Hi.
My name's Matt Yost, an AgroClimate extension
specialist with Utah State University.
Today we wanted to talk about steps
to take when using a no-till drill.
The purpose for this is to help people
that might be interested in using a no-till drill
or that might be renting a no-till drill
from a conservation district.
Many of the conservation districts in Utah
have such drills available for rent,
and so we wanted to go through some steps
to take if you're using one of these drills.
So to do that, we've invited Tony Richards
with Utah Department of Agriculture and Food to--
Tony works with several conservation districts
here in Northern Utah, and wanted
Tony to show us what are the steps you
would take if you were using this no-till drill
on your farm.
OK, my name's Tony Richards.
I work with the conservation districts
up here in Northern Utah.
What we've got here is a Great Plains no-till drill.
It's a 1206NT.
It's a 12-foot no-till drill.
Kind of wanted to go through a few things,
explain what some of the differences
might be between this and a conventional drill
and how to get started.
One of your main things that you notice with a no-till drill,
it is a much heavier piece of equipment
than what a conventional would be of the same width.
A lot more steel here you got to worry about,
so you want to make sure that you have a minimum horsepower
tractor, for this model, about 75 horsepower.
Otherwise, you're going to have a fun time trying to pull it
through any field, especially if you have any hills or anything.
Another thing that's not common on a conventional drill,
down here, is we notice you have these coulters.
This is what's going to help you get through the residue,
help you get through some tough conditions,
be able to open up the soil a little bit better.
Because with no-till, you're not having any soil preparation
with tillage.
It's not going to be loose.
So you've got to make sure that you have capability
of opening that soil.
So these are a key to help with that, along with the weight.
One of the big things to remember when you set up
any drill you want to start with,
make sure that you're level.
Because if you're tipped too far back
or tipped too far forward where you are hooked up
on your tractor, you're not going
to be able to either get the openers into the ground,
or your blocks in the back that gauge your depth
are going to be too far down and you're not going
to get the depth you want.
Or your coulters are going to go too far deep,
and then you're going to look like you're putting in potatoes
instead of drilling in wheat.
So first thing first, get your tractor hooked up.
Get your drill set and ready to go.
So when you get your no-till drill back to your farm,
first thing you want to do is make sure that you hook it up
properly to your tractor.
A couple of things we're looking at,
you got your hydraulic connections
that you want to make sure that are hooked up.
Also make sure that you have right sized category of pin
for the equipment that you're using-- that it is long enough
to go through the hammer strap as well as your regular hitch
on your tractor, on your drawbar,
and that it is lockable at the bottom with a pin
so that it doesn't pop out while you're going down the field.
Last thing you want to do is have that separate
from your tractor while you're going along.
You also have a power connection, but in most cases,
this is better for just going down the road.
It runs the lights and things on most of your drills.
This one doesn't have any other components
that requires electricity.
So keeping that locked up and out of place so it doesn't
drag anywhere is a good thing.
Make sure your jack stand on your other side
is either taken off and set off somewhere
or tipped up so it doesn't drag along the ground.
Otherwise, you're going to be buying a new jack for somebody.
Once you've got the drill here, hooked up to your tractor,
everything's good, the next thing we want to do
is remove the lock.
So you have a hydraulic lock here.
This keeps that drill from coming down,
from the hydraulics going down while you're
going down the road so you don't start drilling the highways.
The state wouldn't be very happy if we did that.
So you want to remove the pin off of that lock.
Make sure that nothing's in the way.
I mean, obviously, you don't want anybody under the drill.
On this model, it has a nice little home for it
up here to put it out of the way so it doesn't get lost.
Now, there is a lock on this model on both sides.
So you want to make sure you remove both of them
before you try and set it down.
And then you want to jump in your tractor
and lower the drill down and get ready to set your depth.
So when you want to set your depth,
on this particular model, your press wheel here in the back
is what serves also as your depth gauge.
This little arm comes up, and there's a stop inside there
that's set with this handle.
And we notice each one of these spacings in here
is a quarter of an inch in depth.
So every time you move that a notch,
it's going to allow it to go either deeper or shallower
depending on where you have it at.
And you want to make sure that you
would do it for every single one of them
and set them at the same depth.
