I'm looking at possibly buying or fixing up an older John Deere drill for drilling some cover crops like barley, oats, peas and possibly alfalfa. One of the two possibilities is a double disk drill, the other a single disk. What differences are there in disk design between conventional drills and no-till drills? Can an older drill be used in wheat stubble? Is it possible to change coulters to accomplish this task?
Modifying an older drill is never as good as a purpose built. Double disc openers and hydraulic down pressure helps as built (and JD should have that) Maybe add a coulter bar in front of every drill run to help cut sod. I use our Belarus drill (DD openers and down pressure) and it works quite well, but the sod has to be clean of covering trash. I still want a tool bar of coulters ahead and a packer behind.
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Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup........
Right. It WILL NOT work. Youll just tear the drill up, and it WILL NOT sow worth a hoot. To sow grass. the ground has to be thourly worked up. plowed, disced, harrowed, and THEN sowed.
Right. It WILL NOT work. Youll just tear the drill up, and it WILL NOT sow worth a hoot. To sow grass. the ground has to be thourly worked up. plowed, disced, harrowed, and THEN sowed.
Your right trying to rework an old drill to no till won't work well at all.
But your wrong that you have to do all that ground work to get an hayfield or pasture established. I just hit it with an old finish disc broadcast the seed and fert. from a buggy and hit it with a old smoothing harrow I have works pretty dang good.
Oh wow! what drill did you tear up Bill?? Mine does work and the JD 7700 (? I think) is just as well built. Not saying it'll chase a Great Plains drill off the field but for a poor sheep farmer I'm not upgrading.
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Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup........
I understand purpose built will be far better. But we are talking the difference between <500 dollars and an arm and a leg. This would be on a dime budget.
Even with coulters removing the trash or at least chopping it would be essential. Never used trash whips so no opinion. Adding a coulter tool bar has been an option for quite a while. First one I heard of was Yetter so I was probably only 20 years behind the times! LOL Heck my old drill is over 30 and I bought it new!!
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Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup........
I NEVER tore up a drill cause ive only used one, my 1924 grain drill. BUT, had I used it to plant grass seed BEFORE plowing, discing, harrowing, I would have tore it up when turning. As it is, by doing all that work, the ground is loose enough I can turn around without hurting it with it still in the ground.
The main difference is the amount of weight transferred to the openers vs being carried by the wheels. Double disk is your best bet with the JDs, it'll work in wheat stubble on light ground as is, if it's heavier ground you'll have to get more down pressure on the openers.
The other option, if you have enough hp, is to put a 3 pt cultivator on your tractor and hook the drill on the back of it. Move the times to match the rows roughly and keep them fairly shallow
So which would be better, a coulter or a set of trash whips?
Coulters cut up the trash to smaller size.
Trash whippers move the trash to the side.
Typically there isn't enough room to the side of all the drill openers to be able to move the trash. Only works on a planter at about 30 inch row spacing?
Right. It WILL NOT work. Youll just tear the drill up, and it WILL NOT sow worth a hoot. To sow grass. the ground has to be thourly worked up. plowed, disced, harrowed, and THEN sowed.
I'm looking at possibly buying or fixing up an older John Deere drill for drilling some cover crops like barley, oats, peas and possibly alfalfa. One of the two possibilities is a double disk drill, the other a single disk. What differences are there in disk design between conventional drills and no-till drills? Can an older drill be used in wheat stubble? Is it possible to change coulters to accomplish this task?
Changing coulters beyond restoring them to new size won't help much. Full size and sharp helps of course. Be prepared $$$$$$......
In my soils/ area double disk openers are the standard, 'better' but perhaps in different soil conditions it might be different.
As others say its about the weight per opener to cut through the trash. Adding weight, or spring pressure, will put more wear on the drill parts, and at some point you overdo it and wear out or break something pretty fast. But you can do some small moves that way. The more you force the drill to do real notill work, the harder you will be on it, and since its not built so heavy the more you wear it out or the less acres between breakdowns.
For typical cover crops or small grains it doesn't take anything too fancy to get an ok crop good enough. Get some dirt cover on some seed spilled on the ground and get a rain and you have a crop of some sort.
So in that way, it likely will work. Especially in sandy or lighter soils, where you don't need as much down force.
Now if you are farming and want to raise a top notch crop, then its not a great plan.
And, if you price the cost of new coulter blades, its not a cheap plan either, as likely an old worn drill will need new coulters as a best first upgrade.....
Depends where you want to get to, but you can make something work out.
Not sure if it is the best plan, or the cheapest?
Putting some sort of coulter cart or field cultivator cart in front of it (depending on your soils, trash cover type, and moisture) would do a lot for you if you want to go that route, if you have the tractor to pull/ lift all that. Could be just plow coulter in front of each row, or a light shank, to a full rank of many shanks.....
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