10/24/06 More interest in direct seeding

Farm and Ranch October 24, 2006 High fuel costs have more grain growers looking into direct seeding which eliminates several passes over a field. At least Hans Kok, Conservation Tillage Extension Specialist with Washington State University and the University of Idaho, says farmers are asking questions about it. Kok: "There are definitely a lot more farmers asking for information about direct seeding. And I find from the direct seed farmers in this area that their neighbors are asking more questions than before. Just to give you an indication of fuel savings, a lot of farmers if they will divide their fuel bill by the acres they are on, just their on-farm diesel bill for instance, they will find that they use about eight gallons to the acre to get a crop in, especially if we have a number of tillages involved there. If you talk to a lot direct seed farmers that number is more in the 3-5 gallon per acre range. So a very big savings in fuel. You do the math on that one. So I think people are going to be looking closer and whether that tillage pass is absolutely crucial or not. And we'll probably see some people, regretfully, start using more burning instead of tillage because that s cheaper." Kok encourages those interested in direct seeding to attend the Direct Seed Conference being held in Kennewick, Washington, January 11th and 12th. That's put on by the Pacific Northwest Direct Seed Association. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.