Gigantic Seed Boom Reaches Across Ditches To Fill Planter

Gigantic Seed Boom Reaches Across Ditches To Fill Planter PLANTERS Planters 26-6-6 "It's much easier and more efficient than dragging flexible tubing across the ground," say Greg and Ken Sauder, Tremont, Ill., about the 70-ft. long "seed boom" they built and mounted on their semi trailer. They use it to fill their Kinze 36-row, 20-in. planter. The boom hinges in the middle and has 45 ft. of reach. It's made from 2-in. dia. steel pipe and attaches to a 6-in. dia. vertical steel pipe that bolts to the trailer floor. The boom is equipped with a Yetter Seed Jet system, which uses air pressure to deliver seed to the planter. Seed is blown through boom tubing to the Seed Jet cyclone and flexible downspout. The boom has a double elbow hinge made from knuckle pipe well casing. Support rods on both halves of the boom counteract the downward pull of the boom whenever it's extended. A pair of large turnbuckles built into the first half of the boom keep it level as it swings out across the field, even when the trailer is parked at an angle on the side of the road. The boom is quite heavy so two people are needed to operate it. As the boom swings out from the trailer, one person uses a vertical steel rod to support the hinge and the other person fills the planter. "It's trouble-free and is easy to operate. We just park the semi trailer on the road and bring the planter up to the edge of the field and fill it," says Ken, who used the boom for the first time last spring. "The Yetter system comes with 35 ft. of flexible stainless steel tubing which we would've had to drag across the ditch. And when you're done filling the planter you have to wind all that tubing back up again. The need for a second person to operate the boom isn't a problem, because we keep starter fertilizer in a tank on the trailer. The same truck driver who helps operate the boom also fills the planter with fertilizer. "Another advantage is that the boom works fast. It transfers soybeans at a rate of 4.8 bu. per minute so we can fill the planter in only about 15 minutes. Corn is a little slower." Ken says they set Yetter's two-box bulk system on weigh bars so they can measure how much seed they have in the boxes at any given time. "We used two boxes so that if we want, we can fill half the planter with one variety and fill the other half with another variety," he notes. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Greg and Ken Sauder, 2320 Townline Rd., Tremont, Ill. 61568 (ph 309 925-5050).

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