About 6 years ago, Loran and Bryce Naber shifted to no-tilling to capture major fuel, equipment and labor savings. The Albion, Neb., corn and soybean producers are also in their fourth season of reaping additional efficiencies with variable-rate dual banding of directly injected liquid anhydrous ammonia and liquid fertilizer.

The overall result: reduced erosion, dramatically better nutrient efficiency and higher yields.

In addition to the Nabers’ 2,000 acres of corn and soybeans, Bryce Naber provides custom planting and fertilizer application services on about 3,500 acres.

“I had been using a traditional shank rig to apply anhydrous ammonia and liquid fertilizer, but I didn’t like the unacceptable amount of soil disturbance created by the knife,” he says.

“We were knifing in the anhydrous on 18-inch centers and literally turning the fields black. A heavy rain on our 10- to 12-degree slopes would wash those knife tracks right of the hill,” he recalls.

“In addition to erosion control, I wanted to go with a single-disc system so I could pull a bigger machine and cover more ground. I needed to get more done faster with less soil disturbance,” he adds.

Naber remembered a story he had read in a farm magazine back in high school that told about direct injection of liquid anhydrous ammonia. He looked up the story in the school library archives and called the company.

Wing Injectors

As it turned out, that company, Exactrix Global Systems, in Spokane, Wash., had developed a pressure-increasing system with wing injectors specifically adapted…