If there's one thing David Sperfslage hates, it’s waste. Especially when it comes to no-till.

This no-tiller from Winthrop, Iowa, says it was phosphorus and potassium waste that made him start thinking.

“I was having to broadcast my phosphorus and potassium and I felt like I wasn’t getting the full benefit out of it,” he says. “The custom spreader was doing it before and he was doing it fine. But I didn’t think I was getting the fertilizer incorporated like I should. In a no-till situation, you just don’t want to move that soil around.”

So Sperfslage came up with the idea of a cart that would meter the proper amount of phosphorus and potassium, as well as some modifications so he could pull it behind his no-till planter.

“I put a set of coulters on the front of the planter, incorporating fertilizer 4 inches from the row,” he says. “Instead of broadcasting, I wanted to inject liquid 28 percent nitrogen on one side of the row behind the coulter that is mounted in front of the planter.”

Building The Cart

Sperfslage’s idea was to pull a cart behind his White 5100 no-till planter. After scouring local scrap yards, he built a cart from scratch.

“It looks like a fifth wheel trailer unit,” he says. “We put a hitch on the planter. Then we used stainless steel tubing from the meter to the planter to keep the tubes from dangling all over and to prevent rust. From the planter on…