The 1D1 is based on a wildlife management plan that was established specifically for my place by Texas Parks and Wildlife and in order to maintain the low property taxes the State offers for my work, I diligently accomplish the prescribed work. This work mainly has made me a habitat manipulator and a farmer. The later is not in the traditional sense, but what I tend to be is a weed farmer. I will never forget the first crops I planted using contract equipment and labor twenty years ago. The elderly Hispanic gentleman looked at the seed I was pouring into the seed bin of the planter and with his heavy accent he proclaimed, "this is what we do, we plant weeds?"
That was a mouthful and I took it to heart because that was and is exactly what I do. I threw the "Farmers Handbook" away and learned what works for growing productive, protein rich weeds. Kind of like what I did when I became interested in bullet casting!
During each Spring and Fall, I spend a lot of time in the cab of a tractor. For close to a week, the days start and end with the work lights shining. Here in South Texas our soils are hard, real hard. The prep work is tough even on food plots that have been established for a decade. Our soils compact quickly after prep and are hard as a rock by the time the next planting season is upon us. Most areas of the US have gone to no-til farming but not hear where traditional methods are needed to prep the soil.
I've dreamed of single pass farming, having an implement, that can handle the soil prep through planting in a single pass, as my food plots are strung out over a mile and a half. Just the tractor time between the plots is huge and as I reach the end of the line, I have to come back and change implements. It is tough timing the work against the rain forecasts as it takes me at least long days to go from semi-prepped soil to seeds in the group. I decided to do something about after planting this fall as the work literally wore me down to the point of wanting to quit.
Right off the bat I was out of luck as I need something that is tiller based for our soil andthe few "one pass" machines available are based on "no-till" and they are very expensive ($13K to $15K). As I mentioned earlier, our soils are tough even after a decade of tilling twice a year. Here is what the work looks like…
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Six years ago I gave on harrow based tilling as the passes in a field were countless and moved to a tiller. I quickly found out that larger farm tillers are expensive about $1/per foot of width. I did find a fellow that imports tillers from China and an 8' tiller, the tiller in the video cost me $1850. I figured it would not last, or told by many that it wouldn't (based on where it was from) but they have been proved wrong. This thing is a tank!
With a tiller based planter not available in the USA, I took the information off the data plate of my tiller and set to work finding out who made it and if I could get something from them that would fit my needs. What I found was a company that has been around for over 62 years that builds farm equipment for the tough soils of the world, namely Asia and Africa. This started one of the most enjoyable projects I have yet to work on and what I have is a planter that fits my specific needs at 1/5 of the cost, delivered to my home State.
This implement is based on the tiller that I have been using (a new one) and is going to truly be one pass planting. Fertilizer is delivered ahead of the tiller via the "chutes" and then is tilled into the soil. Behind the tiller tines a gate packs or flattens a seed bed.
As the gate passes, openers slice open the tilled soil to a depth specific to the seed being planted. The openers are adjustable for depth. Seeds are delivered to the soil via drill tubes between the openers and then a cultipacker follows for seed bed packing. The cultipacker is spec'd with a mud scrapper and fins to insure positive rotation as the packer is what dives the augers in the seed and fertilizer boxes. Both of those boxes have rate controllers for the product being delivered to the soil and the ability to handle a wide range of seeds and the three sizes of fertilizer granules.
Here is a video my contact sent. The unit does not have the fertilizer unit attached but demonstrates the single pass effort against the untilled soil.
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This has been one of the most interesting projects I have ever been involved with. I have been dealing with one of the most interesting individuals that I have run across. This project has helped me to cross many barriers that I have within.
The bottom line is that my "project" leaves mainland China tomorrow and starts a 25 day Pacific crossing. From the west coast it will be placed on a rail car and sent to me. I'm truly excited about something like this that I've put together and caused to happen at a fraction of the cost of what I could not find! Heck I want that truck in the photo above for my ranch as well!
