The attached summary highlights the benefits of the Cross Slot no-till seeding system over other inferior seeding technologies. In many cases Cross Slot can be the difference between a farmer getting his seed in the ground in wet or dry conditions.... if another piece of seeding technology does not allow the farmer to get his crop in then the farmer has had a failure.

1. www.crossslot.com1
Cross Slot No-Tillage Seeding Drill
Cross Slot Opener – Simple but Effective
1. Product or Technology
The Cross Slot No-Tillage machine is a fully
integrated seeding system specifically designed
to successfully perform true NO-TILL seeding
for virtually all soil and field conditions. The
key innovation is the Cross Slot seed opener
researched, designed, and marketed by Dr. John
Baker of Baker No Tillage Ltd, New Zealand.
This innovative seed opener, a single, vertical
disk fitted with side blades, provides precise
seed placement in untilled soils and precise
fertilizer banding adjacent to the seed row
with amazing results of maximum and uniform
emergence, crop growth and production in a
wide variety of crops, soils and field conditions.
Cross Slot excels in sod, sod renovation, CRP
Takeout, heavy residue and Cover Crops.
The Cross Slot No-Tillage seeding drill is a
fully integrated seeding machine based firstly
on the innovative Cross Slot seed opener
for placement of the seed and fertilizer of
each seed row and mounted on a robust
frame to accommodate untilled fields.
Seed and fertilizer are metered and delivered to
each opener by typical air seeder technology.
The opener hydraulic down pressures provided to
all openers from the tractor by a gas cushioned
manifold are dynamically controlled in the cab by
an integrated electronic monitor to continuously
account for variable soil penetration requirements.
Having combined the unique seeding capability
of the Cross Slot opener with many other
mechanical and electrical features makes the
Cross Slot No-Tillage Seeding machine the
ultimate, state of the art, unique and truly NO‑TILL,
one‑pass low disturbance seeding machine.
2. What is innovative about the
product that makes it stand out
from the competitors?
The benefits of No-Tillage farming have been
well documented for most farming situations
for the past 20+
years. Omitting the tillage
requirement has been a significant benefit to farm
economics, environments, labor and production.
The lack of tillage has left the one major field
operation, seeding and fertilizing, in a whirl of
attempts to develop an adequate machine.
The requirements were clear – no soil tillage to
maintain seed zone moisture and soil quality;
maintain all residues for erosion control and
seedling protection; obtain optimum emergence
and plant growth for maximum production.
A bevy of existing and modified machines
have been tried with the expected range
of success and failures because most did
not come close to meeting one or more of
these requirements. Cross Slot does this.
Through years of research and development a
unique understanding was developed of seeding
and early plant growth requirements, nutrient needs,
plant and soil reactions and machine techniques
which could provide an effective planting opener
in a wide range of untilled soil conditions.
The resulting Cross Slot opener, and now the
complete integrated Cross Slot seeding machine,
have satisfied virtually all of the no-tillage
seeding requirements. Many of these seeding
obstacles were the reasons no-tillage farming
has been slow to be adopted. An increased
and ready participation occurs once the risk of
crop establishment and productive stands is
removed by the Cross Slot Seeding Technology.
Cross Slot Openers mounted on a 45 foot toolbar

