Testing Out a Planter on our SeedMaster Farm

Jan 03, 2023

Planters have grown in popularity in the United States, but you don’t see as many in Alberta. However, that didn’t stop our curiosity at Rousseau Creek Farms in Deadwood, Alta. We had heard we would be able to cut seeding rates by using a planter and get better crop emergence.

Last spring our local dealership brought a planter out to our farm for a demo. The first day didn’t go as planned, it was spent trying to get the settings on it right. There were missing parts and parts that weren’t right for it. The planter didn’t even make it into the field that day.

The next day we were ready to get rolling with it. We weren’t however able to distribute fertilizer with the seed. We also discovered the canola seeds were cracking as they were getting stuck on the plates used to meter out the seed.

It took three days to get 100 acres of canola seeded, with our SeedMaster seeders we usually plant around 400 acres per day, making the planter not financially feasible for us. About 10 acres into the demo both sales guys said to us that a planter wasn’t the right fit for our farm.

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Video: Our Own On-Farm Research Is the Best Source - Managing White Mold in Northeast Nebraska

If you assumed Nebraska was too hot and dry for white mold to be a problem in soybeans, think again.

This week we're featuring Galen Samuelson, a farmer and dealer from Wakefield, Nebraska, who knows all too well how devastating white mold can be.

"We don't have it consistently every year, but with our temperature and humidity, it can hurt us quite bad," Samuelson says. Looking for alternatives, he explains, "What I like about Heads Up is that it's non-harmful to the beneficial fungal colonies in the soil." Galen has been using Heads Up for several years now, after first hearing about it through a small ad in a regional newspaper. Watch below to hear about his journey.

When asked to write about Samuelson Seed, Galen said the following:

"Samuelson Seed is a 4th-generation, family-based company. It started with my grandfather, and I'm now starting to pass the torch to my son, Caleb."

"In the early 1990s, I started working with a company whose focus was on plant and soil health before those benefits were widely known. I've continued to keep plant and soil health the main focus in our farming operation decisions."