7-Row Bean Splitter Bar Added To 8-Row Planter

7-Row Bean Splitter Bar Added To 8-Row Planter PLANTERS Planters 20-1-28 Wade Meteer, Athens, Ill., wanted to plant no-till corn and no-till, narrow-row soy-beans. He already had a Deere 7000 8-row, 30-in. corn planter, but he didn't want to spend the money for a new no-till planter or drill for beans. He solved the problem by bolting seven row units off a junked-out 7000 planter onto a 5 by 7-in. toolbar that hooks up behind the corn planter. The rear row units are staggered to run between the front ones and are equipped with Kinze soybean brush meters. When planting corn, Meteer uses only the front toolbar. To switch from corn to beans, he replaces the corn seed meters on the main toolbar with Kinze brush meters, then backs up to the splitter toolbar and hooks up. He also added Yetter no-till coulters to both toolbars. "It lets me plant both corn and soybeans accurately and saved a lot of money," says Meteer, who uses a Deere 4430 tractor to pull the planter. "I paid $300 each for the seven add-on row units. They were in rough shape so I installed new disc openers and bearings. Altogether I spent about $6,000. I saved at least $20,000 because a new Deere no-till drill sells for $25,000 to $30,000. I had rented no-till drills to plant soybeans but was never satisfied with the job they did and thought they were too expensive. The Kinze brush meters space seeds much more accurately than Deere soybean cups. It takes only about 15 minutes to switch from planting corn to soybeans." Meteer mounted a pair of steel bars on the rear toolbar that hook up to brackets on the front toolbar with a pair of 1 1/2-in. dia. pins. "The arms keep both planters rigid. Even on corners the rear row units stay in line with the front ones," says Meteer. "The pins allow the rear toolbar to flex up and down to follow the ground contour." Meteer made a set of notched planter markers for planting soybeans in undisturbed corn stalks. He bought a new set of blades and turned them backward, then cut 1 1/2-in. deep notches in them. "I unbolt the original markers after I'm done planting corn and bolt on the notched markers. They're more aggressive than the original markers and do a good job." The rear-mounted row units are powered by a separate ground-driven trans-mission. Hydraulic lift assist wheels salvaged from an old IH 500 corn planter are used to raise or lower the rear toolbar. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Wade Meteer, Rt. 1, Athens, Ill. 62613 (ph 217 636-8109).

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