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6 Moneymaking Changes For 750 No-Till Drills

SAVE TIME, MONEY. Jim Bly of Dayton, Wash., finds modifying his 750 no-till drill to be well worth the effort. Removing the dry box for fertilizer, raising the seed/starter fertilizer box and removing the wheel from the hitch are only a few of the modifications he employed to save time on his 12,000-acre operation.

EVEN THOUGH the majority of John Deere 750 no-till drills are used to seed soybeans and small grains in the Midwest, that certainly doesn't mean modifications made for efficient seeding in the Pacific Northwest won't prove valuable in other areas.

When it came to modifying his drill, Jim Bly did it to save money and time. Both are extremely important to this no-tiller, who has 12,000 acres of cropland to cover each year near Dayton, Wash.

A man who wears many hats, Bly oversees 15,000 acres of pasture, 700 cow-calf pairs, 5,000 acres of timber and 12,000 acres of farm ground. Broughton Land Co. has also begun no-tilling spring barley, spring wheat, condiment mustard and spring oats in recent years.

No-Till Concerns. "We purchased a John Deere 750 no-till drill," Bly says. "We made no modifications in the first three seasons, but there were problems - the drill only applied dry fertilizer. All our time was spent hauling enough dry fertilizer to get the amount of nitrogen per acre we needed."

Not satisfied with the drill's efficiency, Bly went to the drawing board and began sketching out no-till modifications.

1. "We removed the dry box for deep-banded fertilizer," he says. "This gave us the room we needed to put on an anhydrous ammonia tank for deep-banding fertilizer."

While this was an improvement, Bly still needed a way to place anhydrous ammonia in the ground. Installing low-disturbance Yetter coulter fertilizer openers solved this problem.

2. "We raised the seed/starter fertilizer box 10 inches using 10-inch channel iron," Bly says. "This assured us the seed would still flow if we were going up or down a hill."

3. Bly next turned his attention to the drill's need for better traction.

"We removed the crazy wheel from the hitch," he adds. "This put more weight from the drill and tongue on the tractor, giving better traction."

4. "We put more bracing on the front of the drill," he says. "This helped carry the weight of the anhydrous tank and take out the dipping and driving when the drill is operating."

5. "We thought, 'Hey, why not put tires on the side of the drill to help carry the weight and to keep the drill from tailing down the hill?' This was another challenge," he says, "but after looking around and talking with other people, we knew what to do."

Bly explains that rear spindles, rims and axle tubes taken from a John Deere 9600 combine were put to the test with the no-till drill.

"These were installed 24 inches from the rear of the frame," he says. "This made the drill very stable on the hills and eliminated any fishtailing. With these modifications, it was time to put the drill to the test."

Not Quite Perfect. After 600 acres of testing, Bly found the modifications didn't offer satisfactory results. Not discouraged, he returned to the drawing board.

"The deep-banding fertilizer system didn't work," he says. "We went back to the John Deere opener and welded in stainless-steel fertilizer tubes. They worked great."

Bly explains these modifications offered an incredible improvement with the no-till drill.

6. "These changes made the drill work really well, except the hitch. I pulled it apart twice," he says. "We completely rebuilt the hitch and added more support to the pulling point. With two more seeding seasons on the hitch, it seems to be doing fine."

More Modifications? With farming heading into the new millennium, it's safe to say no-tillers remain optimistic, yet realistic. Bly is no different.

"Am I finished making modifications?" he asks. "I am until a new idea comes along."

And that is the key to successful no-till farming.

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