From Promise to Perspective with Jason: Learning from the Maiden Run of the Air Seeder and Phillips Harrow

Back in late October, when Jason Carter put his new setup to work—a Phillips rotary harrow paired with an air seeder—we were feeling pretty good. The field had just the right amount of moisture from recent rain. The harrow stirred the soil lightly, and the air seeder dropped a multispecies cover crop mix with precision. Germination was strong right out of the gate. By all appearances, we were on track for a solid stand.

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This was Jason’s first run with this equipment, and the early signs gave us reason to be optimistic. The system was efficient—two passes across the field and the job was done. And with those good early germination results, we had every reason to believe we’d have a pasture ready for grazing by spring.

But when we returned in February to take our forage inventory, the picture had changed. The stand was thin—far thinner than we expected. The turn rows, where the harrow had passed four times, looked great. But in the rest of the field, where it had only passed twice, the cover was patchy and light. In fact, the biomass was so low that we made the difficult decision not to bring in cattle at all this spring.

In hindsight, the issue came down to seed-to-soil contact. The harrow didn’t quite tuck the seed in well enough on those two-pass areas, despite the promising start. Lighter soils and earlier planted fields seemed to suffer most. Fields planted later, and on heavier ground, fared better. It’s a pattern we’ll pay closer attention to moving forward.

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This wasn’t the outcome we’d hoped for, but it’s not a loss. It’s a lesson—and part of the learning curve that comes with trying something new. We know others, like Sonny Price, have dialed in their use of the Phillips harrow over time. We’re not there yet, but we’re on our way.

Despite the setbacks, the work continues. We’ll adjust, recalibrate, and go again—because that’s what this kind of farming asks of us. The tools may be new, but the process of trial, error, and improvement is as old as the land itself. There’s still a lot of potential in this system—and we’re not done learning yet.

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