Air Seeders have seen a lot of innovation in recent years, with the rise of computer-controlled equipment and increases in capacity and features.

The leaders of innovation include Canadian manufacturer Bourgault Industries Ltd, which develops its equipment around sound agronomic principles, led by their in-house agronomy team.

From introducing the world's first tow-behind seeder in 1980 to today's largest seeder, they have been driving progress in the air seeder market for more than 40 years.

Current Trends

Rising input costs eat into the profitability of any organisation. As you look to mitigate the recent increases in costs of seeds and fertilisers it's important to do so without negatively impacting yield.

The best way to increase the value of your high-cost inputs is to ensure you're putting the right amount on.

A lot of agronomy research goes into finding the best rates for each crop, paddock or soil type, so it's important that your seeder is applying the rates you want it to.

New technologies like variable rate application allow you adjust the input rates automatically across the paddock in line with a pre-loaded prescription map. But the accuracy of the output is only as accurate as the seeder you're using.

Errors in the seeding rate can come from a variety of sources, beginning at calibration. If your calibration is out, every that happens after that will be out as well, potentially costing you in not only wasted input costs, but reduced yield at harvest.

A seeder with individual weigh scales on each tank allows for the most accurate calibration on the market today. When integrated with a touchscreen seed-rate controller, modern seeders are able to tell you exactly how much product you have in the tank.

Those with the latest in seeding technology will also give you a live reading with on-the-go calibration, ensuring you are putting on the exact amount of product you want.

Once the seeder is calibrated, it's important the metering units are both accurate and capable of achieving the range of rates that you're after.

PDM Pro

With an easily adjustable three-speed gear range and a variety of internal metering augers, the PDM PRO from Bourgault is one of the most simple and reliable metering units on the market.

Whether you are trying to meter 2kg/ha or 200kg/ha, the electronically-controlled, hydraulic drive metering units are both accurate and versatile, requiring minimal adjustment between products.

For further input savings, Auto Section Control is now a common feature. The ability to turn off sections of a bar when travelling over already seeded ground is necessary to reduce overlap and wasted product. Dual ASC for both fertiliser and seed inputs gives you the greatest savings.

For the greatest savings on expensive input costs, a complete system with real-time calibration from individual tanks, reliable and accurate metering units and Dual ASC will give you the industry standard in seeding efficiency.

EVENSTREAM

To ensure even emergence from your crops, it's important that those seeds are then distributed evenly across the entire bar.

Bourgault's EVENSTREAM distribution system places special centring vanes and plastic inserts above the primary manifold to achieve even coverage across the entire bar.

If you are wanting to really maximise your seeding time, larger seeders are a good way to keep seeding for longer.

With the largest production seeder in the world coming in at a little over 45,000L most won't require that capacity, but seeders in the same 9000 I series range, with the same features, start at 22,000L and come in both leading and trailing configurations.

Standard with four tanks and an optional fifth Saddle Tank, your seeder can be versatile for a range of crops and seeding programs.

For those of you that are concerned about the impact such a large seeder can have on your paddock, the short answer is larger tyres.

New innovations in tyres mean that large diameter, increased inflexion (IF) tyres deliver very low ground pressures, reduced rolling resistance, and maximize flotation which helps to ensure uniform germination and reduced compaction.

Like the pit stops in a car race, filling your seeder needs to be efficient and fast, getting you back out seeding as soon as possible. The ability to fill your seeder quickly, while still being gentle on seed means that conveyors are no longer an option but standard equipment on modern seeders.

Remote controlled hydraulic positioning make the process easy and efficient for any operator, allowing you to seed more hectares per day.

Large scale farmers will recognise the benefits of having more than one seeding rig in a paddock at the same time, but know the struggle of not being able to synchronise your seeding progress onto a single map.

Features like I2I from Bourgault give you the ability to share field coverage between the two or more seeders, allowing all operators to view what areas of the paddock are seeded, avoid misses and have one complete coverage map when the paddock is complete.

When looking to update your seeding equipment there are many factors to consider, but if you are trying to sow more productively and precisely, it's important to look for a progressive manufacturer like Bourgault.

 

More information:

www.bourgault.com