Custom Business Rebuilds Planters And Also Builds New

Custom Business Rebuilds Planters And Also Builds New PLANTERS Gideon Stoltzfus built his first corn planter in 1977 because he needed a better one for his own farm When he built a better one the next year and sold the first it was the start of a new business Pequea Planter was soon building and customizing planters to meet other farmers needs as well as his own     “Our first planter was a 2-row horse-drawn lever lift long tongue planter using Deere 1240 row units ” says Stoltzfus “In the late 1970’s and early 80’s we converted hundreds of old horse-drawn planters to plateless with Deere 7000 meters ”     In the early 1980’s Pequea Planter started building 2-row 3-pt and pull-type planters using 7000 row units That soon evolved into larger planters for tractor users as well as horse farmers In recent years he and sons Daniel and Omar have built and sold from 100 to 150 planters a year They refurbish older planters to better than new status with options not available when the planter was originally built An example of that is reconfiguring 8-row Deere 7000 planters to 6-row no-till     “The 8-row has a heavier frame and hitch making our 6-row heavier and stronger for an even better no-till planter than the Deere 6-row 7000 Conservation Planter ” says Stoltzfus     Since 2013 they have also been building complete 4 and 6-row planters under their Plant Master brand using their own heavier frame and hitch with Shoup Manufacturing row units similar to the Deere MaxEmerge Plus row units New and refurbished planters range from 1-row to 15-row horse-drawn to tractor and conventional to no-till     “A big part of our business is designing and fabricating parts and attachments to convert and update older 7000 and 7200 planters with no-till coulters row cleaners row markers wheel frames drive systems and more ” says Stoltzfus “We either fabricate or buy parts from other after market companies For example we offer contact drive wheel kits for all 4 6 and 8-row Deere planters and some 12-rows that eliminate the need for existing sprockets chains shafts and clutches ”     They also custom build planters for specialty needs such as 15 20 24 and 28-in row spacing splitter planters for twin-row beans folding planters and more Produce planter customers can choose from more than 20 attachments     Pequea Planter customers still benefit from the needs of the Stoltzfus family In addition to the 2 sons in business with him 3 other sons farm in the area Pequea also rents out planters     “Over the years a lot of updates and improvements have been from our own experiences as well as from what other farmers tell us they need ” says Stoltzfus “We try them out on rental units before recommending them to our customers ”     A good example of need-based innovation is the Pequea Pumpkin Planter The Stoltzfus family has planted pumpkins for more than 20 years initially with only slightly modified corn planters The first improvement was to use vacuum to place the seed Then a series of improvements were made to facilitate planting pumpkins into heavy covers such as cereal rye     “A heavy cover crop lets you pull into the field at picking time and load out clean pumpkins no matter what the weather has been ” explains Stoltzfus “We put on no-till coulters but they produced too much hair pinning So we added row cleaners but the only type available were spiked and the rye wrapped around and jammed them up ”     The solution was a solid blade row cleaner with 2 blades running in a V mounted on the front bar with a gauge wheel parallel linkage and down pressure While that was an improvement they decided a residue slicer would be a good addition     “We developed a straight blade with a rubber wheel on each side to hold the residue while it was being cut ” says Stoltzfus “Then the row cleaner and coulter could do their job Now our planter can handle almost any cover crop residue we have We can even roll 5 to 6-ft rye in one direction and plant at an angle across it ”     The no-till pumpkin planter has proven popular with customers and the innovative row cleaner and slicer have been adapted to other planters as well Stoltzfus estimates they have around 50 of the pumpkin planters in the market with 5 or 6 sold in the past year alone     Prices depend on what needs the customer has The pumpkin planter with slicer row cleaner no-till coulter and vacuum can run from $6 000 to $7 000 per row unit with a foam marker system     “We’ve done 2 and 3-row pumpkin planters but a 1-row is the most popular ” says Stoltzfus “It lets the customer set his own row spacing ”     Prices on new and rebuilt planters vary depending on the buyer’s preferences The Pequea Planter catalog provides an overview of options available     Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Pequea Planter 561 White Horse Rd Gap Penn 17527 ph 717 442-4406; www pequeaplanter com

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