The Rural Voice, 1986-09, Page 22R.J. STEE
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22 THE RURAL VOICE
FALL SEEDING WHEAT
WITH FERTILIZER?
Seeding of winter wheat gets in-
to full swing the later part of this
month as white bean and to some
extent, soybean fields are
harvested. Many of you growers
will be asking your custom ap-
plicator to blend the seed in with
the fertilizer and apply it on your
fields.
Providing the job can be done
right, this system has a number of
advantages for you. If you con-
sider the work and effort involved
in fetching a pull spreader, incor-
porating the fertilizer, picking up
the seed, getting the drill out and
harrowing the field after planting,
compared to having the job
custom applied, there is a savings
in fuel and labour to the grower.
The biggest saving, and maybe the
most important, could be that of
time. Most custom application
vehicles can approach one acre per
minute in actual field operating
time. As well, custom applicators
are not as squeezed for time and
have less fouled schedules in the
fall than during the hectic spring
crunch. Therefore response and
speed may be of utmost impor-
tance to you in catchy fall weather
when you're contending with get-
ting beans off and trying to plant
wheat.
One of the concerns with seeding
small grains with fertilizer is get-
ting a uniform stand. I've often
observed poor stands and uneven
stands on small grain fields seeded
in this manner. Let's consider in
detail what's involved here.
The first thing to keep in mind is
that seed sown in this manner does
not get the seed -soil contact which
is obtained with drill seedlings. I
have not been overly impressed
with the job large "C" Shank
Mervyn Erb is crop specialist at
the Hensall District Co-op
cultivators with sweep points have
done on incorporating grain seed.
Even with their finger harrows,
they too often ridge the soil and
bury many seeds too deep while
leaving others entirely on the sur-
face. The disc doesn't do too bad a
job providing the field hasn't been
worked too deep or is overly loose.
However, most of the "old
fashioned" discs are gone and
have been replaced with the pre-
sent monsters with 10" disc spac-
ings and 21" disc diameter which
are far too aggressive for incor-
porating grain seed.
The "S" tine Danish style
cultivator with narrow teeth does a
nice job if fitted with finger har-
rows. Even the old diamond har-
rows do a decent job. But in all
these examples, one thing is miss-
ing and that is good seed -to -soil
contact, which is of prime impor-
tance for even germination and
emergence and even most impor-
tant under dry soil conditions.
What we need here is a packing
device of some nature. A notched
packer, a crow -foot packer, a
sprocket packer, a culti-packer or
even a Brillion seeder. Pulled
behind the "S" tined Danish or the
diamond harrow, they do the best
job.
To be able to use the diamond
harrow you must have the bean
straw chopped and spread and the
field opened up and loosened to
facilitate the mixing of the trash.
I'm afraid that with this year's
bean fields infested with a lot of
lambsquarters and pigweed, those
tree -like stalks may bunch up and
drag, creating a mess in the field
this fall.
As I said before, seed -to -soil
contact is the whole secret and as
far as I'm concerned, a packing
device is a must.
Uneven stands are another story
and the uneven stands I'm refer-
ring to are of the swath -pattern
kind which result from using a
spinner type spreader. Here there
is not enough overlap to compen-
sate for the seed not being thrown
as far as the fertilizer.
Even by spreading the field twice
by driving between the last tracks,
the job may not be satisfactory.
Certainly the outside 10 feet