No-Till Covering Blades

No-Till Covering Blades PLANTING EQUIPMENT No-Till & Min-Till 8-2-28 Four years ago, Ohio farmer Tom Rietschlin, of Tiro, built a mounted toolbar planter and equipped it with no-till coulters and Allis-Chalmers planter units. He ran into problems. "The double disc opener was plowing such a deep furrow that, even at slow speed, no uniform seed depth could be achieved," Rietschlin recalls. To solve the problem, he developed a set of no-till covering blades, one on each side of the double disc seed opener. The blades worked so well over the next three years that he now manufactures and markets them ù both for fertilizer as well as seed openers. "With the improvement in penetrating ability of double disc fertilizer openers, they run deep, disturbing large amounts of soil. This soil disturbance leaves the surface so rough that it's impossible for the following seed opener to maintain a uniform, shallow planting depth. Therefore, we now offer covering blades for those makes of fertilizer openers that need them." Covering blades are available for all models of Allis-Chalmers planter units except for the No. 77 air unit, older models of the IH Cyclo seed opener, and for fertilizer openers on Max-Emerge and Kinze planters. Each covering blade set consists of a spring loaded blade on each side of the double disc opener. While planting, the curved blade slides along on the ground next to the disc blade and holds the ground down so that, as the disc blade turns, it can't pick the soil up and throw it out, thereby opening up a. deep seed furrow. There is just enough tension on the covering blade to hold the soil in place and allow the trash to slide by. The covering blades sell for $110 per row. For more information, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Tom Rietschlin, T and D Mfg., 6529 State Route 96, Tiro, Ohio 44887 (ph 419 562-4588).

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