He Modified His Kinze Planter

He modified his Kinze planter PLANTERS Planters 12-6-31 Randy Johnson, Minonk, Ill., no-till plants corn and soybeans with a modified 31-row Kinze planter that'll seed rows spaced from 30 to 7.5 in. As built at the factory, the Kinze Double Frame planter carries 16 row units on a rear bar and "pushes" 15 units on an up-front bar. When he plants corn in 30-in. rows,. Johnson simply fills the boxes on units spaced 30 in. apart and leaves the others empty. When planting soybeans, he can space the rows on either 15 or 7.5 in. centers. He drills both beans and corn directly into stalks and bean residue just as it was left by the combine in the fall. Although the planter was built heavy at the factory, Johnson felt he needed still more weight to slice through cornstalks so he rigged up two 200-gal. tanks of water for ballast. "Kinze's no-till row units do an excellent job of planting. After the machine makes a pass through, the fields look like they've been disked," says Johnson. He rigged up an auger-fill system on the planter using an old 5-in. auger with drop tubes made out of pieces of rubber inner tubes. He drives the auger with a hydraulic motor. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Randy Johnson, Minonk, Ill. 61760 (ph 309 432-2269).

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