Massey Ferguson Planter Converted To No-till

Massey Ferguson Planter Converted To No-till PLANTERS Planters 22-2-13 When Chester Clark, Ewing, Mo., switched to no-till, he had to come up with a low-cost no-till planter for his small farm. He found the answer by converting a Massey Ferguson 468 planter. The planter was equipped with double disc openers but had conventional planter shoes that were almost 2 in. wide. He redesigned the shoe so it's only 1/2 in. wide. Then he shortened the double disc spindle and changed its angle so that the discs open a groove just wide enough to accommodate the 1/2-in. wide shoe. He used 1/8-in. thick sheet metal to make shoe extensions and bolted them to each side of the shoe. The extensions provide attachment points for seed covering and soil compaction devices. The front edge of each shoe extension is beveled slightly. The rear vertical surface of the shoe ends just behind the front two bolts on the frame. A 1/ 2-in. thick spacer with holes to match the rear frame holes was placed vertically between the shoe extension plates. He also added spacers on both sides between the shoe extension plates and frame plates. The seed drop tube is placed between the frame plates. The final step was to modify the seed drop tubes or make new ones. In some cases he was able to cut off part of the old tubes and use a rectangular funnel made from thin sheet metal to direct seed into the shoe extensions. "I think similar modifications could be made to other planter makes and models," says Clark. For more information, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Chester L. Clark, 840 County Road 115, Ewing, Mo. 63440 (ph 573 439-5918).

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