POWERFUL KNOWLEDGE
PROFITABLE RESULTS

D-Cup Diffusers performed quite well in ’06, the first full year of usage in North America (Exapta continues to be the only dealership for D-Cup Diffusers in N. America). Many customers have been running D-Cups on their air drills, with good results. Here are one customer’s observations:
"Soybean spacing was terrible with our CCS drill until we put the Diffusers on. We'd have clumping of seeds, then a big skip. We put Diffusers on two rows, and the difference was very obvious—the spacing was definitely better, and the placement was better. All the seeds were in the bottom of the furrow, instead of partway up the sidewall, and so on. The Diffusers reduced the bunching of wheat seed, also. Watching them in operation, the seeds line themselves up single-file as they spiral down the grooves in the Diffuser."
Lennie Blain, D.S.&R. Cordel, Cawker City, KS —Exapta customers since '03
(D-Cup Diffusers and Thompson wheels on JD 1990 CCS drill)
Lennie’s results are exactly what we would expect. The D-Cups do indeed vent all the air pressure, and the spiraling of the seed in the cone does result in sufficient slowing of the seed to achieve essentially a gravity drop from that point. A nice side-benefit of the spiraling through the cone is the improvement of seed distribution along the length of row, and we have heard many reports of side-by-side comparisons demonstrating this.

Lennie further explains that when they calibrate their CCS drill (spinning a drive wheel a certain number of revolutions, dropping seed into the air stream), the rows with the Diffusers dropped the seeds in a neat little pile under the opener, while the other rows blew the seed about 5 feet rearward of the opener. Seed bounce certainly is a concern for air drills, especially disc-openers (or narrow knife points running shallow), or should we say ‘was’ a problem? —the D-Cup Diffuser makes seed bounce a thing of the past!

For more tips on setting up your drills, whether air-fed or box drills, see our updated tech tips

TREMENDOUS
SEEDING SUCCESS

The Mojo Wire had tremendous success in ’06 (our first year of marketing the Mojos), and the reports from happy customers keep pouring in. For resilient no-till soils, we can’t imagine going to the field without them. Seed-to-soil contact is much too crucial to leave to chance!

If you are installing Keetons for the first time, or replacing a worn-out set, we would encourage you to go to the Universal (wrap-around) mounting. Once upon a time, we shied away from the wrap-around Keetons because the maximum pressure obtainable was less than the original seed-tube-mounted Keeton (P100 / 100T)—but the Mojo Wire takes care of that. The Universal mounting takes the pressure off the seed tube, which becomes more important with the Mojo Wire (5 times the pressure).

With Mojo Wires, you ensure a very high rate of germination, and the rate of germination is similar for adjacent seeds, since all seeds are securely embedded in the moist soil at the furrow bottom.

NEW: XTRA SERIES

 T-wheel Xtra Series

For ’07, Exapta has made a full-blown introduction of the T4X, which has 33% thicker spokes for Xtra wear life. Since the wheel still only measures 0.25-inch thick, the slicing of the soil and shedding of mud are not greatly affected. (The T4X fits Deere 60- and 90-series drills.)

For the bearing-type Thompson wheels (for most planters, and the Case SDX and Deere 750 / 1850 drills), we are making a limited introduction of T2X and T3X wheels, which again are 0.25-inch-thick high-carbon steel. The original T2 / T3 (and T4) wheels were introduced in ’02, so some sets now have 5 seasons and tens of thousands of acres on them—in general, the reports of wear rates have been good to excellent, although a few areas with highly abrasive soils have shown some ‘premature’ wear. For producers in those areas, we now recommend the Xtra series.

In reviewing the T2 and T3 performance over 5 years, we’d like to take a moment to crow about how durable the bearings have proven. They keep going and going...

LIGHT CLOSING BRACKET
SPRING
Exapta's Light Spring

Another addition for ’07 is our light closing bracket spring (M.4433), which has about 30% of the pressure of the OEM spring. All spoked closing wheels benefit from reduced pressure on the closing bracket, since the spoke wheel’s footprint (area contacting the soil) is a fraction of what the smooth wheels had, and because seed firming is now accomplished from within the furrow (using a Keeton or in-furrow ‘seed-lock’ firming wheel) instead of compressing all the soil from the surface down to the seed. 

Planter Closing Bracket

Previously, customers of the Thompson wheel (and other spoked closing wheels) either took all the spring pressure off the tailpiece, or ran in the lowest notch setting (which was still too much pressure in many cases), or attempted to create an even lower setting on the tailpiece. However, this method was using the very beginning of the stroke on the heavy OEM extension spring, and tiny undulations in the terrain changed the pressure radically. Furthermore, no fine adjustment existed, which would be quite useful as soil textures and moisture conditions change. This is why we brought out our light closing bracket spring, which fits AGCO White 6000 & 8000-series tailpieces, Kinze models with bolt-on closing wheels, and JD 7200 – 1700-series tailpieces.