Used Bale Counter Makes Great Acre Counter For Corn Planter

Used bale counter makes great acre counter for corn planter PLANTERS Planters 13-3-6 "A used bale counter works great as an acre meter on my Deere 7000 corn planter," says Joseph Daunt, Listowel, Ontario. Daunt bolted the bale counter to the frame of his planter's seed drive assembly, just above the rear drive counter-shaft. The bale counter operates off the countershaft, counting the number of shaft revolutions. Daunt then uses a calculator to translate the number of shaft revolutions into the number of acres planted. "It's a low-cost alternative to commercial electronic acre counters that costa lot more," says Daunt, who purchased the used bale counter for $15 from a machinery dealer. To install the bale counter, Daunt fashioned a spring-type crank out of heavy fencing wire and slipped one end of the wire through a hole in the end of the shaft and then looped the wire around the shaft a couple of times. A strip of metal and a spring connect the bale counter arm to the crank. As the shaft turns, it moves the crank up and down, activating the bale counter with each shaft revolution. "The rear drive countershaft rotates at a constant speed relative to the planter wheels and rotates only when the planter is in the ground, so I don't have to stop and start the counter each time the planter is raised and lowered," says Daunt. Daunt took into account the number of fmgers on the planter's plateless mechanism and the sprocket size, then used the planting population chart in the owner's manual to determine the number of revolutions the countershaft must make to cover one acre. His 4-row, 30-in. planter makes 545 revolutions per acre. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Joseph Daunt, RR 1, Listowel, Ontario, Canada N4W 3G6 (ph 519 291-1594).

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