Side Dress Rig Made From Old Cultivator

Side Dress Rig Made From Old Cultivator CULTIVATORS “I looked at new and used side dress machines that were at least double what I wanted to spend but they weren’t what I was looking for ” says Grant Rollins a farmer near Pemberton Minn “In the meantime I did some research on the internet and saw how people had built their own I decided to go that route ” Rollins built his mounted 16-row side dress bar from new and used parts The main bar is made from a used Deere 12-row 3-point mounted cultivator with a 7 by 7-in bar “It was just right for what I wanted ” Rollins says “The cultivator had folding wings that bring the traveling width down to 15 ft which is perfect for road travel and storage ” He removed all the shanks and gangs from the old bar and was able to re-use some of the brackets for his new configuration Then he added 5-ft hinged extensions to each end of the bar so the expanded width covers 16 rows “I found some good used hinges for $50 and made brackets for the tilt cylinders from scrap metal ” Rollins says “The extensions have extra support in the hinges so they’re plenty strong ” To apply the fertilizer Rollins bought Yetter 20-in ripple coulters that he bolted to the bar on spring-mounted arms He says the ripple design lets him travel 6 to 8 mph and place nitrogen between the rows at 3 to 5 in deep with minimal soil disturbance Rollins pumps the fertilizer with a Hypro hydraulic pump mounted on the saddle tank frame He regulates application rates from a Raven SCS450 controller with distribution through three Redball flow manifolds The 4 outside wing rows can be turned off “With this configuration I can use the machine for 12 rows or fold out the extension wings for 16 rows The machine has 17 shanks with the outside shank supplying a half rate of fertilizer each time the machine goes across the field so he can follow his 16-row planter tramline Gauge wheels on front of the bar keep it stable and maintain uniform placement Each coulter has 1 100 lbs of spring tension to maintain working depth Fertilizer is carried in 250-gal saddle tanks mounted on the sides of his Deere 8100 MFWD tractor “I like this approach because the whole rig is contained on the tractor ” says Rollins “If I was pulling a wheeled tank behind the bar that’s another set of wheels to knock down corn The saddle tanks add about 6 000 lbs to the tractor frame when full of fertilizer which easily offsets the weight of the bar ” Rollins says he probably has $14 000 to $15 000 in his custom rig which is less than half what he would have paid if he bought a new one In 2012 he’ll be testing several application rates to determine which N levels work best “I’ll be putting on 10 15 and 20 gal in different strips to see the response ” Rollins says “With the combine monitor we’ll know exactly how each application level affects yields ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Grant Rollins 1459 310th Ave Pemberton Minn 56078 ph 507 317-4193; grantrollins@yahoo com

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