La ferme Mabon
M. Normand Mabon
Agriculteur Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes, Manitoba
So what happens is, we back up the truck and unload the seed
grain into the seeder. It takes about 20 minutes to fill it; once
it's full, we check that everything's ready and off we go to the
field. Here you see... this is a disc drill; there are shoe drills
and disc drills, really all that a drill-seeder does is that it
turns the soil over, puts down the seed and covers it. Here's
how it works... the disc cuts into the ground and turns it, the
steam blows the seed from the machine and plants it in the furrow,
and the rear wheel covers it with earth again. Here's where you
can control the depth (of the furrow). With that machine you can
plant anywhere from half an inch to three inches deep. The rear
wheels of the machine can be individually set as precisely as
that. Really all that happens with the seeder is that you set
the wheel the way you want, then, as it turns, it spreads the
seed and the fertilizer, and they are blown with steam and a jet
of air right through all the discs. With this machine, I can seed
all by myself; I have seeded 1,500 acres in 48 hours.