Everything You Need to Know About Grain Drill Seed Planters
If you use no-till farming methods, chances are you also make use of a grain drill planter of one type or another to plant your crops. There's a variety of these quality planters and attachments in the eBay market that can be integrated into a no-till farming operation.
What is no-till farming?No-till is a term that refers to a farming method that doesn't turn over the soil between harvest and planting with a plow or tilling equipment like disks and chisel plows. Because no-till farming doesn't disturb the soil, it requires a different planting method and planter equipment than would be used with tilled fields. The advantages of no-till farming can be summarized into a few main points.
- Reduced labor: No-till farming eliminates an entire step of the farming process, saving time and expense.
- Improved fertilizer health: Tilling disturbs a soil's natural state every year and releases some of the nutrients that would otherwise stay in the ground.
- Reduced erosion: Tilling also accelerates erosion of a field's topsoil by breaking it up and exposing more of it to the wind.
- Reduced soil compaction: Modern farm equipment compacts the soil and makes it harder for water to penetrate it. No-till farming reduces the number of times you need to drive over a field.
A grain drill planter is a type of agricultural equipment that is able to plant seed without the need to till a field. It sows a field by mechanically metering out seed, planting it at a set depth, and then covering it as it's driven across a field. The result is a uniform planting at an efficient soil depth and distance between rows. Modern grain drill planters are typically wheeled attachments that are hitched to a tractor and pulled across a field.
What accessories are available for grain drill planters?Accessories for these planter attachments range from tooling to hoppers. Below is a list of some of the accessories and spare parts you can find for this type of farm equipment.
- Seed hoppers
- Planter wheel hubs
- Adjustment levers
- Axle plates
- Scratcher attachments