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He Pulls Roller Packer Behind Soybean Drill
"It does a beautiful job and gives me a nearly perfect soybean stand," says Gene Buch, Fairfield, Iowa, about the 3-section roller packer he put together using an old 1930's 3-section, 15-ft. wide cultipacker. He mounted the rollers on a wheeled frame salvaged from an old Deere planter and pulls them behind his 14-ft.
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He Pulls Roller Packer Behind Soybean Drill DRILLS Drills (42C) 18-1-9 "It does a beautiful job and gives me a nearly perfect soybean stand," says Gene Buch, Fairfield, Iowa, about the 3-section roller packer he put together using an old 1930's 3-section, 15-ft. wide cultipacker. He mounted the rollers on a wheeled frame salvaged from an old Deere planter and pulls them behind his 14-ft. soybean drill. The packer-rollers raise or. lower hydraulically with the drill.
Buch stripped a Deere 494 planter down to the frame, leaving the lift assist wheels intact. The front roller is 8 ft. wide and mounts ahead of the lift assist wheels. Two 4-ft. wide sections mount behind and to either side of the front section. All three sections are suspended from the planter frame by short chains, allowing the rollers to float along the ground independently of the frame.
"It lets me plant shallow and leaves the field in nearly perfect condition," says Buch, who modified the roller packer two years ago. "I like to drill beans no more than 1 to 11/2 in. deep which means that I always leave some beans on top, especially because I plant at 5 to 61/2 mph. My roller presses beans left on top just below the surface. It doesn't pack the ground too much, and it doesn't affect the drill's performance because it adds only 75 to 100lbs. of weight tothe tongue. The rear gangs trail separately so there's no sliding or gouging on turns. I mount a spring tooth de-tracker under the drill's tongue to wipe out tractor wheel tracks. The field is left so smooth that at harvest I can just skim the ground with my soy-bean header.
"I had been pulling the cultipacker behind my drill without a lift frame, but I didn't like it because I couldn't raise or lower it and because I couldn't turn with-out tearing out seed. Now it works great on terraces or contours because the two side sections are hinged on top and will turn.
"The only change I made to the roller packer was to replace the wooden bearings with sealed bearings. Hydraulic lift cylinders hooked in series raise or lower the packer with the drill, so that the packer starts and stops at the same point as the drill while continuing its forward movement."
Buch spent a total of $1,200.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Gene Buch, Rt. 4, Fairfield, Iowa 52556 (ph 515 472-3768).
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