Testimonial

Tom Vavrek, Grande Prairie, AB - Spring 2006 Re: VW10FC

We crop 2000 acres a year in the peace county in Alberta.  Our farm is seven miles west of Sexsmith or 27 miles north of Grand Prairie.  Our soil type is mostly grey although we have land that is deep black and heavy grey gumbo and land that is blue sticky gumbo to brown gumbo.  We have some really tough land to seed and it is difficult to get consistent depth control. 

 We seed with a FlexicoIl 5000 45 foot air drill with a 9 inch spacing. We used a 3.5 inch stealth spread tip and I found that if I put them on brand new I was consistent in our tough land for the first 1300 acres.  In cereals, it was not a big problem but in canola, I was in trouble.  After the 1300 acres, I would be moving tips from the wings to the tractor and drill tracks with not much improvement.  We finally put points with carbide tips from VW Manufacturing Ltd on and my drill was much more consistent from wings to tractor to drill tracks. I put the VW Manufacturing points on half way through seeding in 2005, and I have since sown 3000 acres and there is virtually no wear.  With these tips it looks like we will be seeding with even depth and not changing tips for a long time.  These tips could be good for 12000 acres if I compare the wear on them to the chrome openers I used before.  We have also tried a new tip from VW Manufacturing, this tip has carbide on the top side of the wings instead of the bottom side.  I used this tip for 1000 acres behind the drill and tractor tracks and noticed very good penetration and virtually no wear.  I think that this tip has very good prospects and will probably wear longer than the VW8FC tips we now run.  This tip could very possibly exceed the 12000 acre mark.  Along with the openers the integrity of Vic Wickstrom and VW Manufacturing has been outstanding.  Vic's continuous support and follow up on the product has been great.