Spin some new business with custom seeding
How often can you spin available unused equipment and customer need into a new business solution?
For Pro Co-op in Iowa, a onetime wet spring has become a yearly opportunity to help growers get beans in the ground with the use of spinner spreaders. For Wheeler Brothers in Oklahoma, spreading wheat and other crops with spinner spreaders remains largely dry weather dependent, but value adding nonetheless.
In Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada, retailers are adding value to their fertilizer applications and their businesses by adding and spreading canola seed in a single pass. It has worked so well that other crops are also being added to the fertilizer spread.
“We started in the spring of 1991 when we had farmers concerned about not getting into fields that were too wet,” said Jim Day, Pro Co-op, Pocahontas, Iowa. “We offered to go in with our air machines, and it worked great. The guys liked the yield and how the beans combined. We covered the ground quicker than they could, and it made weed control easier.”
Five Years of Experience
Over the next five years, the air spreader practice continued on a limited basis. Ironically, while it was wet weather that led to the first attempts and wet springs continued to boost acres, the practice worked as well or better on ideal soil beds. However, adverse conditions still made the practice stand out.
“In a wet spring or a dry summer, the air seeding was always better than row seeding,” recalled Day.
When Roundup Ready soybeans came out in 1996, custom-seeded acres expanded. Although customer satisfaction remained high, distribution wasn’t what the co-op or the customers originally wanted.
“We never had trouble with fertilizer, but for some reason, we had trouble getting the beans through the manifold on the air machines,” said Day. “The beans weren’t getting evenly applied.”
Move From Air Spreading
About the same time, the co-op was moving away from air machines and back to spinner trucks. Improvements in the spread accuracy with spinners and the spreaders’ lower costs were driving the switch from air machines. Day found the switch also solved the soybean distribution problem. The spinner trucks were able to deliver soybeans more evenly, reported Day.
“We turn the spinner speeds down about 60 percent from fertilizer spreading,” he said. “We can spread the beans about 70 feet with very little overlap. We can do 800 to 900 acres a day without pushing it.”
The area around Pocahontas is mostly flat and minimum tilled as a rule. Growers tend to work the ground once in the spring, either very early or right before planting. Once the spinner trucks have done their job, another light tillage pass works the beans in to the ground. The recent practice of rolling fields after planting improves soil-to-seed contact as well as harvest.
“Worked-in beans can be an inch deep or three quarters of an inch deep, and if the soil hasn’t firmed up, it’s easy for them to push through,” said Day. “If we get heavy rains after putting the beans in, the spinner-spread beans will do better than seeded beans.”
Business Continues to Increase
Interest continues to grow in spinner spread beans, with acres growing at a good rate in recent years. This spring, acres will increase substantially again, and Day expects interest to grow substantially with the new multiple-bin variable rate spreaders the co-op is using.
“We have a big concern here with pH running from 4.9 to 8.4. Offensive beans really struggle with pH over 7.2,” said Day. “Last year we started alternating varieties from the two [spreader] compartments based on pH and varying the population as well. In higher pH, beans won’t get as tall, so we plant thicker. The competition forces them to stretch. On hilltop lighter soils, we don’t plant as thick, so we don’t force them taller.”
Results for the experiments ae positive, and Day credits them with contracted acres jumping up. That looks just fine on the co-op’s bottom line. Instead of their 6203 TerraGators with New Leader spinners sitting through spring’s work, they are earning $5,000 to $6,000 a day.
“It goes a long way to pay for a machine,” said Day.
Spinner Seeding Wheat
Wheeler Brothers Grain in northwestern Oklahoma has found using its Case IH-mounted spinner spreaders for custom seeding to be a good addition to its business mix. Initially, wheat was mixed with fertilizer for spinner spreading. When Wheeler Brothers began using the New Leader MultAppliers, the wheat and fertilizer went into separate bins. The wheat still spreads at the same time as the fertilizer without having to be blended ahead of time.
“This has been good for growers and for the company. We aren’t co-mingling one producer’s wheat with another,” explained Rodney Wilson, Wheeler Brothers. “Also, if it rains, we aren’t tying up a truck with fertilizer blended with grain.”
Blending grain with the fertilizer in advance had another drawback. Whether in the field or in transit to the field, the wheat tended to settle to the top of the load. “With the separate bins, we are now dead-on in even wheat distribution,” said Wilson.
Weather Has Impact
For Wheeler Brothers, rain can put a damper on spreading wheat. In their area, it is dry conditions that start customers calling for seeding service.
“When people normally dust in their wheat, we spread fertilizer and wheat, and the grower harrows it in,” said Wilson. “A drill is more precise in good planting conditions, but in dry years we haven’t seen a difference in either grazing potential or yield between drilled or spread wheat.”
Not only is the custom seeding an added enterprise, but it also spreads out their fertilizer business. Instead of waiting for everyone to finish drilling, Wheeler Brothers are getting custom-seeded acres out of the way, leaving more time for drilled acres as they finish.
One of the first tricks Wheeler Brothers learned was getting the wheat to stick to the fertilizer for a full spread pattern. “Wheat is similar in size and density to urea, but we can throw 90-pound potash a lot farther than we can 40-pound wheat,” noted Wilson. “We first used cheap strawberry pop as a sticking agent, but now we use the newer nitrogen stabilizing products. They are pretty sticky, and they spread better.”
Success with wheat has lead to other custom seeding opportunities. Wheeler Brothers has expanded into the grass and hay markets. Again the MultApplier has made it easier to control accuracy with these more expensive seeds. When it comes to light and fluffy seeds like bluestem and other grasses, even a good sticking agent isn’t enough.
“On very light seed, we cut the spread pattern in half,” said Wilson. “As good as spinner spreaders are, you have to take the density of the seed into account and realize the capabilities of the machine.”
ASSORTment of seed being spun
Custom seeding isn’t limited to one brand of spinner boxes, but Highway Equipment Company is encouraging its customers to consider the additional business opportunity. Craig Fenstermaker, New Leader product manager, said it was Canadian customers wanting to broadcast canola who first flagged the company to the capabilities of its spinners for one-pass fertilizer and crop seed application. “They were seeing some damage to the canola when blending it with the fertilizer,” he said. “When they started using the third box, which we developed for micro fertilizer, it eliminated the problem.” Spinner capabilities have been documented with alfalfa, clover, flax, wheat, barley and soybeans.
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