Placing all your seed and fertilizer together at seeding with a spoon opener does not involve that instrument you used to eat your soup at lunch. Although you probably thought that when you first read this title. Spoons, as we use then in the context of seeding, were developed by Bourgault in St. Bieux, Saskatchewan. Their purpose is to cut a slot under the soil surface that allows seed and fertilizer to spread out in a band of 2 to 2.5 inches wide. They cone in basically two sizes - 2.25 inch and 3.25 inch -with the seed and fertilizer spread being about one-quarter inch to one-half inch narrower than spoon width. The throat of the spoon is relatively narrow so it should pass through the soil surface with little disturbance. It is best described as the combination of a knife and sweep. Now that we can seed with knives or spoons all that is left to be invented is a seeding fork. then we would have this whole seeding utensil business covered.

Along with my wife and parents, we farm approximately 500 acres of grain land north of Deloraine, Manitoba near the community of Deloraine. 1994 was our first year of zero tilling in a big way as it was the first year we have acquired a proper zero till drill. I might add the extra moisture we had under zero till was a real benefit this year. We have a Flexi-coil 5000 air drill with .2 inch spacing and I decided to go with the Bourgualt spoon to have a simple, relatively inexpensive one pass opener. I also work as the Agricultural Representative in Killarney and our conservation group this year provided a 40 foot Bourgualt air seeder with spoons to district farmers.

On our farm most of the crop was seeded with the spoons and all the required fertilizer was put with the seed for the legumes and wheat. The one field of zero till canolas had all phosphate placed with the seed and 34-0-0 was broadcast after see(ling. With the wheat 50 - 60 pounds of actual N, in the form of 34-0-0, was applied with the seed along with 25 - 30 pounds of actual phosphate, in the form of 11-51-0. With the legumes we placed 30 -35 pounds of 11-51-0 with the seed. I certainly don't consider this a recommendation for all producers, we were looking at a relatively warm and moist seedbed this spring under zero till so we felt these somewhat higher rates of fertilizer would be safe.

By looking around the neighbourhood, I suspect we had a slight delay in emergence but that is difficult to completely blame on the fertilizer and the final yield did not seem affected. When seeding wheat this meant that for some fields we were putting (from upwards of 330 pounds of seed and fertilizer per acre which was riot a problem for our air seeder but may not be possible with some other systems. This also means good co-ordination at seeding so that the large amounts of fertilizer and seed can be delivered to the air seeder on time. This is especially important when using 34-0-0 which must be segregated and is difficult to store, so the best way to handle it is to haul it directly from the dealer to the seeder which is also riot always possible for everyone.

The seeding job that the spoons did was acceptable. I felt that there was too much soil disturbance for my liking even though I slowed down to under 4 mph. Soil disturbance was more that what I would expect from a narrow knife. The back row of shanks (lid not get a proper covering of soil, the soil was moved aside and then did not fall back over the seed row. After a lot of fiddling around with the levelling, I tried one shank mounted harrow that helped but did not cure the problem completely. I would have purchased more of these harrows if they were available. On our 27.5 foot air seeder we wore out a set of spoons on 600 acres of zero till which for our land is very fast. I used some 2.25 inch spoons and the rest was 3.25 inch spoons. 1 would recommend the 2.25 because of less disturbance and just slightly less seed spread however the 3.25 spoon will give you a greater margin of safety at higher fertilizer rates.

To make things simple, the following is a list of advantages and disadvantages in using the spoon.

Advantages

• good even penetration in most soil types
• easy to install and replace
• relatively inexpensive - under $6. each, under $20. for each shank set up with proper seed boot
• spreads material out over 2 - 2.5 inches
• allows for most rates of fertilizer to be placed with the seed for cereals and legumes
• (lid not plug at any time, but you need to use the correct seed 100t
• fits onto almost any air seeder
• reasonable) amount of soil disturbance
• allows easy conversion of the seeder back to shovels
• it is a simple one pass seeding system

Disadvantages

• not suitable for all rates of fertilizer for all crops
• soil disturbance will be excessive, leaving field fairly rough
• they wear quickly, which can lead to uneven depth settings, this can be improved with hard surfacing
• back row does not get proper soil coverage
• seed rows often form a deep furrow which can easily fill in after a heavy rain and place too much soil over the seed
• Seed placed fertilizer is not always safe and can harm the seedling depending on the specific conditions at the time of seeding

The following tables give general recommendations from the Saskatchewan Advisory Fertilizer Council on seed placed fertilizer. For these tables the following should be considered.

Cereal grains are treated as a group . Oat is slightly more tolerant of seed placed N than barley which is slightly more tolerant than wheat.

With canola, ammoniurn nitrate is just as damaging to seedlings as urea.

The N rates are in addition to the N in safe rates of seed placed phosphorus fertilizer (monoammonium phosphate).

Cereals - Nitrogen The following are considered to be approximate safe rates of urea (46-0-0) N applications with the seed of cereal grains if seedbed soil moisture is good to excellent (soil moisture at or near its field capacity). All rates are in pounds actual N per acre (I. e. divide by 0.46 Ia get lbs. of 46-0-0 per acre)
Soil texture	Disc or knife opener (1-inch spread) Row spacing			Spoon or hoe opener (2-inch spread) Row spacing			Sweep opener (4 to 5-inch spread) Row spacing
	6"	9'	12"	6"	9'	12"	6"	9'	12"
Light (sandy loam)	20	15	41	30	20	15	35	30	20
Medium (loam-clay loam)	30	20	15	40	30	20	55	40	30
Heavy (clay-heavy clay)	35	30	20	50	35	25	65	50	35
All rates are in pounds actual N per acre recornrnendation for ammonium nitrate (34-0-0)
Light (sandy loam)	25	19	13	38	25	19	44	38	25
Medium (loam-clay loam)	38	25	19	50	38	25	69	50	38
Heavy (clay-heavy clay)	44	38	25	63	44	31	81	63	44
The following are considered to be approximate safe rates of urea (46-0-0) N applications with the seed of canola and flax if seedbed soil moisture is good to excellent (soil moisture at or near its field capacity). All rates are in pounds actual N per acre (i.e. divide by 0.46 Ia get lbs. of 46-0-0 per acre)
Light (sandy loam)	5	0	0	20	15	10	30	20	15
Medium (loam-clay loam)	10	5	5	25	20	15	35	25	20
Heavy (clay-heavy clay)	15	10	5	35	25	20	45	30	25