In February, Bourgault announced two new features that allow for significant design changes on some of its drills.
First, the 3725QDA coulter drill makes its debut.
“The 3725 was kind of an extension of the 5 Series model, the 3335, when Bourgault went with the quick-adjust frame,” said Colin Rush, North American sales and marketing leader at Bourgault. “It allowed producers to change the seeding depth by moving shims on the frame, without going one-by-one on the openers.
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“We took that exact same concept and decided it was time we had a quick-depth adjustable coulter drill.”
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The result of that design change is the 3725QDA. It uses a hydraulic cylinder and shim assembly on each rear carrier wheel to set the seed depth. Adding or removing shims changes the angle of the frame, which results in seed depth change because of the unique geometry of the PLW (Paralink Walking) opener. The total range of seed depth change with the Quick Depth Adjust (QDA) is three-quarters of an inch.
“By adjusting shims across the back of the drill in a couple of minutes it allows you to switch crops. It’s a great innovative feature,” Rush said. “Each shim is an eighth of an inch. You raise the cylinders up and put shims in or take them out. Where the closing wheel is situated, it allows the opener to go deeper. One of the reasons producers up until now haven’t liked buying coulter drills is they haven’t been as easily adjustable as precision hoe drills.”
Rush said about 10 of the 3725QDA drills will be working in fields this season ahead of full production, and the company has had this adjustment system in field trials for a while.
“We’ve been in tests on it for the last couple of years to make sure it worked as well as our precision shank hoe openers do,” he said. “Model year 2025 will be the first full production year. They’ll be available for the spring of 2025.”
The first production year models of the 3725QDA drills will require manual depth adjustment, but eventually the brand’s AccuSet 2 adjustment system will be available on this model as well, which allows for remote depth setting.
XP Duo meter
Bourgault’s “air planter” 3820 coulter drill with PLR row units is a blending of seeder and planter technology into one single implement. It uses a meter to supply singulated seed to each row unit just like a planter. But the new XP Duo meter is now able to supply singulated seed to two row units at the same time.
That cuts the number of required meters in half and reduces the complexity of the air planter system.
“Several years ago we announced the whole air planter concept,” said Rush. “The XP meter with one meter per opening row was very much in tune with what the industry was providing on planters.
“Singulation in anything is a significant cost, adding the cost of a positive displacement or vacuum meter plus the bulk-fill system, and then the electrical and hydraulics required to run all those systems could be very significant.
“We just found we weren’t bringing enough value for the customers. We were able to look at the value and say what if each meter could do a single or double row of singulation. So it’s essentially half the meters but all the singulation; having two ejectors essentially cut our costs and complexity, as well as hydraulic and electrical requirements, in half. So this was the birth of the XP Duo meter.”
The new meters use positive pressure to deliver seed to the trench. The company says that system allows for accurate seed placement even with uneven soil surfaces or hilly terrain.
With XP Duo meters, the 3820 drills can be set to provide 7.5-, 15- and 30-inch row spacings to accommodate a wide range of crop types with just one machine.
The XP Duo meter will be available on the 3820 Paralink drill as well as the CD848, CD9120 and CD872 frame mounted seeders.
“For guys looking for singulation on things like soybeans but also want a drill to do winter wheat, cereals, cover crops on a narrow spacing, we can essentially lock up that rear rank on the coulter drill and have that 15-inch spacing for soybeans,” Rush says.
“If they want to do corn with that, each of those dual meters we can block off. There’s a plug that goes into one of those ejectors and now it’s on 30 inches. It’s really designed to be a very quick change. We think it’ll be a great concept.
“Essentially we’ve created a new machine class now with this XP Duo meter, the air planter and volumetric seeder on the same platform. As crops shift, we’re trying to be more futuristic to match what we think producers’ needs will be.”
