A comparison of two furrow opener-depth control assemblies for seeding forage grasses

Abstract

Seed from 45 strains of grass were sown with 2 drills fitted with different furrow openers and depth control devices. Standard (34-cm diameter) double disk openers (Kirchman (Lilliston Melroe)) fitted with depth control bands 2 cm wide and 5 cm smaller in diameter than the disk were used to seed 1 trial at a seeding depth of 2.5 cm. This seeding was compared to forage crop stands obtained from a drill fitted with an experimental opener using 2 disks of unequal diameter, the larger (38 cm diameter) running vertical and the smaller (28 cm diameter) angled at 7 degrees. The center for mounting the small disk is 5 cm below and 2.5 cm behind the large disk, thus the bottoms of the disks are on the same horizontal plane. Seeding depths of 2.5 cm and 6.25 cm were accomplished by an adjustable rubber-tired depth gauge wheel assembled beside the large disk. At the 2.5 cm depth of seeding, the large-small disk opener assembly resulted in superior forage establishment compared to that obtained with the standard double disk assembly. Comparing either opener-depth control assembly set to seed at 2.5 cm depth with the large-small disk assembly set to seed at 6.25 cm depth confirmed the value of shallow seeding of forage crops to overcome establishment problems.