Seed Bag Conveyor

Seed Bag Conveyor PLANTERS Planters 14-5-11 "I'm 72 years old so I need all the help ûI can get," says Einar Oftedal, Cottonwood, Minn., who made it easy to fill seed boxes on his 12-row Deere Max-Emerge planter by mounting a seed bag conveyor across the front of the rig. Oftedal got the 20-ft. conveyor from a feed plant where it had been used to handle feed sacks. It mounts 6 in. above and 6 in. ahead of the seed boxes, about where dry fertilizer boxes would normally mount, and is battery-driven by a starter motor that's geared down to run the conveyor at a "slow creep" of about 1/ 2 revolution every two minutes. "With a 12-row planter, you normally have to carry a bag to each box so even if you park your pickup in the center, you still have to carry bags 15 ft. to either end," says Oftedal. Now he parks at one end of the planter, starts the conveyor with a switch he can reach from the back of the pickup, and sets the bags on the belt one by one. The belt turns so slowly he doesn't have to hurry. To load seed into boxes, he just walks along the planter, turns the bags 1/4 turn and tears them open, then pours them into the boxes without ever lifting the bags. The conveyor adds only about 400 lbs. to the planter. Since it's only 20 ft. long and the planter is 30 ft., Oftedal mounted metal slides on each end of the conveyor to get sacks to two rows on either end. "It works so well I don't know how I got along without it. Takes a lot of the work out of planting. Carrying seed. sacks is tiring, especially on loose-tilled ground. Wish I had gotten this idea years ago," says Oftedal. He hopes to find a manufacturer to put his conveyor idea on the market. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, EinarOftedal,Cottonwood, Minn. 56229 (ph 507 423-6481).

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