Ridge Plant With Conventional Planter

Ridge Plant With Conventional Planter PLANTING EQUIPMENT Ridge-Till 7-1-9 Conventional corn-soybean planters can be equipped for ridge planting, thanks to special add-on attachments invented by Harvey and Brady Jass, Odin, Minn. The father-son farming team are ridge enthusiasts, raising top yields of both corn and soybeans with their 30-in. system, and conserving soil at the same time. "The major advantage of our new planter attachment is that you don't have to buy a whole new till-plant planter to switch to ridge farming," explains Brady. The ridging attachment he and his father developed is primarily designed to fit the Deere 7100 Max-Emerge planter, but can be adapted to other makes and models of toolbar planters. The top of the ridge built the previous summer is shaved off by the attachment's opposing disk blades, depositing root clumps, clods and other debris into the valleys between the rows. "A beautiful, moist seedbed several inches wide, that's never been compacted by a tractor wheel, is left on top the ridge," says Harvey. "You couldn't prepare a finer seedbed if you tried." Operating in a conventional manner, the planter then places the seed for the new crop right in the same spot as the old row, on top of the ridge. The Jass attachment's stabilizing wheel, which runs ahead of the disk blades, helps keep the planter up on the ridges. "The tractor wheels run down in the valleys between the ridges, and the planter is mounted. Thus, it's no trouble at all staying on the ridges and planting where you want to," notes Harvey. The attachment, mounted with parallel linkage, flexes up and down independent of the planter unit. The 14-in disks have large tapered bearings, and are suited to sustained use in heavy cornstalks and on rocky ground, say the inventors. Price of the unit is $500 per row. The Jasses themselves ridge-plant several hundred acres a year, using the attachments on an 8-row 30 in. Deere planter. They've set up a small manufacturing company to make and sell their new ridging attachment. "We'll ship them anywhere. The units are easily installed and can be supplied with shovel-type ridge sweeps rather than disks," notes Harvey. "We also offer optional hydraulic lifts so that the ridge attachment can be lifted quickly, permitting conventional non-ridge planting. The hydraulic capability is particularly handy if you want to plant end rows non-ridged, which some ridge farmers like to do for ease of combining. If , you're trying ridge farming for the first time, you'll need some way to build ridges the first time, and then a way to rebuild them at cultivation," Harvey points out. For more information, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, B & H Mfg., Inc., Rt. 1, Box 127, Odin, Minn. 56160 (ph 507 639-2320, or 736-4151).

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