"Blue system cuts fuel, saves time at seeding"

Blue system cuts fuel, saves time at seeding

Lawrence Buhr relies on his New Holland TJ500 tractor and 57-foot SD440 air drill to increase seeding acreage and reduce tillage.

Fuel consumption cut by a third

Good things came from his upgrade to a new all-blue New Holland seeding system last spring, says Plumas, Manitoba grower Lawrence Buhr. He saved money on fuel, made better use of limited time for spring seeding, and worked with the confidence that he had a full 10-year power train warranty.

"My tractor fuel was getting to be an awful big expense. I thought, by going to a bigger tractor and a bigger drill, I could get by on quite a bit less fuel and, that's exactly what's happened," Lawrence says.

Over the past 20 years, the Lawrence and Wendy Buhr farm has grown from 320 acres to 4,000 acres. The crop rotation, for more than half this time, has been wheat and canola. Two of their sons, Greg and Joe, want to become farm managers one day.

Located in the center of Manitoba's farming region, their land is "very flat," says Lawrence. It has a mix of soils from light and sandy to clay-loam at the edge of marshland.

"I can run that tractor for 10 years and not worry about the powertrain."
—Lawrence Buhr

"When it is wet, that is definitely a challenge," Lawrence says, noting that three of the past seven seeding seasons have been wet.

Gradually, as he's increased the seeded acres, he has reduced tillage to a minimum and has upgraded equipment to accomplish the work in the same narrow month-of-May seeding window.

"We till once in the fall, with our fertilizer treatment, and in spring we try to just go out and seed. Sometimes we harrow, and if it gets late, we may till again."

One of the upgrades he made in 1996 was to a 39', low disturbance, Flexi-Coil 5000 air drill. "I used it nine years. It was an accurate drill, and it was virtually trouble-free," he says. "We went back to the dealer for another one this year. It has a new name now, but I wouldn't have anything else for seeding."

Bigger drill, bigger tractor

In 2005, the family decided it was time for a bigger drill and a bigger tractor to pull it. They came home with a New Holland TJ500 4WD tractor, a 57' SD440 air drill and a 380-bushel tank. The drill uses 4" Stealth™ openers and matching packer wheels.

"The seeding results are very much what I was used to, but this is hydraulic driven so it's a little more user-friendly and a little more accurate. The other one was ground-driven," he says.

Lawrence Buhr and his son, Joe. Joe and another son, Greg, plan to take over management of the farm someday.

His goals included lower fuel consumption and more effective use of the seeding time he has available. Lawrence makes it a practice to get an accurate fuel consumption figure at least once each spring. Starting with a full tank of diesel, he seeds for most of the day, and then gets a measured refill from his farm supply dealer.

Lawrence had seeded in 2003 and 2004 with a John Deere tractor. "It was costing me 0.55 gallons per acre to seed," he says.

In 2005, he saw fuel consumption plunge to only 0.36 gallons per acre with the 500-hp New Holland tractor pulling the 57' air system.

"That's basically what I was hoping for," he says of the one-third cut in fuel costs. "On my farm, with this combination, it will cost me about $6,000 less. It's something like $1.50 an acre less.

"I was interested in going back to the Cummins engine because they have been traditionally quite good on fuel. It's the combination of the Cummins engine being easier on fuel and the drill being wider that brought the fuel economy up."

Before, he could seed 350 acres on a tank of fuel. The new tank is slightly larger and, with more fuel economy, has enough capacity for seeding more than 600 acres.

At the same time, he saw three other improvements as he used the TJ500.

He was using the Powershift transmission for the first time. "It's so much nicer to operate than the gear-driven transmission. Especially if you get in a wet spot, you can just shift down without stopping. With a gear transmission, you pretty well have to stop, and then you're stuck. We've had lots of situations already where the Powershift came in very handy this past spring."

Hydraulic capacity increased

Lawrence says he'd been "a bit short" of air pressure before when turning. Now, he can idle down, lift the air drill, and still have enough hydraulic pressure to keep the air system working smoothly.

Traction increased as he added a third set of wheels on the TJ500. He says, "My experience with this is that I have a whole lot of footage with a whole lot of traction. It gives me good flotation and lots of traction."

The result of the changes is hard to measure, but important.

"We spend less time filling the tanks for fuel, seed and fertilizer, and have more time for seeding. It takes a lot less time to get a quarter done, and we're seeding earlier overall because we don't have to wait for our fields to be quite as dry," he says.

His New Holland dealership, 30 miles away, also appreciates the value of Buhr's time at seeding. He's had a good relationship with the dealership for many years and expects it to continue.

"The service has been just excellent," he says. "It doesn't seem to matter whether it's the weekend or evening, they've looked after me real well."

When he purchased the new TJ tractor, its powertrain warranty was a confidence booster compared to the two-year warranty on his previous tractor.

"This one has a 10-year warranty," he says. "I can run that tractor for 10 years and not worry about the powertrain giving me any trouble. That seems like a long time to warranty something, so that tells me that it must be built pretty well. And, they give you that with no extra charge."

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