2. www.crossslot.com2
3. Special features / advantages
What is left in the soil is a vertical slot by the
coulter and two horizontal slots either side made
by the blades, one for the seed placement at
the controlled depth and another two inches
away for fertilizer, thus a Cross Slot.
The low level of soil and residue disturbance of
seeded fields make it difficult to verify that the
field has actually been seeded and fertilized, but
the uniform, full emergence and high yields from
one pass farming soon becomes convincing.
The benefits can briefly be
summarized below:
• True low disturbance one‑pass
seeding system.
• Cross Slot is a true one-pass seeding
system. The Cross Slot System allows
a farmer to seed and fertilize directly
into the residue of last year’s crop
without any prior field preparation.
• This means that farmers will reduce
their fuel bills, their labor costs, and
wear and tear on their equipment.
We have examples of fuel savings of
between $20-30 per acre, spread over a
1,000 acre property this can result in fuel
savings of $20,000-30,000 per annum.
• Lower costs means more money
in the bank.
• Less time on the tractor can also mean less
health related issues, from bad backs etc
– from time spent bouncing around fields,
and allowing more time for the family.
Many current "no-till" drills have had reasonable
success to move towards a reduced tillage style
of farming in specific conditions, some aided
by reside management or light tillage machines
enough to qualify as "conservation tillage”.
These combined attempts have certainly
achieved many of the benefits of conservation
and those growers are to be commended.
The Cross Slot no-tillage drill capability now
adds a significant enhancement to those who
have tried these systems. They will find the
going just got simpler, easier and less riskier.
The Cross Slot machine can readily be used
for a wide variety of no-tillage seeding
requirements from pasture sod renovation,
harvested cereal fields, row crops, sands
and loams with all residue remaining on
the surface for their full benefit.
The machine, with its unique Cross Slot openers,
can be moved from field to field seeding needs
with no major adjustments or concerns.
The requirements and benefits of truly No-Tillage
farming are fully achieved with Cross Slot no tillage.
What is important are the additional benefits
achieved by use of this technology compared
to that of other systems being applied.
The most prominent benefits achieved by the
Cross Slot system compared to more commonly
used machines can be summarized as follows:
3.1 TRUE "NO-TILLAGE"
The single disk opener running straight ahead
just does not do any soil disturbance.
The two side blades running next to the
coulter (disk), on opposite sides, slightly
lift a small tab of soil to seeding depth.
This soil is set back in its original position
by the associated depth / press wheel lightly
pressing it back in place, including the
surface residue to protect the seedling,
and conserve seed zone moisture.
Following seeding, it is often difficult to
readily see where the opener has tracked
—almost NO visible disturbance.
This keeps the soil biology happy and
productive for organic decomposition,
nutrient cycling and soil health.

3. www.crossslot.com3
3.2 CROP RESIDUE MANAGEMENT
Standing or flat, heavy or light, sod or bare,
green or dead, etc – NO PROBLEM. The
large, notched coulter takes on whatever
residue occurs, cuts through it, the side
blades are below it, and no blockage.
Having the residue remaining over the seeded
row is often of high benefit for maintaining
moisture for germination and emergence.
And this residue is the environmental
benefit for runoff and erosion control.
Light corn stubble residue directly drilled into by Cross Slot
Sod residue directly drilled into, by Cross Slot. NB – Minimal Disturbance
The following You Tube link shows Cross Slot
dealing with a heavy residue load:
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=nqmQZuNqBsQ
Residue management and retention
• Residue retention is the most important
objective of no-tillage. Residue cover
keeps moisture in the ground, it feeds
the micro organisms and earthworms,
it maintains soil organic carbon.
• Residue retention leads to the need for less
fertilizer and increased yields over time.
• All disc openers including Cross Slot will
tuck or hairpin residues. The benefit with
Cross Slot is that the seed is placed off to the
side in the horizontal slot thus avoiding any
seed burn when the residue breaks down.
• Cross Slot is capable of handling large
residue loads – it is not uncommon to handle
residues from 4.85 tons (178 bushels) per acre
to 5.67 tons (208 bushels) per acre
wheat residues.
• Tined openers do not manage residues
well. But many are capable of banding
fertilizer better than disc openers
and they are easier to adjust.
• Tines are therefore often seen as a less risky
no-tillage option than discs.
But as crop yields inevitably increase
under no-tillage, discs become the only
viable long-term option if conservation
objectives are to be realised.

