June 23 seeding demo at Lethbridge

What’s the best seeding system you can use? The answer to that may always remain a personal preference. But you can get an excellent idea of how six of the leading air seeders and drills compare at a southern Alberta field day coming up Wednesday, June 23.

Alberta’s Ag Tech Centre is staging a seeding technology demonstration June 23 at the AgTech Centre’s research farm south of Lethbridge on Highway 508.

The six leading systems supplied by SeedMaster, John Deere, Morris, New Holland, Seed Hawk and Bourgault have already been at the research farm, each seeding their respective areas of a 200 acre demonstration site. The six systems will be back on the farm June 23 to provide a live demonstration to producers attending the field day.

“The demonstration isn’t intended to say one system is better than another, but to give producers a first hand look at home different seeders and drills work under similar field conditions,” says Mike Bevans, an AgTech Centre technologist who is coordinating the field day.

“The first 200 acres will have been seeded to crops such as peas, wheat and canola for about one month before the June 23 field day. The first seeding wasn’t done under the best conditions because of the wet spring. But producers can see how the crops are performing and also see how the various systems work.”

At the demonstration day producers can make their own assessment of how different systems handle fertilizer and seed placement, soil disturbance, and residue management. There will also be presentations on variable rate technologies, inter-row seeding, and RTK coverage.

The AgTech Centre research farm is south of Lethbridge, east off of Highway 5 on Highway 508. Or if you are coming in on Highway 4, go west on Highway 508. There will be signs.

Coffee and lunch will be provided at the field day. And in the event of inclement weather the field day will be rescheduled to June 28.  For more information contact Mike Bevans at the AgTech Centre at 403-329-1212, or email michael.bevans@gov.ab.ca.

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