Acra Drill Unit (ADU)

Your No-Till Planting Solution From ShieldAg Agriculture Equipment

Created more than 40 years ago as a no-till conversion for existing small-frame grain drills and row planters, ShieldAg’s heavy-duty Acra Drill Unit (ADU) has improved consistently over the years. Today’s models include the long lasting ACRATUFF® V-Slice insert which ensures accurate seed placement with self-cleaning 11- and 15-notch discs that aggressively chew through the heaviest residue. Its heavy-duty parallel linkage provides 8” of vertical disc travel and assures the proper angle of attack for uniform soil penetration. The spring units allow you to quickly adjust the down pressure. If you’re looking for plot drill for your sustainable agriculture operation, the ADU is perfect for you!

Cereal Grain research includes a major  sustainable ag focus (to include variety and condition experiments), many researchers have received grants to upgrade equipment as long as it:

  1. Shows an emphasis on sustainability and reducing field passes and carbon footprint

  2. Plants cereal grains in real-world conditions, pure no-till with heavy surface residue—which also avoids another fuel-burning  and carbon destroying field pass

  3. Adds another process (like starter fertilizer or even cover crops)  at the same time as planting the target grain—pin-point fertilizer placement to reduce volatilization, runoff and / or pollution and to avoid fertilizing “the weeds” that typically grow between rows.

Our order book is more full than it has ever been due to USDA assistance in funding upgrades to equipment,
and we are listening to what researchers and our OEM partners want.

Our Acra-Drill Unit (ADU) is a heavy-duty small grain research drill opener for university, seed company and government crop research locations.   With the current upgrades we can also place fertilizer or cover crops during the same field pass. Precision seed placement with excellent seed-soil contact is a requirement for validating research crop data.   

At Acra-Plant, we perform extra steps with our dual-disc notched openers to make sure that you get proper seed depth and placement, in the toughest conditions. All our 4mm heavy-duty opener disc assemblies are individually assembled with care and we properly shim the bearing assembly to reduce wobble and runout with our blades.   

We understand that researchers want to plant their programmed seeds-per-acre and maximize germination rate and assure uniform emergence.   This video clip shows “before and after” we make sure that the blade assemblies are as close to perfect as possible.