4. www.crossslot.com4
3.3 DEPTH CONTROL PRECISION
Each opener has two depth/press wheels
immediately following the coulter with
adjustable support brackets to
determine seed depth.
Each opener is independently hydraulically
pressured downward and sensors on the
brackets maintain the pressure settings to
assure that the press wheels are constantly
in solid soil contact and maintaining the
seeding depth regardless of soil hardness.
Spring adjusted systems do not give the
same depth control as does the Cross Slot
electronically controlled hydraulic system.
A spring adjusted opener stretches when it
goes over a dip in the ground thus placing
the seed shallower than the desired depth
for consistent and even emergence.
When a spring adjusted opener goes over a
rise, the spring is compressed and forces the
seed deeper than the desired outcome.
Uneven seeding depth, results in uneven
emergence as earlier emerging plants crowd
out late emerging plants taking up light, water
and nutrients resulting in yield loss to farmers.
Cross Slot avoids this.
Automatic Down Force ("ADF")
• The patented Cross Slot ADF system
is a key management tool for farmers.
The ADF system has the ability
to measure soil hardness providing the
farmer with the ability to adjust depth
control automatically at any seeding
speed in soft or hard ground.
• The sensors read soil hardness
10 times a second and can allow
pressure to be increased or
decreased 3 times a second.
• This means farmers can maintain
constant depth control whether in
hard or soft soil conditions.
• Independent research (University of
Nebraska – Jasa) shows that constant
emergence is more important than
uniform seed spacing and that
uneven emergence lowers yields.
Hydraulics
• Depth control by Cross Slot is
managed through the ADF system
and the hydraulics on each
individual opener.
• The hydraulics on each opener can
apply up to an additional 1,000 lbs
down force pressure.
• This means that Cross Slot openers
can penetrate very hard ground
allowing farmers to sow seeds in
very dry conditions when other
openers will not penetrate.
• The openers can move up and down
around 18 inches without losing
depth control. The parallel linkage
system of the opener design means
that dips and humps in the ground
are covered by the opener at
the designated depth.

5. www.crossslot.com5
Graphic showing in ground placement of seed and fertilizer
Banded Fertilizer Placement:
Banding fertilizer adjacent
and parallel to the seed row
is a must for almost all crops
to assure efficient use and
optimum plant response.
Using the side blade opposite
the seeding blade for fertilizer
placement results in a continuous
band of fertilizer (dry, liquid, gas,
or combination) some 1-2 inches
from the seed either at the same
depth or 1-2 inches below.
A full-season fertilizer component
can be placed with no effect of
germination but readily available
for early seedling growth, thus
an efficient fertilizer placement
in one machine pass.
The unique Cross Slot seeding
opener performs each of these
four functions in a very controlled,
precise manner such that the
soil, residue, seed and fertilizer
are all managed in a precise
manner to create an unequalled
and productive conservation
tillage farming system.
No-tillage seeding with
the Cross Slot Seeding
system will achieve all of the
known benefits of no‑tillage
seeding, BUT it will make this
desirable farming method
far more reliable, risk free,
and economical. The ability
to place seed and fertilizer
in the ground with one‑pass
of the tractor has several
benefits, as explained below.
Fertilizer Banding: Lowers costs – Increases yields
• Cross Slot is the world’s only technology
that places seeds in a horizontal slot
at the same time as banding the
fertilizer side-by-side.
• All other disk opener systems place
the seed and fertilizer in vertical or
"V-shaped" grooves.
The horizontal slot provides a better
environment for optimizing germination
and makes more efficient use
of in ground moisture.
• Scientific research shows that
if your fertilizer is more than
two inches from the seed then
the farmer is losing the benefits
of the fertilizer.
• Broadcasting fertilizer can mean
up to a 50% increased cost to the
farmer due to run-off and or
unused fertilizer.
• Vertical and "V-shaped" slots can result
in seed burn reducing plant emergence,
thereby costing the farmer lost yield.
"V-shaped" openers can also
result in lost moisture.
• Cross Slot can cope with up to 500 lbs per
acre of fertilizer without any seed burn.
25 Foot Cross Slot Drill in the Palouse, WA

6. www.crossslot.com
Emergence
• Consistent and even
emergence is important
to maintaining and
increasing yields.
• Cross Slot through field
trials has shown that it
can maintain consistently
very high emergence rates.
Farmers consistently report
95%+ success rates with
crops and pastures.
• Inferior seeding systems
do not achieve such
high emergence rates
for a number of reasons.
Consequently farmers
tend to over seed.
• We often see farmers who
have planted wheat at a rate
of 120/125 lbs per acre when
75-85 lbs per acre would
have done the job had they
been using Cross Slot.
• The high emergence
achieved by Cross Slot
allows farmers to cut
back on their seeding
rates thereby reducing
their seeding costs.
For more
information
and a free DVD
contact:
Consistent and Even Emergence ND May 2011
Gavin Porter – CEO
Baker No-Tillage USA Limited
Toll Free – 1 888 663 7773
porter@crossslot.com