Residue managers/row cleaners

[gamache]

Do you know of any one in Alberta that is using residue managers on a disk (JD 750) or shank type direct seeding drill. Yetter is a popular brand in the USA. The residue managers are used quite commonly on zero-till corn planters.

[slinger]

Unfortunately, I do not know anyone using the residue managers, but I do have some information I thought I would pass on. The Alberta Farm Machinery Research Centre had some calls for information about residue managers several years ago, and did some checking into who manufactured them. At that time there were not many manufacturers, mostly in the USA. Yetter was the main manufacturer. There were several distributers for the various manufacturers in Canada, including Case and John Deere dealers, who handled the Yetter units. If you are interested in our list (it is quite short), let me know and I can fax it to you. One of our engineers also seems to remember that the local sugar beet association tried residue managers some years ago. You might want to contact them to see what information they have. I found one other piece of information that you might be interested in: a comment which I believe originated with the South Dakota no-till association. 'Row cleaners a.k.a. residue managers have been highly successful on planters, but have serious limitations on 750 drills due to the lack of a parrallel-link. This results in the residue manager on the 750 often running too deep or too shallow, either gouging into the soil or not doing anything at all. A number of producers have tried planting corn with 750-type drills over the years ... but nearly all have abandoned the idea...'