750A demo

We had a 750A on demo yesterday - got to be careul what I say as it wouldnt be difficult to work out where from. Drilling wheat into sprayed off grass - loads of seed sitting on top of the ground and slots not closed. Seed was going in at 1". Coulters about 1/4" / 1/2" off ground surface. Demonstrator set fan speed at over 3000 and said couldnt be lowered as tubes would block.
Well, I tried to talk this through and sumised that seed was either bouncing or too much wind? In the end i insisted we tried lowering fan speed and saw an immediate effect. Without further consulting we dropped fan speed to around 2500 rpm and got the seed loss to an 'acceptable' level. Could we/should we have gone lower? I guess fitting bleed valves/exhaust would be the way forward?
Side press wheels were i middle setting - I insisted we move to the top setting and the slot closure was much better. Demonstrator suggested a follow up with a flat roll today would help close the slots :unsure:

Did we diagnose correctly, make the right changes? What else should we have done?
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Sounds like a excellent demo driver !

Maybe don’t draw too many conclusions

Grass seed needs very little fan speed but if the driver was failing to get sonething as basic as that correct I expect there would be a million other things set up wrong as well
 

chaffcutter

Moderator
Arable Farmer
Location
S. Staffs
Spoke to a farmer recently who said that he had just been demo’d a 750A, was very dissatisfied with the job it did similar to the above, asked who was the driver,as settings (as with any machine) are crucial and the
Demo guy obviously had no idea.

You need to go and see one working that is set up right Colin!
 

pine_guy

Member
Location
North Cumbria
Sounds like a excellent demo driver !

Maybe don’t draw too many conclusions

Grass seed needs very little fan speed but if the driver was failing to get sonething as basic as that correct I expect there would be a million other things set up wrong as well
Wheat into grass. Not grass into wheat stubble.
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Into ryegrass/clover rather than old pasture- neighbour did similar last year and had excellent results so fingers crossed. Assume you have grass pests in mind?

More concerned re the acidic breakdown in anaerobic conditions (aka “the 2 Simon effect”) if it comes wet before well established

Might be worth considering an application of prilled lime (regardless of soil ph) as a bit of insurance
 

Big-Al

Member
Fan speed 4200, and none on top, going in 35mm yesterday wheat in to 2 year grass that was cut and sprayed off
all slots are closed better this year than others, takes time to set up but once set away you go.
 

Hobbit

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
South West
Waiting for a quote from sly. Had a price for a 750a last year but can’t remember what it was.
We have a lot of stones here and the sly rode over them leaving a lot of seed on top of the ground. This is not a fault of the drill and I’m sure any other disc drill will do the same. Hopefully got the sky easy drill coming soon.
 

Simon Chiles

DD Moderator
We had a 750A on demo yesterday - got to be careul what I say as it wouldnt be difficult to work out where from. Drilling wheat into sprayed off grass - loads of seed sitting on top of the ground and slots not closed. Seed was going in at 1". Coulters about 1/4" / 1/2" off ground surface. Demonstrator set fan speed at over 3000 and said couldnt be lowered as tubes would block.
Well, I tried to talk this through and sumised that seed was either bouncing or too much wind? In the end i insisted we tried lowering fan speed and saw an immediate effect. Without further consulting we dropped fan speed to around 2500 rpm and got the seed loss to an 'acceptable' level. Could we/should we have gone lower? I guess fitting bleed valves/exhaust would be the way forward?
Side press wheels were i middle setting - I insisted we move to the top setting and the slot closure was much better. Demonstrator suggested a follow up with a flat roll today would help close the slots :unsure:

Did we diagnose correctly, make the right changes? What else should we have done?

Sadly it’s a JD thing not to have a dedicated demo driver and just send out a salesman, it has always been so. When I was a combine demo driver I always enjoyed being up against JD for this very reason. Obviously there are some very good salesmen that really know their stuff but they can’t all be experts in everything.

Quite a common mistake made by inexperienced operators of the drill is not to run the coulter pressure on constant pumping, this leads to erratic seeding depth and could possibly be why you were leaving seed on the surface. At 1 inch seeding depth the seed boots should have been just into the soil and not above it. Excess seed boot wear could also have the boots above the surface and would leave seed on the surface. In normal conditions at that depth I would expect to run the press wheel in the middle position, decrease pressure in wetter conditions and increase when drier.
At normal seed rates for wheat you could run the fan on a 3 or 4 m drill at 2000 rpm and it would still be ok although I wouldn’t advocate it. Normally in wheat I’d run a 3 m drill at 3400 and a 4 m at between 3800 and 4000.
You could increase the seeding depth to 2 inches for wheat, one of the advantages of the JD is it’s accuracy of seed placement so you needn’t worry about some of the seeds being too deep.
If you’re worried about slot closure then I’d definitely run a set of rolls over it, Cambridge rollers with a levelling board is probably the best option but failing that a flat roll or stubble rake/ grass harrow will do.
 

Farmer Roy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
NSW, Newstralya
err, slightly off topic, but having spent my entire farming career ( 30 + years ) with airseeders of all sorts of makes & configurations, I rarely worry or consider actual fan speed, but the amount of air flowing. Generally, as a rule of thumb, the more product flowing requires more air
on an 8m rig with light seeds I usually run about 3 - 4 kpa air pressure
12 m putting out say total product of 100 - 150kg/ha ( which I realise is low for you ), then I might run 5 - 7kpa.
I suppose what im say is, I look more at air pressure than fan speed, which can vary across different brands or fan sizes etc . . .
Of course, running D Cup style air diffusers takes away any concerns of seed bounce or blowout at higher pressures, but I find too much air can cause other issues at times, including potentially damaging delicate seeds and can significantly increase the wear & decrease life of your air hoses

if worried about slot closure, have you seen some of the aftermarket closing wheels available here & in the States ? http://www.bprengineering.com.au/disc-seeder-maintenance/20-point-closing-wheel.html
20-pt-cl-wheel-2.jpg


just as an aside about various companies demos
a lifetime ago I was working on an estate in southern England. The farm was all MF, but both Case & JD were trying to sell them a new ploughing tractor. As I was the "ploughman" ( 20 something yr old Australian who until a year previously had never even seen a plough, let alone use one. Back then, I couldn't understand the fuss about me getting the "big" tractor. After being on TFF for a while, I have a better idea why :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO: ) it was me who drove them.
Case dropped off a 7140 Magnum, some smarmy salesman in a tweed coat & tie, didn't talk to me, no explanation or instruction, so I had to read the book & work it out for myself
JD brought out a 4955 and the salesman was dressed in work clothes & spent all day with me. I was ploughing very flinty abrasive ground, so changing points every 4 hours. The salesman even grabbed some tools out of his car and helped me do that. I was hugely impressed by him & he was a nice bloke
All wasted effort as it turned out, the farm stuck with MF and I was back on a 3690 or whatever the model was :whistle:
 

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