Are you a box drill hold out?

In 10 years as a farm writer, I've never written a single article about box drills. Or should I call them press drills? I don't even know the right lingo. I'm talking about the drills with a long seed and fertilizer boxes along the top that deliver product to openers by gravity, not air. 

When I was growing up, we had a Melroe press drill on our farm, and then a Haybuster zero till drill for a short time, before switching to an air seeder. That was the trend in the late 1980s. Almost every farmer in Western Canada now uses an air drill of some type. So, out of curiousity, I'd like to talk to anyone who — in the name of agronomy or economics or pure stubbornness — has stuck with press drills. You can still buy new ones, so it's not dead technology.

I want to feature these hold outs in an article in Grainews. The article will explain why they still use press drills. (Consistent seeding depth is a good one.) But I also want to know what they do for stubble penetration, transport, consistent seed delivery, field speed and fill speed — the downsides to press drills. Surely anyone who still uses a press drill has good reasons for doing so. I hope you will email me or call me at 807-468-4006 to share those reasons with Grainews readers.