Banding Boom for Liquid Fertilizer

Banding Boom for Liquid Fertilizer FERTILIZER APPLICATION Fertilizer Application (58f) 13-2-26 When custom liquid fertilizer applicator and dealer Paul Vanden Bosch of Gregory, S. Dak., got tired of the constant repair required by the application system on his Ag Chem floater tractor, he decided to design his own system that would eliminate the complications and problems he had experienced banding liquid fertilizer. "After experimenting for more than a year, I came up with a banding boom that's versatile, efficient and dependable with an easily adjusted rate of application. It works great and easily adapts to any equipment, including disks, cultivators, chisels, planters and grain drills. It eliminates the need for a squeeze pump or other complicated metering equipment and requires only one main hose from the pump," says Vanden Bosch. The system consists of booms made out of 2-in. dia. PVC plastic. Row fittings are spaced evenly along the boom. Drop hoses attach to the bottom of each row fitting and flow regulators (orifice discs) or jet nozzles for each row mount inside and can be easily screwed out for replacement. Varying size orifices or nozzles are used to meter the amount of fertilizer applied. The boom, which comes in sections, can be easily expanded or reduced as needed and it can be moved easily from one machine to another by simply changing the length of drop hoses to fit the application. "Farmers like it because it's simple and easy to use, requiring virtually no maintenance and with no need for expensive metering pumps that limit the number of row drops you can use. An ordinary pto driven pump can be used. This system is light-weight and adapts to virtually any piece of equipment," says Vanden Bosch, noting that the system is designed strictly for banding and not broadcast. "And because of the way drops are positioned close to the ground, the floater-adapted unit can be used to apply fertilizer in winds up to 35 mph." A boom set up to fit chisel plows sells for $21 per foot, for disks $18 per foot, and for floater rigs $22/ft. Includes mounting brackets but does not include the pump or nozzles. For more information, contact: FARM SHOW Followup,Paul Vanden Bosch, GIC Manufacturing, P.O. Box 31, Gregory, S. Dak. 57533 (ph 605 835-9449).

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