Here we have our openers.
One thing you want to make sure is that all of these
are spinning freely, none of them
are really bound up, that they haven't got possibly a bearing
issue or anything going on.
They want to freely move as well.
Just check everything down here.
Same thing with the coulters-- make
sure that they can move freely as well.
If there's any grease zerks or anything down here,
you want to make sure you grease everything
before you get started as well.
On this model too, you have multiple tubes.
So this particular drill has three different boxes.
So you can do your regular small grains.
This is for native seed.
It's a nice and big so that native seed doesn't
get bridged inside the tube.
And then lastly, it has a small seed box
on the back for things like alfalfa.
And if you notice, this is the seed tube for the native seed.
It gets dropped out behind the opener.
We can't see the seed tube for the grains as well.
It sits actually behind the opening disk.
And then the small seed dribbles out
here out of this tube behind on top of the surface,
so it's not actually as deep as it would be on the others.
You want to make sure those things aren't plugged up,
they're nice and clean and clear also,
and there's nothing stuck in the bottom of them
so when you go to seed, it doesn't get blocked.
So the next thing you want to check, since this is a runner
drill, you want to make sure that you check your seed boxes,
that they're empty, that your previous user hadn't left you
a surprise inside there.
If there is something in there, you
want to make sure you clean it out
because you don't want to see what they seeded, hopefully.
So make sure everything's all cleaned out.
Usually, a shop vac is a great tool
to have at that time to suck out every little spot.
You want to say something like, well, you
can see in here, somebody--
So this is a good example of why you always
want to make sure that you do a neighborly service
and clean it out.
We got some seed still left in here from the previous use.
And it's good to, like I say, get in there
and vacuum that out so that someone else isn't
getting what you planted into what they're planting next.
You can open up the seed meters.
We'll show you up front here in a minute how
you can get the seed gates opened up
and get that last little bit of seed out of that meter as well.
So on the native seed box, the other thing
you want to always remember is we do not
fill this box all the way up.
You keep it about halfway full.
Because if you overfill it and go above the agitators,
it's too much work on it.
It will actually stop them and they won't go,
and then the seed won't flow out.
The other thing you always want to add to a native seed
is you want to add graphite to help keep that seed flowing.
Otherwise, it will bridge, and it will cause a problem.
Even though you think the agitators would keep moving
things, you've got to have graphite and make sure
that you don't fill the box even up half.
No more than about right here on those agitators.
So the next step that you want to do is set your rate.
So you want to get in and then--
you can get into the manual that comes with the drill,
look up the crop that you're wanting to plant,
and find the rate that you want to plant that at,
how many pounds per acre.
On this particular drill, you have two settings on it.
One, you have a gearbox that has a one-to-four range on it.
So you'll want to make sure that you
have the corresponding chart for that range.
Yeah, that box right here.
You talking about this thing?
Yeah.
So after setting your gear setting,
then you have your way of adjusting it right here.
So you have a little lock washer that you want to undo.
It allows you to be able to slide this
to the corresponding number that you'll find on your chart.
Now, it's only going to get you close.
It's not going to be perfect.
So if you really want to make sure
that you're planting what you want,
then you're going to want to do a calibration.
The other thing you want to make sure
is that on your meter box here, you can see this little arm.
That has a gate, and it will depend
on what seed you're planting.
So if you're planting wheat, you want
to make sure that that gate is up on this first notch
where it's set right now.
If you're planning bigger seeds, something
around the size of a soybean, you
want it to go down to the second notch.
And if you're planting really big seeds, some things that
might [INAUDIBLE] cover crops up to things like pumpkin seeds
and weird things like that, you would
want to go down to the third notch
so that it's able to go through the meter
and then pass down into the tube.
OK, so after you set your rate, you
can take this handle here, put it on the drive shaft
here, give it a few cranks to kind
of prime your seed into your meters,
and then you want to make sure that you engage
the drive on the wheel so that the meters will
be turning as the wheels go.
So on this particular model, there is two drives on it.
So on this side, this engages the drive
for the small seed box.
And the green box on the other side is the same setup,
but it does the native seed box.
So you want to make sure, depending
on which box you're running, which drive you engage.