The seven-plex folding air drill seeder, part of the Saskatchewan-based company’s eight-year-old Quantum line, is scheduled for a full market release in 2027.

Garth Massie, director of sales for Morris’s parent company, Superior Farms Equipment (SFE), says the new seeder is aimed at enhancing productivity for crop producers working around 9,000 acres.

WHY IT MATTERS: Larger equipment generally allows crop producers to work more acres in a relatively short period of time.

“Canadian farmers probably have the shortest seeding window of anyone in the world,” he says.

“They’re trying to get a lot of work done in a very short amount of time. So there’s been this continuous push on the machinery development side to help farmers get more acres planted every day.”

Aside from increased width (the largest Quantum on the market today is 80 feet), the machine also features an extra six inches (48 inches compared to the previous 42) of spacing per rank compared to smaller Quantum models.

This spacing improves residue handling relative to the seeder width, said SFE director of marketing Melissa MacLean.

“That’s going to maintain the flow without bunching up or plugging so you don’t have to sacrifice any of that by going to a larger machine.”

The decision to go with a fully mechanical seven-plex fold with a single pivot design was based on grower feedback favouring a “traditional” folding machine, says Massie.

The machine’s travel profile — at 28 feet, three inches wide and 18 feet, four inches tall — was designed to be low and narrow in the interest of operator safety.

“Transport underneath power lines … is your key consideration there,” says Massie.

Fertilizer use efficiency was another major consideration in the seeder’s development. The machine uses a high-capacity air system with a smooth, three-inch primary hose to allow easier passage.

“It doesn’t have that rough interior that can restrict airflow,” says MacLean, adding the smooth primary — based on testing — delivers 18 per cent better air flow compared to a rough interior hose.

It’s also paid off in delivery power, says Massie.

“In our testing, we’re able to deliver up to 500 pounds of fertilizer per acre at five m.p.h. (eight km-h). So that’s a really impressive number to hit.”

MacLean also touts the seeder’s independent opener system with “consistent depth control and proven seed/fertilizer separation across the full working width.”

Other specs are much the same as previous Quantums. One exception includes frame depth (96 inches centre to centre compared to 84 inches).

The official launch of the Quantum 100 foot will take place at Ag in Motion July 21-23 near Langham, Sask. It will be paired with the Morris 10 Series 1,440-bushel air cart.

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“It’s kind of an evolution,” says Garth Massie, Canadian sales and marketing manager at Morris. ‘We had the 9 Series introduced in 2013. We’ve been working behind the scenes on this cart for a while.”

The new 10 Series carts, which will be available as the 660, 820 and 1050, have been undergoing field trials and farmer evaluations for a few seasons.

The new units are also slated to be part of the 2024 Innovations Program at Ag in Motion and will be on display at the Saskatchewan farm show, running July 16-18.

“We’ve been taking it slower on staged releases, really trying to debug this machine before we go full tilt with the production of it,” says Massie. “We’re introducing three, four-tank models. One of the things you’ll notice when you first walk up to it is they are individual tanks on scales. I think it’s in tune with the way the market has gone and what farmers really want in air carts now.

“We’ve designed the tank proportions to try and maximize the number of acres per fill. We have a small tank that is used for granular inoculant or canola. After some testing, the farmers said if you could make that a bit bigger, that would be great. It’s not always completely empty when we go to fill.”

So that tank size has been increased to 80 bushels on the final production models.

“We call it the optimizer tank, because it seems to help stretch the arches per fill,” he adds.

The 660 and 820 will be available in both tow-behind and tow-between configurations. When the series was announced this spring, the 1050 was to be built only as a tow-behind tank, but the company in early July said its 1050 will also be “the largest commercially available tow-between cart.”

The carts will ride on wheels only. Tracks won’t be an option.

“We’ve moved in the direction of larger rims and tires in order to get low inflation pressures and reduce compaction that way,” Massie adds.

The new carts will also get a significantly redesigned metering system. The previous 9 Series used hydraulics to control each section on the tank meters. The 10 Series will use a maintenance-free electric drive motor to run each section individually.

“The metering system is all new,” says Massie. “Before, our sectional control system was hydraulically driven and there were gear clusters with a hydraulic cylinder that actuated them. Now we’ve gone to electric motors, so there’s a motor for each section. We’ll go up to 10 sections. So there is an electric motor that drives each section on each tank. So you could have up to 40 different motors on a cart.”

For loading, the 10 Series will use a new conveyor design built by partner company Convey-All, which Massie says has demonstrated it can load up to 108 bushels of wheat per minute during field trials.

Many of the design changes on the new carts were intended to reduce the amount of down time. Massie says was a key focus for engineers when creating the 10 Series.

“At Morris there was a focus at looking at how do we minimize the amount of time the drill isn’t running up and down the fields actually seeding, reducing down time.”

Although Morris and Rite Way are now joined under a new parent company, they will continue to operate as individual brands, but farmers will eventually begin seeing slightly different decals on the sides of implements. The firm says they will begin transitioning their product lines to Rite Way SFE, Morris SFE and ProAG SFE.

“Over time you’re going to see some Superior Farms decals on Morris equipment and on Rite Way equipment,” says Massie. “We’ll kind of ease into it. Of course there’s brand equity in Morris and Rite Way. The thing for people to get used to is Superior Farms. I think you’ll see Morris and Rite Way in the long term be very prominent. You’ll also see Superior Farms decaling to tie them into this new parent company.

Morris produced a limited production run of 10 Series carts this year and is now taking orders for delivery in time for the 2025 seeding season.

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In March of 2021 Rite Way Manufacturing acquired Morris Equipment. In mid May of this year the company announced the launch of a new parent company, Superior Farms Equipment Ltd., which it says will “bring together the rich legacies” of both equipment brands.

The two brands will continue to operate under the new parent company, but the firms says they will begin transitioning their product lines to Rite Way SFE, Morris SFE and ProAG SFE.

“We are thrilled to unveil Superior Farms Equipment and unify the companies to better serve our customers,” said Cameron Johnson, Chairman and CEO of SFE in a press release. “This transition is an exciting step.”

The combined companies will continue to be operated by Rite Way president and CEO Heather Forbes.

“Forbes will be supported by the long-term management teams at Rite Way and Morris, and together we are well-equipped to build on the legacies of each company and continue to grow our business through our existing dealers and customers,” the release said.

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