Grain drill furrow opening assembly

Claim 1

A grain drill including a frame, a drawbar mounted on the frame and extending forwardly therefrom, a hopper mounted on the frame, a plurality of furrow opening assemblies mounted on the frame, each furrow opening assembly including a coulter body structure, an upper link pivotally attached to the frame at one end and to the coulter body structure at the other end for pivotal movement about axies that are generally transverse to the direction of forward movement of the grain drill, a lower link substantially the same length as the upper link pivotally attached at one end to the frame below the upper link and at the other end to the coulter body structure, a first soil-engaging assembly including a slit opening disk attached to the coulter body structure, a second soil-engaging assembly including two slit-widening disks attached to the coulter body assembly for engaging the soil to the rear of the first soil-engaging assembly and adjustment means for adjusting the length of at least one of the links to adjust the soil penetration depth of the first soil-engaging assembly relative to the second soil-engaging assembly, and load means attached to the frame and to each furrow opening assembly for applying a downward force on each furrow opening assembly.