil. We finished seeding the quarter and then it rained for two weeks. I was sure that flax was buried two inches in the ground never to be seen again. Three days after seeding I had to go look and was pleased to find that the soil had moved very little and that the flax was already up and growing. I believe the soil in the furrows stayed put because of the high packing pressure and the ability of the packer wheel to pack the entire furrow. The soil between the furrows stayed put because of the large amounts of old crop residue and stubble.

In the fall I have every field soil tested. In the spring I use all granular fertilizer and custom blend it according to the soil tests. So every field and crop is spoon fed the proper nutrients according to the soil test and yield goals. All of the fertilizer is placed in the fertilizer band beside and below the seed in a one pass seeding operation. In my opinion, this type of seeding and fertilizer placement gives the following benefits.

+As recommended by the soil tests, we reduce the amount of Phosphorous applied by 1/3 when it is placed in a band near the seed. This saves some on the fertilizer bill but also gives the seedling immediate access to the phosphate.

+Places the fertilizer band below and to side of the seed band. This gives the seedling a competitive advantage over the weeds and the weather while it finds the fertilizer. In my opinion, this fertilizer location makes the fertilizer most available to the seedling. I believe this is the most efficient use of my fertilizer input.

+Dual knives on each opener provide consistent seed and fertilizer separation. The seed knife trails the fertilizer knife which guarantees that the fertilizer band is buried below the seed band.

+The entire furrow, and/or disturbed soil, is packed so that very little moisture is lost and the soil stays put. The pneumatic packer tire trails directly in the seed furrow and packs the entire seed furrow without packing the adjacent stubble ground.

+The furrow is left a dark color in relation to the surrounding stubble. This dark strip of soil warms up faster than the surrounding stubble covered soil and helps the seeding to get ahead of weeds. The packed furrow is a good micro environment for the seedling to get started in. The surrounding loose stubble and unpacked ground is a poor environment for most weeds to grow.

+Accurate shallow seeding, in good moisture, provides quick and uniform seedling emergence. The seed and fertilizer can be placed deep to find good soil moisture, and still maintain a shallow seedling depth. With the variable packing pressure, the entire opener is pushed deeper, but the depth of soil covering the seed remains constant. This allows for the operator to always seed into moisture and results in quick emergence. With each packer wheel independent from each other and from the tool bar frame, the depth control and packing maintain a consistent depth and pressure all the time on every opener.

+The small furrow on twelve inch spacing completely eliminates stepping. This leaves the seed and fertilizer bands at the intended depth. This also leaves the field relatively smooth for spraying, swathing and combining.

April 22, 2003 we seeded canola on a quarter section of spring wheat stubble. Per acre I put down 5.5 lbs of canola seed and 270 lbs of fertilizer. The fertilizer blend was 30.7-11.2-0-7.4 which at 270lbs per acre is 83 lbs N, 30 lbs P and 20 lbs S. These were the required nutrients for a yield goal of 2000 lbs per acre.

The canola emerged quickly and evenly across the entire field. The crop had near ideal growing conditions with a good mix of sunshine and moisture. The yield from this field was 2101 lbs per acre. With ideal growing conditions, I maybe should have had a yield goal of 2500 lbs per acre and may go there next year.