Layoffs coming at Bourgault

[seldomseen]

I get along fine with my old 5710 most of the time and the crop comes up as good as any drill. The one time the expensive independent drills worked better was when it is really wet my steel packers would plug with mud and drag down the field and the independents would keep rolling. I such a case putting a set of shovels on an 8810 with harrows then harrow packing works just as good as the independent.

Reading all the comments on this thread might hurt a few egos!

[fjlip]

Dragging all those TONNES of iron on not so dry soil equals a crop poor in the tracks. One fellow has a quad pulling at least 65' with a tracked 950 tank. SFA grows where those 8 tracks go. Seeded for 17 years with an 8810 ,poly and 3195, about $70K brand new, always had a crop. That was low cost per acre! I am smiling that I am not alone seeding with low value iron . We can be our own worst enemy. K.I.S.S.

[bigzee]

My pathetic rat trap beat up old 5710 grew just as good a crop as any drill around. Not just bourgault. ANY DRILL. Canola isnt as fussy about being placed perfect anymore. Comes up 2" down.

Thought guys were saving so much canola seed with the new drill that it paid for the drill?

[ATTACH]3610[/ATTACH]

Anything will grow a nice crop on flat ground. I have rolling land and some good hills. My Seedhawk yields more than my Flexi Coil 5000. Where the land is “flatter” the yield isn’t that much different. I would never seed canola with the 5000 in rolling land, especially with today’s seed costs.

[Taiga]

I also run a 5710. Cost was right. However it definitely needs a level surface, otherwise you get a lot of seed dropped on the surface. On the rough ground (sod breaking) where we grow oats it doesn’t pay to spend the big money on fancy drill, oats sure don’t pay for that. Some of these carts alone are advertised for $350k, that’s absolutely insane, we have lost our way if we pay that.

[furrowtickler]

The bigger seed drills are needed for guys seeding 10,000 ac / drill, I don’t think there egos will be bothered at all lol. All seed drills will do a decent job , it’s just the cost / ft of new drills, associated tanks and power requirements are huge now . Wether you cover 4000 ac with a 50 ft or 8-10,000 ac with a 90ft drill its all kinda relative . It’s just the cost of new drills and tanks is extremely high now and the used market for big drills is relatively small due to very large power and hydraulic requirements. Also only specific areas are suited to the very big drills and tanks.
Even the smaller drills take a beating at auctions, seed units seem to be almost Farm specific . What works for one guy may not be the answer to the guy next door at all.
I have seen a lot of very good crops grown with very big drills as well , and constantly around here. It’s really not about that , it’s about the cost of iron being crazy high and the bigger the outfit the more it has been exaggerated. That’s where the biggest depreciation kicks in. Very few farms can handle or have a need for very large drills , not that they are not great drills at all , just a very limited used market.

[Guest]

I also run a 5710. Cost was right. However it definitely needs a level surface, otherwise you get a lot of seed dropped on the surface. On the rough ground (sod breaking) where we grow oats it doesn’t pay to spend the big money on fancy drill, oats sure don’t pay for that. Some of these carts alone are advertised for $350k, that’s absolutely insane, we have lost our way if we pay that.

our old morris maxim 2 , mid 2000's, does real good ,even or uneven . morris was the closest to an independent there was , before they showed up . ours is 55 ft and pulls like 5 sections of hoe drills all independent of each other. there is no more than 5 packers on a gang . and the packers sections walk indepentdantly . it doesn't seem to care about uneven ground , have been seeding 4.2 lbs canola with it for 15 years , they were definetly ahead of their time . straw clearance is the best there is with the edge on shanks . they clear straw much better than a C shank
I doubt if it would fetch $10 k at RB . worth as much as a contour to me !

[Guest]

Bourgault Industries basically came out and said machinery cost are getting too high, so we need to lay off 50 employees. They also noted yields were down, and commodity prices are terrible.
They must have got the memo from the dealerships, we won’t be ordering and early Christmas gifts. Who will be next?

what in the world could possibly be going wrong ?
let's see ' $600-$800 k for a dril and cart
2 years later sells for $150 at RB
most grain same price as 50 years ago
should work ???

[seldomseen]

My pathetic rat trap beat up old 5710 grew just as good a crop as any drill around. Not just bourgault. ANY DRILL. Canola isnt as fussy about being placed perfect anymore. Comes up 2" down.

Thought guys were saving so much canola seed with the new drill that it paid for the drill?

[ATTACH]3610[/ATTACH]

Looks like a nice swathing job jazz. I have to laugh when I watch a guy swath the same way they seed and cut the stubble tall then after some wet weather wonder why their crop is hard to pick up and is sprouted.

[farmaholic]

I'm back....

The Bourgault guy at the Regina FPS told me they will stop building them bigger when farmers quit buying them bigger.

I guess they're finding out the sky's not the limit especially in PRICE and size. Some of those things have become behemoth monstrosities, especially the Bourgs with the amount of iron in them.

But don't suffer from too much schadenfreude, everyone made their choices for specific reasons. In some areas of this province you could drop the seed on the surface of the ground and grow better crops than the best drills in poorer areas could produce, and here's a news flash... it isn't always the seeding tool and by and large ten times it's the land you have.

Bigzee made a very good point of variable topography....some people barely know what ****ing hills are. If all you ever have to to is get it an inch deep in rich moist black soil with a slight roll in the topography, you might look like a ****en hero every time. We have some rolling topography where the 13 foot flex frame sections of a Flexicoil were too ****ing wide....either gouging it in over sharp knolls or the boots peaking out in the center of the sections in the draws.

ALSO, people make decisions based on what stage of their career they're in, if anyone wants to finish their career with what's works for them...good for them. If you can't afford even the modest sized new tech drills, who cares...use what works for you. Even if you can afford the new drills and older tech is working for you and you have many years left in your career...do what's best for you and your farm.

But please don't forget the great equalizer...moisture! There's guys deep banding in areas of the province and the last thing I want to do here is open the ground up, seems sometimes even opening the ground up seeding in spring dries things out too much.

And I will not tirelessly defend the Bourg PHD...because I am on the record as stating they are going to be a maintenance nightmare, probably one of the worst!

[hobbyfrmr]

But but but....fields and farms are bigger ....it only makes sense to have 120 foot drills.....

After the 88 foot drill that could seed between last seasons stubble was introduced , I just tuned out 🙂
There is a genuine argument that larger acre farms require larger more efficient machinery. You cant stop progress.

[seldomseen]

I thought this thread would touch a few nerves.
No rich black soil here just heavy sticky clay some fairly flat land but also some really choppy stuff with ditches and hills and clay knolls with water holes.

[jazz]

Seeding through flat heavy clay is no cakewalk. Yes not a lot of hills, but wet spots usually, lots of trash sometimes, loon sh*t soil in places, ruts. But yes usually moisture right there to offset less than perfect placement.