Farm Information: Equipment: Planter
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We run a 2001 John Deere 1770 Max-emerge II 16-row planter. The seeding system is ground driven as well as the fertilizer system which utilizes two piston pumps for single product delivery. Behind the planter we pull a JD Skiles 1000 gallon notill fertilizer trailer. Most of the planter is stock, however last year we upgraded the chain based unit drives to the more modern cable driven system. We run a single coulter in front of the double-disks that cuts a 1/2 inch slot. This serves to cut residue that might otherwise cause problems such as hair-pinning in the case of wheat stubble or inconsistant seed depth caused by corn, milo or sunflower residue. A JD single disk opener offset in a 4x2" configuration is used to delivery fertilizer. We ran row markers and a Starlink LB5 (now a Raven RGL 500) lightbar in 2002 and 2003. In 2004, we added an Auto-Trac system which translated into a $0.94 per planted acre savings over using markers and/or a lightbar. This has been both a reliable and accurate notill planter for us, however we spend a good deal of time on it every winter to make sure that it is kept in optimal condition.
2001 JD 1770 16-row planter pulling a JD Skiles 1000 gallon tank. 1999 JD 8400 tractor is on the front with Auto-Trac. (May 2004)
Looking back from tractor cab. The water retention terraces can be seen clearly in this photo. This style of terrace is very prominent in our area and roughly 90% of our total acres has them. The JD 1770 planter does an excellent job planting over the top of these terraces and maintains near perfect seed placement on both the backsides of terraces as well as the water channel side.
This was the view from the cab when the row markers were used in conconjunction with a Starlink LB5 lightbar which is shown mounted on the hood. Although not pretty to look at, I always preferred hood mounted lightbars to in-cab mounted lightbar systems.
This shows a close-up of the planter unit. On the left, one can see the guage wheel for the JD single disk opener fertilizer unit while on the left the unit guage wheels are shown. In the middle, we can see an original 16-wave coulter that would cut a 3/4" slot for the double-disks. In 2005 we moved to a 24 wave coulter that cuts a 1/2" slot and many times we just take the coulters off (especially if the ground is soft or muddy).
Close up view of the JD single disk fertilizer openers
This is what the field looks like after planting into 70 bu/ac straight cut wheat stubble. (May 2006)
This is what the field looks like after planting into 70 bu/ac stripper cut wheat stubble. The stripper stubble will possible cause us to rethink our planter setup in the future as the volume of surface residue is vastly greater than that of straight cut stubble. (May 2006)
Another picture of corn planted into about 70 bu/ac stripper cut wheat stubble. (May 2006)
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