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| This page has been modified from the original. | Horse Quality Hay Index |
| Comparison shopping for a new or used
drill is a time consuming, sometimes frustrating thing to
do. Their are several box type drills on the market,
claiming to be notill. I want to point out some of the
things we looked for in choosing our notill drill. Price
was one of our main concerns. We don't have a big
operation and have little use for a high dollar air
seeder but we do like John Deeres single disk planting
system. Parts availability and support are two main concerns when purchasing a new machine, or any type of machine for that matter. Krause has been around for along time and has a fair dealer network. We were considering a Sunflower at the time but there were backlogs on both drills when we found this drill on a small dealers lot. It made the choice a little easier when you have planting to do. Now I heard Sunflower did have a parts availability problem. I hope they have this problem fixed because they do have a good product with some nice features. I'll point them out as we go. |
 One great feature of most box type drills, is the way they fold into a nice narrow package. When folding the left front tire is to close to the drill unit carrier on the main tongue. I have to raise the three point to make it clear,or the drill driver tire digs into the steel and the left side won't fold or unfold. This is one case where a couple inches could make a-lot of difference. The Sunflower also folds into a nice package to make traveling easy. I haven't heard of any folding problems.  |
 2009 CANYON  2009 SILVERADO Hybrid  2009 HUMMER  2008 KODIAK Crew Pickup  GM - HYSTER fuel cell powered forklift  My Field done with the KRAUSE 5400 notill drill |
| As you can
see the springs on this drill are fairly large and have
room to travel. One major brand dealer offered to let us
try one of there double disk drills with the notion that
it could be used for no-till. That drill only had a
couple small springs to push the planting unit down. The
drill may have worked, but after running the Krause and
seeing how hard it worked and what it pushed through, I
doubt the small spring machine would have handled the
job. John Deere has a double disk drill with some huge down springs on it, but it never gained any popularity in our area. I don't know why Deere made such a heavy duty machine for minimum till applications, if it had the Krause type disk system it would be a great drill. Don't mistake a 'double disk' drill as being a 'no-till' drill. |
 |
I'd be
lying to you if I told you I didn't like the way this
drill cleared trash, even parts of heavy straw windrows
the baler couldn't reach because the ground under the row
was too wet. These disks have over 1400 acres on them and
may need replaced soon. I'm guessing 2000 acres on a set I am a firm believer in this notched blade and I noticed my neighbor's Sunflower doesn't have this feature yet. There is a problem, in damp or clay spots the Krause drill will throw dirt, actually ripping the side out of the furrow. I noticed Sunflower has some 'row firmers' on each side of their planting unit disks. This looks like a winner. I seen a field the Sunflower done. It looks fine but I would like to see it work in damp and/or clay conditions. A drill with Krause style notched blades and Sunflower type row firmers would be a unbeatable machine! |
| I would also like to
comment on another problem. We had some extremly tough
conditions last year. This had the tendency of breaking
the forward running notched blade from it's hub. It would
seem the rivets maybe to short or soft for the
application. Yes you can use bolts in their place! In
fact all of our drill has been converted to bolts.
Another thing I like better about the Krause is the
marker system and a better line of sight to watch the
square 'seed bar' rotating. I also recommend using this drill like you would using a corn planter. When I get to the end of the field I lift the machine, - then turn! This takes a-lot of stress off the lead disk. By Rick Vorce |
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