For Bryan, Ohio, farmer Glen Newcomer, 2019 was a disaster.
“We only got 20% of our acreage planted because of the severe flooding and heavy rains,” Newcomer recounts. “We planted corn for an hour and a half in the month of May, and we planted soybeans for three days in June.”
That experience forced Newcomer to rethink his equipment needs and address the bottleneck happening during those less-than-ideal planting windows.
“We’ve ramped up enough to have the ability with a small window of opportunity, we’ll get the crop planted,” he says.
To hit that goal required increasing the size of his corn planter from 16 to 24 rows. Rather than spending the time and money required to find and buy the perfect setup, Newcomer and his team retrofitted an older base model.
“I started looking at the features I wanted to have on a planter and that dollar amount was about $280,000 to $290,000,” Newcomer calculated. “I sold my 16 row for $90,000 and I bought a 24-row planter for $114,000, which was three years newer. Then we put another $58,000 worth of parts or upgrades into it.”
All in, Newcomer estimates it cost him $172,000 (not including the money he received in selling his 16-row planter). He and his crew did most of the work themselves in about five weeks during the winter.
“I saved $120,000, and I have a planter that has all of the current technology available on the market,” Newcomer says. “In the spring of this year we planted our corn in record time.”
Cost Versus Investment
Farmers are no strangers to tinkering or accessorizing equipment. The big issue is always money. Does adding technology, attachments or upgrades increase the value of a planter? Any pickup truck enthusiast knows the return on accessories at trade in time is nil.
“I’d compare it less to a vehicle and more to a house,” explains Greg Peterson, founder of Machinery Pete. “Bathrooms and kitchens give you the highest return, and it’s not a bad investment to retrofit a planter.”
Growth in the retrofit and refurbish side of the planter market has been exponential in the past several years, Peterson says.
“There are people in the U.S. market that buy these older planters for pennies and then rebuild them with the new stuff everyone wants,” he says. “So, that’s sort of like flipping a house.”
Know Your Needs
You can build your own planter from the bar up. It’s work Eric Kimpel, Scott Mavis and Graham Blue have done for the past few years at Mavis MeterMax, a Precision Planting dealer in Edgerton, Ohio.
“DeltaForce and V-drive came around from Precision Planting in 2014, and that’s when the trend started for us,” Kimpel says. “Before that we just took a regular stock planter and upgraded the meters or the airbag system.”
Today, just about every piece comes with options. To start the process, Kimpel’s first question is: Do you want to upgrade to a bigger planter or stay at the same size?
Once that metric is set, Mavis says, answer these questions:
- What were you happy with on your old planter?
- What didn’t work so well? What would you like to improve?
Then you can address the issues with new products, Mavis says.
“I would talk to a local dealer because they’re going to be more familiar with your soil types and may have more experience with what’s worked and what hasn’t,” says CJ Parker, crop production product specialist for Case IH.
A farm’s tillage system and location is likely to be the biggest determining factor on what is added to the final setup.
How long will a build take? The team at Mavis MeterMax says a rule of thumb is roughly 200 hours.
The earlier you start the process the better, says Kevin Juhl, production system marketing manager for planting and seeding at John Deere.
“There are increased constraints and supplier issues due to COVID-19,” Juhl points out.
Trick it Out
With goals in hand, it’s time to get to work either on your current planter’s frame or find a new one.
“If we can use the bar you already own, you’re going to save the most money,” Kimpel says.
“There’s a company out there that has a bare bar,” Mavis adds. “Ideally, you want to find something in decent shape and doesn’t have a lot of extra parts you wouldn’t use.”
Stripped all the way down, in some cases, a used bar might need to be repaired or repainted before starting the process. Next, the team recommends doing an inventory of the parts already on hand.
“If the row units are fine, then we’ll reuse them,” Kimpel says. “If the bushings or the parallel arms are shot, then we’ll put on new ones.”
The team likes to start out with a cast row unit, Mavis explains.
Bolting on residue managers, gauge wheels, opener discs, seed meters and a closing system all take time, but Kimpel says it’s the plumbing that’s the hard part. An air impact wrench is a big help.
Cables and Hoses
“I know a lot of guys want two and three products on a planter, and its difficult trying to figure out how to get liquid tanks, plumbing and everything all situated,” Kimpel says. “When a farmer looks at all the stuff we’re putting on, including the hydraulics, it is nerve-wracking.”
Once you get to the electrical and hydraulic systems, be sure to size them appropriately for the tractor running the planter.
