Filling the seed boxes on Kinze's popular Twin-Line planters has never been an easy job. You have to fill one row of boxes, then move over to the other side of the planter and fill the boxes on the other row. A new hydraulic-powered double cross auger mounts permanently on the planter and automatically does the job for you.

"It saves a lot of labor and time," says Phil Kaster, Kasco Mfg. Co., Shelbyville, Ind., who introduced the unit at the recent Ohio Farm Science Review show near London, Ohio. "It takes only about 10 minutes to fill the seed boxes compared to a half hour or so without the augers. The problem is that you can't reach far enough to fill both rows of seed boxes from one side of the planter."

The system consists of two 6-in. dia. bristle augers mounted on a steel frame that bolts onto the planter. Each auger is equipped with a hopper at one end as well as lengths of flexible tubing that run down to each seed box. The augers are powered by independent hydraulic motors that plug into hydraulic outlets on the planter's control box and are activated by opening a valve. You flip a switch in the tractor cab to activate the hydraulics, then go back to open one of the control valves and start one of the augers. It fills the boxes one at a time. When all the boxes in one row are full you shut that auger off and start up the other one.

"We built it in response to requests from farmers," says Kaster. "Each auger is equipped with two flexible joints that allow it to flex with the planter according to the terrain. So far it's available for Kinze 2600 and 3600 12-row Twin-Line planters, but we plan to also make a system to fit16-row planters."