"Crop Enhancer" Spreads Manure In Standing Row Crops

Crop Enhancer Spreads Manure In Standing Row Crops MANURE HANDLING Equipment Ohio dairymen Walter and Hein Manders can sidedress crops with liquid manure thanks to their Crop Enhancer that s designed to drag a hose between rows The unit can apply 5 000 gal per acre covering 80 acres a day
Too often in the spring it s too wet to apply manure before the corn goes in says Walter Manders Later in the year when the crop is up it s usually nice and dry in the row
The brothers used off-the-shelf components when they could and fabricated the rest such as the 45-ft tool bar with wings that folds three times to a transport width of 12 ft Any wider and transport down the road would require a special permit in Ohio
Any manure pump capable of supplying a drag hose system can be used with the Crop Enhancer The manure goes through a Vogelsang hydraulic distribution manifold that delivers equal amounts of manure to each 2-in distribution tube and injector
The hose and toolbar components are standard off-the-shelf units Our first unit used double disks but the current toolbar has rolling coulters with 8 2-in waves and injection tubes mounted behind them he says You can add equipment as needed; for example Iowa requires the manure be covered but here in Ohio it isn t required At the time of the year we are applying the ground soaks it up fast and the corn needs all the moisture it can get
The hose reel guide bar and toolbar are unique At 17 ft long and 5 ft in diameter the reel holds 3 900 ft of 4-in dia lay-flat manure hose The reel is chain-driven off a hydraulic-driven sprocket
The 15 ft long hose guide is also chain driven It s calibrated to move back and forth across the reel with the hose as it unwraps and wraps on the reel
The calibration is likely the most important part of the entire machine says Manders It also had to be calibrated so when all the hose has wrapped up the guide is at the rear of the reel We just pull two pins and fold it forward against the frame
The hose guide is what allows the 16-row 30-in row Crop Enhancer to be used after the crop is up It lays the hose down between crop rows When the operator reaches the end of the field and turns around the hose guide picks the hose back up
As the hose is laid out it falls in a row space that would otherwise have a rolling coulter and injector running down it To avoid slicing the hose as it s unrolled the tip of the toolbar with the last coulter and injector on the hose side is tipped back on the toolbar wing This action also pinches off the flat hose serving it shutting off the flow of manure When the system has reversed and the hose is being picked up the toolbar section is tipped back into place hydraulically and the row space is again tilled and injected An identical unit at the other end of the toolbar is always in reverse position When one tip is up the other is down There are always 16 units distributing manure
In order to maintain an even flow of manure we couldn t have one unit being shut off and on with the excess flow going to the other tubes explains Walter
The toolbar itself consists of a stationary 12-ft width behind the Vogelsang manifold Each 16 1/2-ft wing is designed to fold twice not counting the tip section
The entire unit is 37 ft from end to end and rides on four Michelin 380/90/R46 row crop tires Each pair of tires straddles a row The low-pressure tires have a high load capacity which they need
The fully loaded trailer weighs 15 tons on the axles and 6 tons on the hitch says Manders People say that s a lot of weight but with these tires we do less damage to the soil than a 1 000-gal tank of liquid fertilizer on 13-in wide tires
The weight is a determining factor for the size tractor needed to pull the Crop Enhancer While a 70-hp tractor could pull it it needs something closer to 150-hp to handle the weight at the hitch A pto-driven hydraulic pump that can put out about 80 gpm handles all the onboard power
Everything is electric-over-hydraulic controlled from a small box in the cab with a joystick says Manders It s very low pressure so we don t need much power In fact the tractor can run at 1 500 rpm s all day
The brothers sold their first generation prototype to an Iowa farmer Manders estimates the price of a new unit at $140 000 Currently he s evaluating the market for interest before deciding to build more units
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Manders Dairy LLC 11190 Range Line Rd Weston Ohio ph 419 669-1070; waltermanders@hotmail com

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.