“I’ll go to tractordata.com and look up their tractors just to make sure it’s capable of running the hydraulics and electronics that we need to make it all work,” Kimpel says. “We always try to upsize hydraulic hoses and electronic components, just so in the future if they ever want to go to more products the hard part is already done.”
Mavis says adding hydraulics and “smart” components are often the most time-consuming task.
“There are a lot of cables and small modules to install — often on moving parts,” Mavis says. “It creates pinch and pull points on the planter that need to be accounted for during the build.”
He recommends taking your time to pre-position those cables before fastening them in place.
“The first thing to do is go buy two bags of zip ties,” Mavis says with a laugh. “The frame is going to flex, so position those when you know how things are moving and give them a little bit of slack.”
It’s essential to completely fold and unfold the planter before permanently attaching hoses and wires. That’s the only way to guarantee things don’t get pulled or pinched in the folding process.
“With the size of many planters, that means working in a very big shop, or coordinating that stage of the process with weather that allows outside work,” says Dan Anderson, mechanic and Farm Journal columnist.
If electronics are outside your comfort zone, leave that process to the dealer, Parker recommends.
“It’s always nice to have a dealership do that work because they have more experience, the tools and the technical know how to make sure it’s done correctly,” he says.
When plumbing for liquids, make sure to account for the size needed to hit the right application rate.
“Some hoses are 1" to 2" in size, and you usually have small areas you’re working in, or they’ve already been filled up with electrical cables,” Mavis says.
If the farm is leaning toward using bulk seed hoppers or a Central Commodity System (CCS), planning out the plumbing is vital.
“How you route everything underneath those tanks is important,” Blue says. “It reduces the amount of room you have to work in.”
Typically, add-ons like pumps, tanks and modules will be mounted starting in the center of the frame and work outward. A CCS system uses some of that real estate, which forces those other components to be mounted further down the bar.
Extra Add-Ons
Kimpel says hydraulic downforce and floating row cleaners or residue managers are must haves for farmers hoping to improve performance.
“Floating row cleaners just get rid of the big clumps if you work ground a little wet,” Kimpel says. “It’s not a tillage tool, but it can move some bigger stuff out of your way to help that planter get a good ride.”
Another ride related add-on includes swapping tires for tracks. “They’re expensive,” Kimpel says. “You’re talking about $36,000 to $40,000 for a set of tracks for a planter, but farmers like them.”
However, not all planter brands have tracks available for retrofit.
Building for increased speed is another option in today’s new and retrofit reality. “If that’s a goal of yours, it will affect a lot of other things like liquid fertilizer,” Mavis says. “If you’re buying a pump and putting on 15 gal. at 4 mph versus 8 mph or
10 mph, it’s a major difference.”
The biggest question is speed and whether an older bar is strong enough to run at higher speeds.
“If you had a 2006 or 2007 planter, it wasn’t initially built to go the higher speeds up to 10 mph,” Juhl says. “In our upgrade kits we build that row for you with components that are able to go that fast.”
Whether it’s time to retrofit and refurbish an old planter or buy a new one, there are plenty of options to work with this winter and create a perfectly customized machine.
Future-Proof Your Planter: Must-Haves for 2021
Row Shutoffs: “The price of seeds isn’t getting any cheaper and being able to save that seed can pay huge dividends in the long run,” says CJ Parker, crop production product specialist at Case IH.
Modern Meters: Whether it’s brush belts or electronic metering, delivering the seed to the trench for exact singulation is the quickest way to a better stand. New technology also allows planters to run at higher speeds. For example, if you increase your planting speed from 5 mph to 7 mph, that’s a 40% increase, says Kevin Juhl, John Deere production system marketing manager for planting and seeding. “What used to take you 10 days could now take six to plant.”
Automatic Hydraulic Downforce: “It can pay huge dividends when it comes to putting that seed in the ground, being precise and making sure that sidewall compaction is uniform all around the seed,” Parker says.
“If you’re going faster, your planter is moving around a lot more. So individual row hydraulic downforce can adjust up to five times a second,” Juhl adds. “That allows you to plant your seed at the exact depth you want at a higher speed.”
Air Adjust Residue Managers: “For a customer going from a no-till field to a conventional field, that time savings to adjust those residue managers can be important, especially if rain is in the forecast,” Parker says.
Pneumatic Controlled Closing Wheels: “Iowa State came out with a study where they looked at going faster with the planter. Having pneumatically pressured closing wheels will allow you to maintain better seed to soil contact,” Juhl says. “That’s the last the last time you’re going to touch that seed, and you want to make sure it’s done right.”
Of course, retrofitting your own planter is not the only option. To learn when you should buy new, visit AgWeb.com/planter-purchases
