Sideress Rig Built "At No Cost"

Sideress Rig Built "At No Cost" FERTILIZER APPLICATION Fertilizer Application (58f) 29-1-43 Dale Stierwalt, Tolono, Ill., built his own 3-pt. mounted, 12-row 30-in. anhydrous ammonia sidedress applicator using the toolbar from an International Harvester 8-row, 36-in. corn cultivator and the used coulters, knives and press wheels off a Yetter strip till rig. He also added a hitch on back to pull an ammonia tank. The hitch came off an old ammonia bar which he got cheap from a local fertilizer plant. "I already had most of the components so it cost me almost nothing to build," says Stierwalt. "I use it strictly for sidedressing corn and apply 10-32-16. I use a 12-row, 30-in. planter and don't put on any starter fertilizer in the spring. I use another rig - a Yetter integregated tool carrier - to strip till during the fall." Stierwalt says that when he first started strip-tilling back in 1996, he used the Yetter strip-till rig both during the fall and spring. "I would strip-till in the fall, and then the next spring I used it to sidedress ammonia. The company offered separate components for both jobs because when you strip-till the components are running where the rows are supposed to be, and when you side dress the components are running in the row middles. It was always a hassle to change everything. Now I have a separate side dressing rig so whenever I need it I can just hook up and go." Stierwalt already had the cultivator and wasn't using it any more after he switched to no-till. The coulters, knives, and rubber press wheels came off the Yetter strip till machine. "I didn't need them any more because I had replaced them with new strip till components from Yetter that are more rigid and therefore work better." The 8-row, 36-in. cultivator toolbar was wide enough to convert to a 12-row side dress rig, because Stierwalt uses only eleven sets of coulters, knives, and press wheels and they're spaced on 30-in. centers. "I use only eleven knives because when you're sidedressing you don't absolutely have to apply ammonia in the outside rows," says Stierwalt. "A lot of strip-till farmers with 30-in. rows side dress only every other row." He says he prefers the rubber press wheels to conventional metal covering discs because the rubber wheels follow the ground better. As a result, the knives don't bounce around as much and run at a more uniform depth. Also, the rubber wheels leave the ground more level for planting beans back into corn stalks the following spring. The wheels run right beside the knives and do a better job of closing the trench than metal covering discs. The applicator is equipped with a Raven Super Cooler which converts the NH3 from a gas to a liquid, which results in a more accurate application rate. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Dale Stierwalt, 827 U.S. Rt. 45, Tolono, Ill. 61880 (ph 217 485-8925; email: stir@prairieinet .net).

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