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He Built His Own 700-Bu. Air Seeder Cart
Wilfred Moellenbeck, St. Gregor, Sask., farms 2,000 acres and also operates a custom fabricating shop. Over the years he has built a lot of equipment, and his latest project is this state-of-the-art, 700-bu. air seeder cart. He pulls the unit behind his FlexiCoil 40-ft. cultivator.
"We built everything on it from scratch and as far as I know it's bigger than anything on the market," says Moellenbeck, who built the unit with help from his brother Robert and sons Dennis and Kevin.
The cart operates entirely off tractor hydraulics and is equipped with several hydraulic motors. A blower on back delivers seed and fertilizer to the cultivator. The tank is divided into three compartments, each equipped with its own metering system which consists of three sets of chains and sprockets at the bottom of the tank. The metering system allows each compartment to be adjusted separately to control the rate of seed and fertilizer application. A side-mounted unloading auger is used to empty out any leftover material.
The unit rides on 26 by 30 tires on back and 15 by 26's on front. Plexiglass windows on one side of the tank make it easy to check seed and fertilizer levels. The tank is equipped with a fold-away ladder on front and a metal walkway platform and hand rails on top. The hand rails fold down for storage.
"We like to get over our ground quickly, and this machine lets us do that," says Moellenbeck. "We use our Deere 9400 425 hp 4-WD tractor to pull it. With the big tires it rolls fairly easily. The metering system is very easy to adjust and is accurate. The whole system bolts together for easy knock-down and repair.
"Our total cost to build it was about $10,000 (Canadian). The biggest commercial model I know of holds 550 bu. and sells for about $110,000. We generally apply phosphate fertilizer with the seed and nitrogen fertilizer in a band next to the seed. The tank is currently equipped with a single chute delivery system, but we plan to add a second chute so we can pull the tank behind an air drill and apply both seed and fertilizer at the same time. Despite the size of the tank, we haven't had any problems with soil compaction causing seed emergence problems."
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Wilfred Moellenbeck, Box 46, St. Gregor, Sask., Canada S0K 3X0 (ph 306 366-2113).


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2004 - Volume #28, Issue #1