Seed Savings With Planter Row Shut-Off

Kurt LawtonCompany Announcement, Education, Equipment, GPS, Guidance, Planting, Tillage, Trimble

Northern Illinois corn and soybean grower Todd Glendenning says he saved an estimated $1,200 per day during spring planting with his Trimble guidance and row control system, according to a story in the June issue of Trimble’s StraightTalk newsletter.

“After planting with RTK and implement guidance, I would
never want to plant any other way,” says Glendenning. “I used
to spend a lot of time looking back, and trying to compensate for the planter sliding down sidehills, but now I don’t have to.”

Glendenning also added Tru Count air clutches to all 24 planter row units. “We have countless acres of point rows and waterways, so we used to have a lot of overlap and wasted seed. With all the multiple-trait seed we plant, seed costs are around $125 per acre. I’d estimate we saved $1,200 in seed costs per day this spring. And since we aren’t overlapping in the headlands, the plants won’t be overcrowded and lodging. That should improve yield.”

Tillage is another benefit Glendenning sees from his Trimble
equipment. “We’ve found WAAS is just not accurate enough
for doing skip rows on 200-acre fields; by the end of the field
you can end up being off by six to seven feet. But if we pair an
EZ-Guide® 500 system with the Ag3000 modem in our tillage
tractor, we can till very efficiently.”

To learn more, check out the June issue.