Field Cultivator Grain Drill

Field Cultivator Grain Drill CULTIVATORS Cultivators (58C) 16-2-7 A 12-ft. long granular herbicide hopper mounted on his 3-pt. field cultivator lets Robert Dickerson, Oxford, N.C., till and plant wheat, soybeans, milo, oats, barley, and other crops in one pass, as well as apply granular fertilizer. Dickerson mounted the Gandy ground-driven granular herbicide hopper on top of his 12 1/2-ft. Unverferth field cultivator. Seed simply falls down through the field cultivator to the soil where it's covered by the cultivator's tines and rolling baskets. "It does a great job," says Dickerson, who used the combination tool last year to plant 75 acres of wheat and 40 acres of soybeans. "I use a disk or chisel plow to do my main tillage before I use the field cultivator. It leaves the soil loose and in good shape. I've also used it to plant a mixture of fescue and wheat for seeding grass waterways. It does a fantastic job. It also works great for applying granular fertilizer. "I had been seeding wheat with a 3-pt. spinner spreader, then using a disk or field cultivator to work it in. However, the spreader distributed seed unevenly which resulted in a lot of waste. I used a grain drill to plant soybeans, but it wore out and I didn't want to spend the money fora new one. I bought the used herbicide hopper for $10. The hopper is 6 in. shorter than the field cultivator so I have to over-lap 1 ft. The biggest disadvantage is that the hopper holds only 4 bu. so I have to stop and refill often." The hopper was originally designed to mount on top of a disk. Dickerson used a pair of 3-in. dia. steel pipes to mount the hopper on the frame of the cultivator. A 3/ 4-in. diagonal brace runs up to each mounting pipe. The cultivator frame was equipped with a pair of front-mounted gauge wheels. Dickerson mounted the hopper's ground drive wheel on top of one gauge wheel and used a pair of chains to drive the hopper's hex shaft. "The gauge wheels weren't built strong enough to support the added weight of the hopper. I removed the remaining gauge wheel and use the 3-pt. to keep the cultivator at the right depth," says Dickerson. The hopper's hex shaft was equipped with paddles designed for granular herbicides. Dickerson removed the paddles and welded a pair of 1-in. dia. hex taps side by side in their place. "The hex taps do a better job than the washers of keeping seed from leaking out when I turn at the end of the field," says Dickerson. "Gandy offers seed paddles for the shaft, but they cost $200." Dickerson says he may beef up the cultivator frame and mount two hoppers on the cultivator so he can apply fertilizer and seed at the same time. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Robert L. Dickerson, Rt. 5, Box 179, Oxford, N.C. 27565 (ph 919 492-3724).

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