Dry Fertilizer Caddy For No-Till Planters

Dry Fertilizer Caddy for No-Till Planters FERTILIZER APPLICATION Fertilizer Application (58f) 17-1-2 If you apply fertilizer while you plant - or you'd like to try it - you'll want to take a close look at this new dry fertilizer caddy equipped with an auger that automatically fills your planter on-the-go. The new caddy is made by Robinson Repair, Ryan, Iowa. It attaches to the planter with a 2 5/16-in. ball and uses a pair of augers to feed fertilizer into a cross auger mounted on the planter. Each auger is powered by a hydraulic motor that runs off the tractor. "We specialize in custom designing a variety of products for no-till and ridge till farmers, including liquid caddies. But this dry fertilizer caddy is our hottest product," say Randy Helmrich, owner. "Most no-till planters have limited dry fertilizer capacity. For example, a Deere 6-row 30-in. planter holds only 2,100 lbs. of dry fertilizer so if you apply 200 lbs. per acre you can only go 10 acres before you have to refill. Our 5-ton caddy lets you plant 50 acres per fill. Pulling the caddy takes weight off the tractor, keeping compaction to a minimum. The large 15.5 by 22.5 tires make the cart easy to pull and maneuver. Width can be adjusted from 120 to 78 inches so it can be used in wide or narrow rows." Helmrich says some customers pull the caddy behind old no-till planters that they convert to deep band fertilizer applicators. "It's a low-cost way to deep band fertilizer in the fall," says Helmrich. "We converted an old Deere 1300 conservation planter and do custom work with it. We stripped the seed boxes off and left the fertilizer boxes on, then added a toolbar in front and mounted no-till coulters on it. Old IH 400 Cyclo planters work even better because they're built with a toolbar in front." The caddy can also be used to fill no-till planters or drills with soybean seed. It holds 110 bu. "Seed companies are pushing 50-bu. bulk soybean seed pallets, but no one has come up with a good way to get that seed into the planter. A front-end loader can be used to dump seed into the caddy. The auger's steel flighting can be replaced with poly flighting to reduce seed damage," says Helmrich. The caddy is available in 4 and 5-ton models and can be used with 4 to 12-row planters. A 4-ton model sells for $4,535 and the 5-ton model for $5,185. A cross auger for an 8-row planter sells for $1,010. The company also offers liquid caddies for herbicide, fertilizer, or insecticide application. The caddies use a ground-driven or hydraulic driven pumps. "They work better than saddle tanks because they have more capacity and can be hooked up in five minutes," says Helmrich. "The caddy can also be used behind your cultivator to spot spray herbicides or side dress 28% nitrogen. A boom can be mounted behind the caddy to spray herbicides." The liquid caddies are available in 300, 500, and 750-gal. sizes, or 600-gal. twin tank. A 500-gal. model sells for $2,895 and a 750-gal. model sells for $3,715. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Robinson Mfg., Rt. 1, Box 53, Ryan, Iowa 52330 (ph 319 932-2108).

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