The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) has announced that the Versatile ML Series Drill has won an AE50 award. The award comes less than two years after Versatile entered the precision seeding market.

“We are honored that this product has been recognized as one of the year’s most innovative designs,” says Adam Reid, director of marketing. “This is the brain child of our engineering department and they’ve spent two years testing and refining this technology, all while maintaining the Versatile standard of simplicity, reliability and ease of service and maintenance.”

The key to the success of this design is found within the ALIVE technology: Accurate seed placement with Level, Independent openers for uncompromised Vertical Emergence of crops. The ALIVE technology incorporates three critical features to achieve optimum seed and fertilizer placement. Independent shank technology, mechanical linkage and seed furrow selection. Seed furrow selection means operators can choose the seed placement they require for each type of crop they seed from the cab of the tractor and the technology on the ML Series air drill maintains that seed placement regardless of changing soil or terrain conditions.

Unlike traditional parallel link drills, the ML series does not rely on hydraulic cylinder(s) on each shank assembly to maintain consistent seeding depth, packing pressure or shank trip force. Frame height is adjustable up or down to increase or decrease packing pressure, which allows operators to pass through soft areas and over harder knolls while maintaining consistent depth and precise seeding capabilities. A separate spring on each shank assembly enables the seed boot to trip in rocky conditions. Tractor hosepower and hydraulic flow requirements are less for ML Series drills because they are able to maintain seeding depth, packing pressure and shank trip force without hydraulic cylinders on each shank, compared to other existing parallel link drills. Combined with in-cab seed furrow selection, the ML Series drill is an exciting new piece of precision seeding technology.