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Use of Notched Packer on Deep Furrow Drills

Compare standard HZ deep-furrow seeding versus seeding with notched packers for erosion control.

Location: Edwall, WA
Soil: Bagdad silt loam
Rotation: Standard summer fallow in 1993

Standard HZ drill
Notched packer HZ drill

This test compared a standard HZ deep-furrow drill to the same drill with modified pack wheels. The modification is a notch in each packer which forms a dam in the bottom of the furrows and has the potential to reduce runoff. The treatments were put in using the Klein's planter with notched packers and another drill of the same model without modified packers. Since the standard drill was not equipped to place fertilizer with the seed, he did not apply starter fertilizer to the notched-packer plots as is his normal practice. The plots were laid out as side-by-side passes of the 34 ft drills, running down a 6 to 11% slope. The Alutin method was used to measure rill erosion on 29 Mar 94. Measurements in notched packer plots were taken between dams. Measurements were taken 150 ft and 300 ft from the top of the ridge. The transect was 12.5 ft, which covered 11 furrows at an angle matching the ridge. (One square inch of rill cross section equals one ton/ac soil loss.

Rill erosion, tons/a, measured 150 ft from top of slope

Treatment	Rep 1	Rep 2	Rep 3	Rep 4	Rep 5	Average
Notched	5.60	4.60	3.80	4.00	3.30	4.26a
Standard	4.60	1.90	4.50	4.50	3.10	3.72a
LSD (5%)						1.71a
CV						24.45%

Rill erosion, tons/a, measured 300 ft from top of slope

Treatment	Rep 1	Rep 2	Rep 3	Rep 4	Rep 5	Average
Notched	6.20	6.90	4.90	5.90	7.50	6.28a
Standard	3.70	8.60	5.70	7.90	9.80	7.14a
LSD (5%)						2.43
CV						20.66%

Conclusion

The average soil loss at 150 ft below the ridge was 4.1 tons/ac (range 1.9-5.6). At 300 ft, loss averaged 7.2 tons/ac (range 3.7-11.5). Statistically and practically there was no significant difference between notched packer and standard packer in terms of soil erosion. Coefficient of variation was reasonable for this type of measurement. This test demonstrates that notched packer is not a surefire cure for erosion or runoff, but the dams have been observed to perform well at other times. The soil conditions in this study may have been poorer than normal. The notched packer should be tested further.

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Hans Kok, WSU/UI Extension Conservation Tillage Specialist, UI Ag Science 231, PO Box 442339, Moscow, ID 83844 USA Redesigned by Leila Styer, CAHE Computer Resource Unit; Maintained by Debbie Marsh, Dept. of Crop & Soil Sciences, WSU