Till Planter Is Built To Last

Till Planter is build to last PLANTERS Planters 15-5-29 A Louisiana farmer who couldn't find what he wanted on the market designed and built his own till-plant rig that lets him till, plant, build ridges, apply insecticide and spray herbicides all in one pass. Raymond Gremillion, Jr., of Zachary, La., has farmed for 14 years and also runs a fabricating shop, where he built the heavy-duty 20-ft. wide, 3-pt. mounted tiller from the ground up. "Other commerical-built tillers on the market aren't built strong enough to stand up to tough conditions and won't let you mount a planter on back. Our tiller accepts any 8-row narrow or 6-row wide 3-pt. planter. Both planter and tiller operate independently. No modifications were made to planter," says Gremillion. The tiller had to be built heavy to support the weight of the planter. The tiller is fitted with a pair of lift assist wheels on front which are used when the planter is fully loaded. When the planter is empty, Gremillion's Case/IH Magnum 7140 tractor can lift both planter and tiller without lift assistance. "You have to have a tractor with a heavy-duty 3-pt. to operate it," he notes. The pto-powered tiller's shaft is 3 1/2 in. in dia., fitted with 4-in. wide hard-surfaced tiller blades. Four extra-heavy support bearings are fitted to the shaft to help it stand up to "even the most adverse conditions", according to Gremillion. A no. 120 roller chain drives the tiller shaft. The frame of the tiller is built out of 2 by 6-in. tube steel, closed in with 3/16-in. sheet metal. A set of doors in back provides easy access. A standard quick hitch and top link attach to the rear of the tiller. The top link is used for leveling adjustment. A row of ridge-building shanks mounts between the planter and tiller on the front of the planter toolbar. They can be used to create ridges on the go or raised up out of the ground to plant flat. Gremillion uses the planter-tiller in corn. The only other tillage he does is to pull a disk through the field to cut up stalks. He mounts herbicide saddle tanks on the tractor. "This rig has cut our tillage and planting costs considerably due to reduced labor and equipment costs. It took a lot of figuring but once we got it in the field it worked great," he says. For more information, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Raymond M. Gremillion, Jr., 177 East Irene Road, Zachary, La. 70791-9719 (ph 504 654-4957 or 0616).

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