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Flow Splitter For Insecticide
We are mainly continuous corn farmers and were having problems with corn yields. When I heard about the seedling health yield increase from using Lorsban banded insecticide, I contacted Dow Elanco's research engineers. I was told they would like to have Lorsban applied 50 percent in furrow and 50 percent in a flat band to get the best effect. The only problem was that there was no equipment on the market that would do this under all application conditions.
So I designed, built and patented a bander and a flow splitter that would do the job. It took several tries to develop a flow-splitter that split the flow into two streams that were equal and that Dow Elanco thought would work. This is now my third year to use the equipment. The first year on test plots using Lorsban I had about a 4 bu. per acre yield increase using my equipment versus IH banding equipment. Using my equipment and Lorsban on first year corn, I had a 13 bu. an acre yield increase versus no Lorsban.
The next year I built equipment to fit Kinze and Deere planters. My neighbor had a 13 bu. yield increase on continuous corn.
This year, I supplied and sold about 150 units of banders and flow splitters to farmers for use and testing. I also send units to several universities for evaluation.
On a regular bander, such as Deere's, when it is tilted the granules are able to run out the downhill side of the bander. With my bander, the granules are forced to flow to the uphill side of the bander on a diagonal baffle. When granules enter the bander, they are focused on a plate with a hole on each side. When the bander is level, granules flow evenly through both holes. As the bander tilts, more granules flow out the down hill hole in the plate. The granules then are forced to flow uphill on the diagonal baffle. By proper spacing of holes and deflectors, the band pattern and width is formed.
Dow Elanco's engineer tested my bander design (data available) against several other banders and recommended the design to Case-IH and Kinze. I sell the banders for $25 and the flow splitters for $5. (Larry Conrad, Rt. 1, Box 103, Delta, Iowa 52550 ph 515 624-2380)


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1991 - Volume #15, Issue #4