Stop Marker Furrowing In No-Till Beans

2023 - Volume #47, Issue #2, Page #28

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Jerry Kroll is a 100-percent no-till farmer in Michigan who was having trouble with his row marker making a furrow in his soybean fields. He came up with a unique solution to the problem.
“The standard marker, which is basically a disc, would make a furrow while doing no-till in light sand,” Kroll says. “That would build up on the cutter bar on the floating cutter head of my combine during soybean harvest.”
It wouldn’t get into the combine, but Kroll says the sand would sit on the knife so it wouldn’t feed the beans into the machine. He had to stop regularly and clean off the sand.
The thing about no-till is he needs to see the mark left behind. If he was aggressive enough so he could see the mark, that would leave a furrow. If he wasn’t aggressive enough crossing the field, he couldn’t see the mark.
“I had some row cleaners I’d taken off the planter, and I wondered what might happen if I put them on the marker arm of my current planter,” he says. “A row cleaner will clean the debris but won’t dig in the dirt.”
Kroll put the row cleaners onto his planter and loved the result. He doesn’t have to adjust anything, whether he’s planting in the lighter or heavier ground.
“I took the existing arm off and made a bracket with some angle iron I had on the farm,” Kroll says. “It bolts on with the same two bolts that the standard stock OEM marker bolts to.”
Kroll says that made it easier if he needed to go back over his tilled ground because it would only take a minute to put the OEM marker back onto the planter.
“Since I’ve done this, I’ve never put it back on my planter,” he says. “I’ve even made and sold a few sets to neighbors who thought this would work well for them too.”
Kroll says he usually had to climb down every couple of rounds to clean off the dirt, so his idea does save time during harvest.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Jerry Kroll, 4494 W. Webster Road, Montague, Mich. 49437 (ph 231-578-0739).

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Stop Marker Furrowing In No-Till Beans PLANTING EQUIPMENT No-Till & Min-Till Jerry Kroll is a 100-percent no-till farmer in Michigan who was having trouble with his row marker making a furrow in his soybean fields He came up with a unique solution to the problem “The standard marker which is basically a disc would make a furrow while doing no-till in light sand ” Kroll says “That would build up on the cutter bar on the floating cutter head of my combine during soybean harvest ” It wouldn’t get into the combine but Kroll says the sand would sit on the knife so it wouldn’t feed the beans into the machine He had to stop regularly and clean off the sand The thing about no-till is he needs to see the mark left behind If he was aggressive enough so he could see the mark that would leave a furrow If he wasn’t aggressive enough crossing the field he couldn’t see the mark “I had some row cleaners I’d taken off the planter and I wondered what might happen if I put them on the marker arm of my current planter ” he says “A row cleaner will clean the debris but won’t dig in the dirt ” Kroll put the row cleaners onto his planter and loved the result He doesn’t have to adjust anything whether he’s planting in the lighter or heavier ground “I took the existing arm off and made a bracket with some angle iron I had on the farm ” Kroll says “It bolts on with the same two bolts that the standard stock OEM marker bolts to ” Kroll says that made it easier if he needed to go back over his tilled ground because it would only take a minute to put the OEM marker back onto the planter “Since I’ve done this I’ve never put it back on my planter ” he says “I’ve even made and sold a few sets to neighbors who thought this would work well for them too ” Kroll says he usually had to climb down every couple of rounds to clean off the dirt so his idea does save time during harvest Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Jerry Kroll 4494 W Webster Road Montague Mich 49437 ph 231-578-0739

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