Low-Cost Narrow Row Bean Planter

Low-Cost Narrow Row Bean Planter PLANTERS Planters 22-3-7 Cliff Aupperle of Anita, Iowa, wanted to switch to narrow row no-till soybeans but he didn't want to spend the money for a new planter. He solved the problem by replacing the row units on his International 500 8-row air planter with 16 new Kinze row units, minus the seed boxes. The result is a 16-row, 15-in. planter that uses a pair of 8-row air hoppers to deliver seed to the Kinze row units. "It cost me only about one third as much as a new Kinze narrow row planter," says Aupperle, whose neighbor Dave Brahms helped him build the planter. "I got the idea for the planter one day when I was at my Kinze dealer and saw a parts list on the counter. I discovered that the lower row units don't cost a lot per row if you buy them without the soybean brush meters and if you assemble them yourself. We think the IH Cyclo air metering system works almost as good on beans as the Kinze brush metering system. "Each lower row unit includes a double disc opener with seed drop tube, gauge wheels, and packer wheels and springs. We made our own parallel linkage for the row units and staggered them 6 in. apart for good trash flow. We also replaced the 4-in. wide Kinze gauge wheels with 2-in. wide gauge wheels to help with trash flow. The hardest part was getting the double disc openers shimmed right so that they weren't too tight or too loose. "The Kinze lower row units are out in the open where they're easy to work on. Some commercial 15-in. bean planters have staggered rows but are equipped with individual seed boxes that are spaced so close together that it's hard to work on them. Another ad-vantage of this planter is that the IH hoppers are much easier to fill than 16 individual seed boxes. I use a gravity wagon and auger to fill the hoppers which have a total capacity of 13 bu." "I used the planter last year on corn ground and got a beautiful stand. I ran my Soil Finisher ahead of the planter once to knock down the stalks. Even in 70 to 75 percent residue I never had any trouble." Aupperle's planter folds vertically for transport. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Cliff Aupperle, RR 1, Box 77, Anita, Iowa 50020 (ph 712 762-3485).

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