Ernie says, “Our main challenge is to get the crop in fairly early, to get it properly established and growing so we can beat the fall frost. A fairly open fall is unusual. We’re more likely to get frost in late August or early September.”

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Switch to no-till

After 14 or 15 years of continuous cropping, the Spilchuks switched to no-till for the 1999 crop.

“That year was quite a challenge. It was really wet in the spring. No-tilling for the first time, we had lots of residue to deal with,” he recalls. “But, the soil is becoming more mellow and easier to manage.” 

They needed an air cart to make the switch to no-till so they chose a tow-between Flexi-Coil 3450 air cart with dual fans to blow seed and fertilizer across a 57-foot wide seeding system.

The Spilchuks had been using anhydrous ammonia, an economical source of nitrogen fertilizer. They wanted to continue using anhydrous, so the tractor-train (powered by a six-year old, 350-hp 4WD tractor) included the air cart, seeder and anhydrous wagon.

“We liked the whole system, but once we got into it, we realized we needed a lot of hydraulic flow,” Ernie says. “When we were turning and lifting the seeder out of the ground at the end of the field, the fan would slow down because it was a little short of oil. We needed to do something because of that shortage.”

After a little investigation of New Holland’s new TJ Series, they traded in their old 4WD tractor for their first New Holland 4WD tractor, a new TJ375. The TJ375 has a standard 55-gallons-per-minute oil flow, which was plenty of hydraulic flow to meet the Spilchuk’s needs, Ernie says. They also opted for dual tires to reduce slippage on hillsides, plus a perfomance monitor and extra lighting.

“The reason we went to the TJ is that we really liked what we saw,” Ernie says. “We wanted more oil flow, and the TJ gave it to us. Plus the visibility is excellent and they’re very user-friendly and convenient to service.”

After the 2002 seeding, Ernie says the Spilchuks were quite pleased with their new tractor. “We seed at 4.2 to 4.5 mph,” he says. “We set the field cruise control, and it stays constant uphill and downhill, no problem at all.”

Referring to fan speed during the high-demand turn-and-lift operation at field ends, Ernie say, “We don’t even notice any change at all.

“And we really like the torque rise with the Cummins engine,” he adds. “It’s got a lot of lugging power. We chose the 24-speed manual transmission instead of the power shift option. It’s cheaper and it really works nicely, with the torque rise.

“We got the optional lighting package on top of the cab, and visibility is excellent. I’ll seed from 5 o’clock in the morning till 11 o’clock at night. There’s no problem seeing where you’re going at night. And the fuel economy probably is more economical. I can seed around 400 acres with a fill, and that’s two days of seeding.

“We’re hoping the TJ will last us 20 years with no-till,” Ernie continues. “We’ve got 270 hours of seeding on it now, and it should last 5,000 hours easily.”