Dawn equipment

This afternoon I actually had no appointments booked but knew that Dawn equipment were close by so I stopped for lunch and just popped into their factory on the off chance. Dawn equipment are a company that construct various add ons to planters including row cleaners and the cover crop rollers I saw at Lucas’s. Their latest launch is Dawn Biologic and their corn Interseeder. I had seen at Steve Groff’s the crops that had been interseeded but not the machine. Luckily they were just getting one ready for demo as I got there

This has not been released yet but they are sending some out on demo for development. The idea is to plant cover crops between the rows of corn so the cover is established early and is ready to go when harvest happens. This is particularly useful in more northern areas where there is little chance for establishment after harvest. This operation is carried out when the corn is knee high.

The machine is very simple and light on purpose. It is mounted on the three point linkage of a tractor

The down pressure is run on air and their is wheels in the front for contour following. The box holds about 6 bushels of seed.

It is a double disc opener. There is no depth wheel so that is done on the closing wheel. That is why there is a groove in the wheel so their is not too much pressure over the seed. They are going to be selling the units separately so farmers can make their own tool bar. The idea is for it to be affordable and adaptable. The units can be run at different depths and widths and can go as deep as three inches. There is the option to add liquid fert and they think there will be tool bars upto 12-16 units per tool bar. So about 50 feet wide at the most. A great concept and it was good to see one in the flesh. They also mentioned that thought this kind of thing could become mandatory due to regulation.