Oct. 30, 2013 — No-Till Farmer editors Darrell Bruggink and John Dobberstein hit the road earlier this week to attend the 19th annual Cover Crop and Soil Health Field Days at Cedar Meadow Farm in Holtwood, Pa., hosted by Cover Crop Solutions.

Click here to see Tweets from both our editors and other attendees at this event. Or just go to our home page, www.no-tillfarmer.com

And feel free to Tweet anything interesting you saw or heard at this field day! The hash tag is #ccsfieldday13.

 

Video Coverage

Drone Over Cover Crop Solutions Field DayDrone Over Cover Crop
Solutions Field Day

Craig Peck of Flying Media, www.flyingmedia.com, demonstrates this unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) Oct. 30, 2013, at the 19th annual Cover Crop and South Health Field Days at Cedar Meadow Farm in Holtwood, Pa.

In the future, UAVs such as this PROLine DJI unit made in New Hampshire could help farmers perform a variety of scouting and other information-gathering tasks.

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Seeding Cover Crops Into Standing CornSeeding Cover Crops
Into Standing Corn

Attendees at the 19th annual Cover Crop and South Health Field Days at Cedar Meadow Farm in Holtwood, Pa., learned how cover crops like annual ryegrass can be seeded on the go during corn harvest.

At this demonstration Oct. 30, 2013 at Cover Crop Solution's research farm, a Gandy Orbit-Air 1018 No-Till seeder has been rigged onto a John Deere corn head. Cover-crop seed is blown from the seeder through tubes and out underneath the corn head.

Indiana no-tiller Ray McCormick was among the first to try this idea, and Gandy has since commercialized this concept by offering the 1018 applicator — an 18-outlet, 8-bushel seeder unit.

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Robot Prototype Can Seed Cover Crops, Sidedresses NitrogenRobot Prototype Can Seed
Cover Crops, Sidedresses Nitrogen

Kent Cavender-Bares, CEO of RowBot Systems (www.rowbot.com) speaks as the company's prototype seeder and fertilizer applicator — "Robot 1" — maneuvers through standing corn.

The machine appeared at the 19th annual Cover Crop and South Health Field Days at Cedar Meadow Farm in Holtwood, Pa.

The robot has a 40-gallon tank for sidedressing UAN and a small seed hopper in front for seeding cover crops.

Cavender-Bares says the goal for this Minneapolis-based company is to have 5 of the units working on a 160-acre field, running 24/7 and returning to a docking station to be refilled with product. Each unit could possibly cover 150 acres per day.

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Salford RTS With Valmar Applicator Seeds, Incorporates Cover CropsSalford RTS With Valmar Applicator
Seeds, Incorporates Cover Crops

This Salford RTS I-1100 was outfitted with a Valmar 1655 implement applicator for seeding and incorporating cover crops in harvested fields, without excessive soil disturbance.

The unit was featured Oct. 30, 2013 at the 19th annual Cover Crop and South Health Field Days at Cedar Meadow Farm in Holtwood, Pa.

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