If you're trying to control seed costs, it pays to also optimize your no-till drill for peak seeding performance, just as anyone would their larger grain planters. 

While some might think drills are inherently less precise than planters, the uniform timing of emergence does effect yield potential of crops like wheat, soybeans and especially canola, says Matt Hagny.

“If you’re trying to do something that requires more precise timing, like protecting a wheat crop with fungicides, then you can’t have that crop emerging at all different times across the field,” says the founder of Exapta Solutions. “You can’t have non-uniform timing of emergence if you want soybeans to ripen evenly or proper canola crop development.”

He says that with the standard designs of OEM no-till drills and air seeders, Case IH and John Deere in particular…