Easy To Use, Lightning Fast

“It’s definitely the cream of the crop.”

To date, the most common way to plant more acres per hour has been to buy a larger planter or drill. However, the new Sunflower 9800 Single Disc Air Drill gives producers the advantage of both size and speed, as well as a simple design with fewer moving parts that minimizes downtime.

“We had one of the test machines out here for about a month, and I just loved it,” says Sam Beauchamp, who grows wheat, corn and cotton on his own farm in the Texas Panhandle and custom farms several thousand acres more. “All total, I used it to plant around 6,000 acres of wheat behind everything from silage corn stubble and plowed ground to no-till cornstalks; and it worked well in all of those conditions,” he adds, noting that he already has his own 40-foot Sunflower Model 9840 on order. The 9800 Series also offers 30- and 50-foot planting widths.

“I normally run three air drills during planting time, and I’ve tried about every brand,” he continues. “But I’ve never used one that is as easy to adjust and use … or can travel as fast through the field as the Sunflower 9800 Series. It’s definitely the cream of the crop.”

“One of the reasons for the 9800 Series’ higher speed capabilities is that the engineers moved the gauge wheel farther away from the disc blade,” explains Tom Draper, Sunflower seeding and tillage product manager. “This allows the ‘opposing single discs’ to lift and displace the soil between the two narrow, 6-inch rows. The loosened soil coming off of the twin discs flows back against the trailing packer wheels, which re-level and firm the soil over the seed rows.”

The position of the gauge wheels on the 9800 Series air drill also helps eliminate sidewall compaction, or “smearing,” of the soil. This condition seals the furrow’s sidewalls and prevents side-to-side root development, ultimately affecting a plant’s ability to reach full yield potential.

For even greater seed placement accuracy and flexibility, Sunflower also offers the new 9900 Series Air Carts. Constructed of stainless steel to reduce corrosion deterioration, the 9900 Series features three configurations, ranging up to the three-compartment, 525-bushel model 9930.

“ISOBUS compliance also allows the 9900 Air Cart to be controlled and monitored with any ISOBUS-compatible virtual terminal,” Draper adds. “Plus, it provides the option of variable-rate seeding, as well as variable-rate application of up to two dry fertilizer products.”