Editor’s Note: The No-Till Roundtable is a department appearing in every edition of Conservation Tillage Guide. For each issue we’ll send out an email asking for your thoughts and opinions on a no-till topic. If you feel you’ve got the answer to one or more of the cover crop questions below, please email jdobberstein@lessitermedia.com and we’ll share the information.

A: “It would have the Delta Down Force system. I feel the down pressure is the most critical to achieve the picket row fence spacing from even emergence. Planters nowadays all do a great job of spacing, but the pressure has been overlooked. My fields vary in soil type, condition, moisture and density so I am looking for correct pressure through these areas.”   

— Tom Cotter, Austin, Minn.

A: “For our operation, we’d like to see planters offer both positive pressure and vacuum metering systems for the same row unit. We’d also like the seed meter to be oriented as close to the soil surface as possible to minimize the time that gravity needs to work for us. 

“Similarly if a belted or brushed seed tube is used, the shorter the distance the better. Also, we’d like to have row independent vacuum/pressure setting — that’s to say the system is set at a standard pressure, and each row unit would be valved to provide a pressure up to the system pressure. This would let us more precisely and simultaneously plant two…