Drilling capacity with D/D system?

[shakerator]

For good no till establishment on strong soil it needs to be "too dry" for conventional drilling. 2011 was even dryer than this year. And I drilled 50 acres of a 60ac field (end sept)and thought is this too dry to be drilling. Well we had 5mm that evening and the last 10ac establishment was reduced by at least 30%. As soon as the soil strength is compromised on the surface the seed goes into more hostile conditions with less air. So I agree with feldspar on low lying clay you need more drilling capacity.

Medium and light soils there is no issue so less capacity needed.

I still think there is an underappreciation of the stress induced by no till clay on this forum. As said in another thread we do not want to be stitching in an playing Russian roulette. But it really is once you commit to not moving any soil. Baling adds forgiveness

You will only block the John Deere up once. Actually I nearly blocked it with mudsmith gauge wheels this DRY year !!

 

[Brisel]

How much drilling are you all actually doing? You all talked about the farm size but not all of you are planting this once/year. The real die hard no tillers are sowing their twice - the cash crop and the cover crop before the next cash crop. Oh, and add redrilling after slugs for Cross Slot users...

 

[doorknob]

If D/D drilling ,Zero drilling ,do you think that one needs to almost ,have double the drilling capacity ,for the same cropped area as if one is min tilling or conventional tillage, due to the ideal conditions for a zero till drill to work properly are a lot less.

I like the way you think. I also agree with the thought of getting more done in the best opportune window. So yes, IMO, if you can make it happen, increase your seeding capacity. That's what my goal is.

When we used to plough and were full on tillage, we had one 12' double disk drill behind a press. The tillage tools would get us out of trouble when the weather turned on us. Now, we are trying to go as heavy dd/no-till as we can, and have three 15' seeders. We may build a fourth and even a fifth if we get to it. Not all of them will go at the same time of course.

We also bought a second combine to aid in getting harvest done in the best conditions for residue management. Some of our small seeds are harvest in the autumn making for shorter days and cooler mornings. The straw does not breakup as well when cool temps and heavy morning dews are on. So later starts and more combine power helps this, which in turn makes seeding behind the combine much better.

It used to be that the plough, disk and rollers or presses spent winter time in the shop being prepared for the following year, while the drill would have worn coulters and a flat tire. Now, it is the drill that gets the winter time in the shop and the tillage tools that set with the flat tires.
Where the tillage tools used to get us out of a jam, now diligent observation and preparation are what we use. In many ways how well your combine performs will dictate how well your drill performs and in that respect, how much seeding power you may need.