One-Pass Till Planter

One-Pass Till Planter PLANTERS Planters 16-2-24 An extra toolbar mounted on front of his Case-IH 900 6-row planter lets J. Stuart Simpson, Glencoe, Ontario, plant in heavy trash and apply liquid and dry fertilizer at the same time. The add-on toolbar carries dry fertilizer hoppers and supports several no-till attachments. It can be hydraulically raised or lowered independent of the planter. "It gives me almost unlimited fertilizer application combinations so that I can take care of all my fertilizer needs in one pass," says Simpson, who used the planter on 920 acres last spring. Simpson bought the planter used. He replaced its worn out disc openers with new ones and extended the planter tongue 50 in. He mounted a pair of 210-gal. liquid fertilizer tanks on the planter. He used 7 by 7-in. sq. steel tubing to build the add-on toolbar up front and mounted a pair of dry fertilizer hoppers on top of it. He mounted Deere trash rippers on front, followed by three fluted 1-in. wide, 18-in. dia. Yetter coulters and a home-built 10-in. wide, 10-in. dia. rolling harrow that levels the seedbed just ahead of the row units. The coulters create a 7 to 8-in. wide tilled zone for each planter row unit. "The add-on toolbar gives me the option of applying liquid or dry fertilizer in a band on the side of the row, or liquid pop-up fertilizer in the row," says Simpson. "The hoppers carry 1,800 to 2,200 lbs. of dry fertilizer and the tanks carry 420 gal. of liquid fertilizer so I can plant up to 28 acres at a time without stopping. I spray herbicides after I'm done planting. "I had thought about mounting no-till attachments on a conventional planter for years, but I wasn't sure that no-till would work on our soil types, which range from sand to loam. The hydraulically-operated, add-on toolbar lets me adjust coulter depth on-the-go according to soil types, without interfering with seed depth. I can set the coulters from 7 in. deep to 1 in. above the soil. The trash rippers are screw-adjustable. I use them less than 20% of the time. "Applying fertilizer in a band cuts my fertilizer bill. I was prepared to take a yield decrease, but last year my yields were 1 1/ 2 bu./acre higher than they had been with a conventional planter." Simpson mounted the toolbar 46 in. ahead of the planter. He added extra carrying wheels on the front toolbar which lift in series with the planter carrying wheels. A pair of hydraulic cylinders mount on the planter's tongue and are connected to four parallel arms that extend forward from the planter frame to the add-on toolbar. Simpson spent $24,000 (Canadian) to build the add-on toolbar and equip it with zone-till attachments. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, J. Stuart Simpson, Rt. 1, Glencoe, Ontario Canada NOL lAO (ph 519 287-2422).

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