LEARN MORE

from Farming For Tomorrow March April 2023

Buckle Up

To find a seed dealer near you visit www.seednet.ca or call 403-808-7738

Bay, Sask., farms 8,500 acres with 1,600 under irrigation. Currently, Ward has a 60-12 Seed Hawk drill with an 800 bushel tow behind cart. Ward’s initial attraction to Väderstad was sectional control and iCon. He also likes the cloud-based system for data storage. One year when his tablet broke, he was able to replace it and get up and running again with little downtime.

The Fenix III metering system, iCon and the 10-foot sectioning all create a great system for precision seeding and fertilizing. The new SCTx system elevates this to include turn compensation.

The company says that a secondary GPS receiver mounted on the cab of the tractor allows the operating systems to create more of a predictive path for the air seeders, which allows better sectional control and turn compensation.

This will be released as an option with the MY2023 machine and forward and current customers will be able to upgrade by summer. Ward and Stone both plan to upgrade to SCTx.

“There are a lot of obstructions in [irrigated] fields like the pivot point and well heads,” says Ward. “That’s where we see the advantage of the turn compensation. It will even that rate out so you’re not overseeding on the inside and then underapplying on the outside of a turn.”

Stone enjoys the continual innovation, which makes time in the cab less stressful.

“It will make the operator experience better,” says Stone. “For very little investment, and considering the cost of inputs, it’s nice to have those little extras.”

Pillar expands its lineup with the Stealth Flex 71

Pillar is a small manufacturer based out of Warman, Sask., that has been growing its lineup of seeding equipment since 2005. It all began when Dick Friesen, Pillar’s president and general manager, was approached to develop a single-disk, double-shoot opener.

“We sold the first row units as retrofits, then we designed the toolbars we needed,” says Friesen. “Now we’ve built from 30, 40, 50, 60 to 71 feet.”

Ross Straub of Border View Farms near Hilda, Alta., recently upgraded to the latest Pillar drill, a Stealth Flex 71, or SF-71. He currently seeds 6,000 to 7,000 acres each year. Being in a dry, windy area means they utilize a stripper header, leaving standing stubble to catch snow. Much of the farm is hilly, uneven terrain. The SF-71’s flexibility follows the undulating land to create an even seed depth. Residue clearance is no issue directly seeding into stripper stubble.

Border View’s first Pillar laser drill was a 50 footer purchased in 2013. With the farm’s expansion, they decided to test the prototype of the SF-71 in 2020.

After being impressed by the effectiveness of how the prototype hugged the ground, they purchased a new SF-71 two years ago.

Getting bigger has challenges, though. With busier roads, the larger size drills can be tricky to navigate safely between farm and field. It can also take up a lot of storage space. Pillar changed it from a wing up to a folding forward design, to address these issues. Eight feet narrower, the transport width is 16 feet. It also has steering on the back wheels controlled by an app from the cab, according to Friesen.

“It makes it easier to manoeuvre when you have narrow access to a field or when storing,” says Straub.

The SF-71 carries on many features of previous versions.

The Mark III opener is a unique disc/hoe combination. A disc cuts the fertilizer trench and a seed boot cuts a ledge into the wide wall of the trench to place the seed above and to the side of the fertilizer.

“With the Pillar being a disc/hoe design, you get the trash cutting and speed of a disc but the placement of a hoe without the issue of hairpinning, which was a common issue on traditional disc air seeders,” explains Derek Tieszen, who seeds about 4,000 acres near Hepburn, Sask., with his DH-40. Single pass, the ability to seed into heavy residue and speed are what he labels the biggest trio of advantages of Pillar drills.

“I probably seed at least six miles an hour,” says Tieszen.

The Mark III’s cast openers are sturdier than the previous steel version.

“The old style worked well, but if you were in heavier land, especially when you’re in a turn, you’d notice that there was a lot of flex in the opener,” says Tieszen. “The Mark III holds much better.”

While most new precision drills are running hydraulics on every shank, or every alternate shank, Pillar opted to stay with coil springs. Straub says he likes the simplicity of the spring on the openers as opposed to hydraulic cylinders on other drills that usually have oil leaks after a few years of use.

It’s all about doing your best with what’s in your hands, and hoping for the best with everything that’s not.

Through thick and thin, rain and shine, good years and bad. You do the work. Try to make the right calls. Then see how it all turns out.