No-Till Farmer
Get full access NOW to the most comprehensive, powerful and easy-to-use online resource for no-tillage practices. Just one good idea will pay for your subscription hundreds of times over.
Advertise Follow Us
Start Your Engines, Get Ready to Plant
No-tillers must run through a checklist of maintenance and tune-up items before heading out to the fields with their planter.
When planting season rolls around before long, the scene might remind you of what happens during the Indianapolis 500.
You’ll be making the laps around your fields and wanting a high level of performance from your no-till planter.
To do that, you need everything fine-tuned to have a winning planting season. In my case, I’m both the driver and the pit crew, so I have to prepare everything to be efficient in my journey to the finish line.
I go through several items on my planter to ensure a successful planting season. On my farm, I generally do most of these checks while washing my planter after the crop is planted.
Why? Because it’s easiest to look at the fields I’ve planted and use those observations to determine if my planter is working properly.
For example, I can determine if some row units must be repaired or monitored before the next planting season.
? New Planter? Test It.
This year, I’ll be running a newer planter, so I’ll do some early pre-runs to make sure the seed is being placed and covered properly. This lets me confirm that the new row-cleaning and coulter attachments are set properly and providing an optimum seedbed.
And before we take the planter for test laps around the field, we’ll do some mechanical checks as well.
? Row-Unit Linkages, Lift Systems, Frames.
Parallel arms take a lot of abuse in no-till systems, so they should be examined to make sure they’re running truly and not…
Premium content is for our Digital-only and Premium subscribers. A Print-only subscription doesn't qualify. Please purchase/upgrade a subscription with the Digital product to get access to all No-Till Farmer content and archives online. Learn more about the different versions and what is included.
Top Articles
- Stripper-Header Revolutionized No-Till Wheat
- No-Till Highlights: April 18, 2024
- Last-Minute Planter Prep for No-Tillers & Strip-Tillers
- For Digital Subscribers: Access Your Digital Flipbook of the June 2024 Issue
- How Nitrogen Fixation in Corn – and other crops – is Possible with Envita [Product Demonstration]
Current Issue
No-Till vs. Mud, Fire & Water Facebook Videos
Twin-Row Cereal Rye Adds 35-Bushel Advantage in No-Tiller’s Irrigated Corn
Add Covers, Subtract Inputs & Multiply Profits with Systems Approach to No-Till
Must Read Free Eguides
Download these helpful knowledge building tools
- How No-Till Improves Your Land Value
- 5 Pillars for No-Till Farming Effectively, Efficiently
- Making the Precision Basics Even Better with Implement Guidance
- Focusing on Smarter, Sustainable Fertilizing Strategies
Videos
Last-Minute Planter Prep for No-Tillers & Strip-Tillers
On this episode of Conservation Ag Update, brought to you by Martin-Till, precision specialist Chad Baker, co-owner of Baker Precision Planter Works in Orangeville, Ill., helps a first-generation no-tiller with planter setup, and later encounters a couple problems with a strip-tiller’s new 24-row planter. Plus, veteran agronomist Brad Forkner checks in with a couple tips for farmers to keep in mind before they take the field.
Top Directory Listings
Needham Ag Technologies, LLC
Needham Ag understands the role of technology in making better use of limited resources within a specific environment by drawing on a wealth of global experience to overcome the challenges facing today's farmers, manufacturers and dealers.
Titan International, Inc
Titan offers a full line of wheels, tires and undercarriage products for a wide variety of off-the-road equipment.
The Andersons PureGrade
The Andersons grows enduring relationships through extraordinary service, a deep knowledge of the market, and a knack for finding new ways to add value as we have done for nearly 70 years.