1992 - Volume #16, Issue #3, Page #18
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Early No Till Planter
In the late 1960's, Illinois farmer Neil Hilvety of Moweaqua built one of the first one-pass, "no-till" planters in the country, along with his late father Owen. Unlike today's streamlined, precision-engineered ma-chines, the machine the Hilvety's put together was a somewhat bulky affair.The till-planter consisted of a large rototiller pulling two John Deere planter units and two large chemical and fertilizer tanks.
To provide the strength and power needed to handle the heavy rig, The Hilvetys de-signed and built a tractor just for the job. It was fitted with a Rockwell Standard truck gear and powered by a 671 GMC diesel engine.
The Hilvetys also built large "Big A" floater-type fertilizer spreaders before commercial rigs came on market. Owen ran a machine shop and son Neil still does.
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