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NAME: Dave Moeller

LOCATION: Keota, Iowa

YEARS NO-TILLING: 22

SPECIALTIES: No-till planter attachments and adjustments; Gleaner combine repairs and upgrades.

Since I opened the doors of Moeller Ag Service in 1989, we’ve worked with thousands of farmers — some as far away as Australia and New Zealand — on selection of planter attachments for no-till, as well as making adjustments that assure the seedbed preparation and seed placement needed for uniform stands and the highest yields.

One lesson stands out: You must adjust your no-till planter every year or the machine just can’t deliver to its greatest potential. Using the same no-till planter on the same farm doesn’t mean it will function the same, even if it was adjusted for last year’s conditions. You just can’t rely on the same settings from season to season.

It’s a shame some corn growers wonder year after year why their crop stands and yields don’t compare with neighbors or the county average, when the answer can probably be traced to a few planter adjustments or modifications made for a relatively small cost.

I should point out that proper adjustments don’t stop with the no-till attachments; it’s also critical to make several tweaks each year throughout the row unit. There are a lot of pieces to the no-till planter puzzle. If you miss a piece, it will affect all the others.

ECONOMICAL RETROFIT

The photos of various no-till attachments and other key row-unit components are from a 1995 John Deere model…