Farming '91, 1991-03-20, Page 6A6. FARMING ’91, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20, 1991.
Farming ’91
Reduction of wear and tear makes tractor
Continued from page A5
tem. The coulter of the seeder cuts
through the crop residue left on the
fields and tills the area of the seed
bed as the seed is dropped in. It
means one pass over the field and
no fall plowing.
The yields from the system are
equal to or better than the results
from conventional cropping. Under
dry weather conditions the addi
tional ground cover from the old
crop rubble helps prevent evapora
tion of moisture from the soil
leaving more moisture for the crop.
Under good conditions the two
systems are equal.
There are big savings in machin
ery operation. Fuel consumption is
only about two gallons of diesel fuel
per acre. “Machine hours are very,
very low.’’ He feels it has doubled
the life expectancy of his tractors.
“I don’t see me having to replace a
tractor in my lifetime.”
Mr. Shillinglaw says if he was
replacing his tractor he could
probably go to a size smaller tractor
but since he had the tractor and
since he had already adapted it for
the new system, he has stayed with
the equipment he had. There’s still
the problem of replacing combines
just like other farmers.
There are additional time sav
ings. Counting his own land and
some custom work, he farms 1,000
acres of land and can do it all by
himself without having to hire help.
The item of saving that will
surprise many farmers who have
contemplated no-till or reduced-till
cropping is that he has found
savings of 20-30 per cent in
herbicide costs; The general per
ception is that such cropping
requires more herbicides to control
weeds.
When people first started experi-
Continued on page A8
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