Bourgault Drills

[RidgeRunner]

I have noticed guys moving from 3310's back to 5810's and wondered why? If you take the cost and hydrolic demand out of the equation, thought it's the way to go.

I went from an 8810 to a larger 5710 II with dry MRB's, and have had good and bad luck with it. Works great in drier loam soil/light land, but if it's wet at all, or if you have clay, conditions have to be on the drier side for proper emergence. It's my first year with it but learned alot. Wheat was seeded into drier canola/flax stubble, and worked great. Flax seeded into w.wht/wht stubble that was wetter, not happy with emergence in the heavy land. Found plants seeded at 1 inch that are like corkscrews trying to come thought the clay cap. By the time we got to the canola we seen this problem, and waited on conditions to improve, and went super shallow, shallower than I was comfortable with, but it rained, which worked great.

Contouring in the hills sucks compared to our old 8810, making me wonder which way to go, 3310 or back to an 8910. With the rain we get/been getting around here, the 8810's with packers look great this year, they're about half the packing pressure of a 5710.

Rode with a neighbor that has a seedmaster/6350 BG tank, and I was impressed with it, other than the huge furrows left.(rough) He never checks his depth, set at 3/4 inch and just goes. Always has perfect emergence.

Love the tank, I have the 6350 as well, liked the MRB's other than when you turn with them in the ground, but watching the seedmaster, things are bending and twisting like crazy as well if truning when in the ground.

Need a tractor with big hydro capacity for a independant, especially if running two fans. For me that was a challenge even with our drill at the headlands.

Think the 3310 would ge great for the fact that you can adjust your packing on the go, and would contour so well. But they're heavy and expensive.

Good luck with your decision.

Inch and two tenths here, seeding done, behind on spraying. Crops coming nice. Central MB.

[tman]

For the ones who have the MRB's, how many acres do you go before the discs are changed?

I've found out, I think, that is the cause of the problem that I've been having with my boss's 42' 5710. These are the basic MRB's with the spring in front of the 3.5" square tubing that has two bolts holding it to the machine.

I figure that they've delayed seeding by 1 to 2 days with all the plugging issues in the cereal and pea stubble. Except when things got really dry with wind and sun, those MRB's would just push the straw and dirt. The MRB's in the middle of the machine are the worst headache this spring. Even when they were lifted up for seeding peas they would plug with straw because there's too little room between them and the next shank. Really frustrating when you only do 10 to 15 acres an hour when you could be doing up to 25.

These discs have 18,000 acres on them now and I think that's about 5 to 8000 too many.

I would like to convince my boss to switch openers and get rid of them but again, the discs are worn so they might be better when new. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt since some of you have had positive results.

But I sure as h*ll don't want to go through this crap next spring. Without the MRB's this 5710, like 8800 can go through a forest.

[furrowtickler]

Agree with the no mid rows for sure. Neighbor bought a used 5710, no mid rows with liquid side band. Way better than his old 5710 with MRB's for trash clearence and pulls much easier to boot. Much better than the old one, but still has to wait for conditions to dry up a while longer than our 8810. Our 8810 goes through almost anything and can seed in very wet conditions with no prob. Don't know much about the paralinks.

[bgmb]

I think one thing worth noting is that the 57/5810
is a totally different animal depending on what
packer you get, my recommendation would be to
go with a 4 in semi pneumatic or the 5.5in
pneumatic depending on if you are 10 or 12 in
spacing I think with either of those packers they
perform more like an 8810. Steel with sc****rs is
another animal all together.

Also if you are comparing a 8810 with no banders
to a 5710 with banders it is appales to oranges in
terms of contouring because you have castor
wheel extensions on the Mrb machine. But I still
agree the 8810 is slightly better contouring
overall. But we have run side by side in very wet
conditions and the 5810 would go through as
much mud as the 8810.

[farmaholic]

Furrow: Did your neighbor have the "shank" style MRBs or the coulter style. I heard the shank style are rakes. I thought the shank style would be the way to go maintenance wise but heard they are terrible for clearing trash.

[Hopperbin]

My old 5710 with shank mid rows was a rock digger. I actually re worked the frame somewhat cause did not like the way bourgault put some of them on the back and mid frame, they threw dirt and trash onto the seed rows. 4th year with seedmaster and way less rocks, I would suspect the 3300 series bourgault to be even better with rocks as your not using a shank to band the fert. The bourgaults are doing a lovely job up here but I suppose the grass looks greener on the other side of fence possibly. They are going through some amazing mud behind them quadtracks big tanks big tires no ruts.

[furrowtickler]

Ya i hear the new 5810's are much better. I like the bourgault paralink setup too. Would love to see one set up single shoot and liquid side banders - would be a sweet set up .