19- Row Planter Made For 15-In Beans

19- Row Planter Made For 15-In Beans PLANTERS Planters 19-4-4 After experimenting for years with grain drills to plant narrow row beans, Gary Powell, Oakland, Neb., came to the conclusion that he needed a narrow-row planter to do the best job. So he bought a 1985 Case-IH 800 12-row, 30-in. no-till air planter and converted it to a 19-row, 15-in. model. "It offers more accurate seed placement and better row spacing than a grain drill and does a better job handling residue. It's also more flexible in ditches and terraces and is easier to transport on the highway," says Powell. "Unlike a grain drill, all of the row units are monitored and it can handle any seed size." Powell bought the semi-mounted planter used for $12,000. He cut 2 ft. off each end of the toolbar and slid four used row units on. In order for the narrowed-up row units to be able to handle trash, he made spacer bars that move every other row unit back 11 in. He used the leftover toolbar sections to make four spacer bars. He cut each 2-ft. section in half and welded a pair of angle irons onto the front and back sides, then bolted the row units to the back pair of angle irons. He clamped the front pair to the toolbar. He also made spacer bars for other row units to come up with 10 row units in front and nine on back. The air system on the planter was designed to handle only 16 row units so he had to mount three plate-type planter units onto the toolbar to get up to 19 rows. The three plate units are all self-contained, ground-driven by a ribbed packer wheel. The 12-row planter already had a monitor. To monitor the seven add-on rows, Powell uses the monitor off his corn planter. "I've used this planter for two years and have been more than satisfied," says Powell. "I've planted through standing corn stalks and soybean and wheat stubble. The staggered row units give the planter plenty of trash clearance. I chose the Case-IH planter because I was able to reduce row width on it to 15 in. whereas Deere planters are limited to 18 in. I only. use it for beans. I use a pull-type Case-IH 800 planter for corn. "I think soybean drills are a fad. They don't pack the seed like press wheels so seed-to-soil contact is poor, especially in dry years. A 15-ft. drill works too slow and a 20-ft. drill has problems following the ground contour. Also, drills are more of a problem to transport. In addition, the Cyclo's big hoppers are easy to fill and much easier to clean out than a drill. My total cost to convert the planter was about $1,700. A 15-ft. no-till drill sells for about $15,000 and a 30-ft. model for about $30,000." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Gary Powell, Rt. 2, Box 36, Oakland, Neb. 68045 (ph 402 685-6268).

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