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Deere's Max Emerge Copied (Update)
There have been several neon developments since FARM SHOW's last report on the skirmish between Kinze Mfg., Williamsburg, Iowa, and Deere and Company. Unable to buy Max Emerge row units for its popular rear-folding toolbars, Kinze Mfg. began producing a deliberate, virtual carbon copy of Deere's Max-Emerge plateless planter unit.
Kinze Mfg. is the plaintiff in an anti-trust suit against Deere and Company, charging Deere with misuse of the patent they hold on the popular Max-Emerge. Deere has counter-sued, charging Kinze Mfg. with patent infringement. Deere is also trying to stop Kinze Mfg. from painting their large toolbars green and yellow.
Meanwhile, Kinze is putting its "carbon copy" row units on a new double frame planter which the company has developed, and on the regular rear-folding Kinze toolbars. Kinze also is supplying planter units to the Hiniker Co., Mankato, Minn., and to Fleischer Mfg., Columbus, Neb., maker of the Buffalo Til-Plant System.
"We're not claiming our Kinze row units are better than Deere's Max-Emerge, but we do feel they're every bit as good," Jon Kinzenbaw, president of Kinze Mfg., told FARM SHOW. "What's more, they're readily available. We've made some improvements on the seed metering device which, we feel, makes our units second to none in accuracy and consistency of the seed drop."
The rear frame of the new Kinze double frame planter carries all the row units. The front frame can carry no-till coulters, fertilizer or cultivation equipment. It's available in 4, 6 or 8 rows. Kinzenbaw is developing a transport system which will allow the double frame design to be used on 8, 12 and 16 row units.
Kinzenbaw adds that "business is booming. We sold 4,000 Kinze row units for 1980, 6500 for 1981 and we'll move out more than 11,000 for the 1982 planting season. Our total business for 1981 was up 60% from the previous year."


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1982 - Volume #6, Issue #1