Engineering Breakthroughs in Conservation Tillage/Direct Seeding Technology

Conventional tillage is no longer conventional on the Canadian prairies. In fact, more than 70 percent of Canada’s cropland is under some form of conservation tillage with direct seeding (no-till) the most popular or predominant production system on the prairies.1 Engineering breakthroughs in crop residue management, chemical weed control, seed and fertilizer placement have played a key role in this transformation of prairie landscapes. Driven by the need to develop more sustainable land management practices, innovative farmers and producer groups encouraged researchers, engineers and manufacturers to develop more effective equipment. Canadian manufactures were the leaders in this development and today there are more than a dozen companies including several multinationals that manufacture specialized harvesting, spraying and seeding equipment for the growing domestic and international markets for direct seeding technology