Combination Planter-Cultivator

Combination Planter-Cultivator CULTIVATORS Cultivators (58C) 5-3-7 Brothers Don and Kenny Mauer, and their brother-in-law, Tim Stone, Greensburg, Ind., wanted to speed up their planting and save trips over the field. So, they mounted two IH Cyclo planter units in the center of a Hesston field cultivator and added 12 John Deere Max-Emerge planter units on a toolbar across the back. Don Mauer says they can easily plant 15 acres per hour at 5 1/2-6 mph, and have had no trouble with planting accuracy at the higher speed. They removed the Cyclo units from old planters they already had. "You can pick up used ones almost anywhere," says Don, who adds that they chose the Max-Emerge planter units because of their accurate depth control. He says the planter units come with one spring, but they added another one on each unit to increase penetration and improve depth control. However, they were unable to find anyone who would sell them the complete units so they had to buy them from parts. Even that wasn't all bad though, according to Mauer, because they were able to eliminate some parts they didn't need that would have come with the assembled units. Thus, the cost was about the same. A 28 1/2 ft. Hesston field cultivator was chosen because, "It's about as heavy as any on the market," says Don. "It has 3 in. tubing whereas some others, especially older models, used only 2% in. frame members." The cultivator is just about the right size for 12, 30 in. rows and it folds to about 15 ft., 8 in. ù enough to pass through a 16 foot gate. The Mauers and Stone built their own markers and used a separate hydraulic cylinder to control each one. "With independent control, we can raise or lower either marker any time and we don't have to worry about getting markers fouled up, or dropping the wrong one after we cross a waterway or something like that," says Don. The field cultivator itself was not modified. Because there are no seed boxes on the planter units, the added weight, especially on the wings, is immaterial as far as raising or folding the cultivator is concerned. Using the Cyclo units also means there are no individual planter boxes to empty or worry about when wings are folded for transport. Mauer suggests that anyone wanting to assemble a similar rig should look for as rugged a field cultivator as possible, with the width depending on the number of rows they want to plant. Also, because there are no seed boxes on the planter units, Mauer believes that narrower row spacing could be used without imposing a serious overload on the field cultivator. The Mauers and Stone fall plow most of their land and use either a disk harrow or another field cultivator to work the land ahead of the cultivator/planter rig. The entire machine cost them about $18,000 ù roughly half of that for the field cultivator and the rest for planter units, markers, etc.

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