Cross Slot - Bringing the Soil Back to Life

[@johnclearwater7110]

More low yield crops than successes with this system. Tried it for 6 years. Great marketing but the practical didn't prove the same results.

[@jasonpaisley1535]

What other types of drills have you used? Have you found a no till drill that gave you better results?

[@brenttonks4249]

What was the state of the soils fertility? A drill alone can’t improve yields on tired soil. Sadly I still see it everyday in the farming community whereby the nutrients are mined out of the soil due to not meeting the crops nutrient requirements with manures and fertilisers applied for the crop. I don’t know why, but we always try to do everything on the cheap and eventually we will get to a point where the land will bite us back. Let’s stop blaming droughts, fires, floods or the equipment we are using and take a step back to look at the bigger picture. For example we lowered the sulphur in fuel and sulphur emissions in general to save the planet, now there’s a lot less acid rain providing sulphur to the soils. Check your soil tests, I bet you need to apply more sulphur to your fields now than you did many years ago. Now we are all busy trying to store carbon in the soil, there is a point at which this too will impact crop yields, too much soil carbon will reduce yields and tie up other nutrients. We are not there yet, however it’s something to consider going forward.

[@mozit6]

How much yield drop, and did you determine the EXACT root cause of reduced yield? Was it less germinated seed populations, .....did you have mfg consults? And also am interested in what rate of maintenance or repairs of worn parts was required. Any problem with replacement parts availability in your location?