Many of you in North America are fighting mud and might find it difficult to contemplate needing more frame weight at the moment. But we’ve been down this road before—when it stops raining and gets sunny and hot, the soil goes from too soft to too hard in a matter of
If you have a JD drill where the rear transport wheel frame is held together as shown in the photo, you probably are constantly replacing broken bolts. We’ve found that using a pair of shorter bolts instead of a single long bolt in those spots pretty much eliminates any further breakage.
It seems to be the latest trend amongst the Regenerative Ag folks to stop using seed-applied fungicides for fear of what they might be doing to the soil ecology, particularly mycorrhizae —my agronomy consulting is dba Pinnacle Crop Tech). Should we be avoiding seed-applied fungicides? It’s a complex, nuanced topic—so let’s have a
This no-till cotton field was planted with two different planters, two operators. The arrow is the dividing line. The planters were both equipped with Keetons + Mojos, new opener blades, etc. The one on the right side had Thompson closing wheels with toe-out wedges, the one on the left had OEM smooth
We tend to be rather complacent about soybean stand uniformity—non-uniform distance between plants as well as non-uniform timing of emergence. As an agronomist, I stopped worrying about it a long time ago (whereas—in sharp contrast—I’m super-concerned/pedantic about uniform timing of emergence for corn, cotton, sunflowers). Soybeans are very forgiving, it seems. A
If you have new blades on a Deere planter with the depth mechanism set as shown in this photo, the furrow being cut should be two inches deep consistently. If it’s less than that, you don’t have enough downforce on the row unit. (For corn, sunflowers, and cotton, the seed depth needs
If you notice a lot of wear on the depth-adjustment mechanism (the plate with the notches in it, as well as the knob), it’s probably a sign you’re not running enough downforce on the openers. If you don’t have enough downforce (whether that’s OEM or with UniForce), that knob is constantly
by Matt Hagny, freelance agronomic consultant since ’94[Originally written Nov 2017; updated March 2019] Palmer amaranth, waterhemp, marestail, kochia in many regions are now resistant to glyphosate and several other herbicide modes of action. This has prompted some no-tillers to revert to tillage and led some pundits to claim that no-till
We’ve been waiting decades for Deere to come out with improvements to their 90-series no-till drill openers. Now that it’s finally happened, it’s mostly a yawn. Almost everything has already been surpassed in aftermarket products. For instance, Deere is very proud of their new seed-bounce flap that’s triangular on the end to
For those who don’t know my history, I’ve been an agronomist (independent crop consultant) for nearly a quarter-century now, working almost exclusively with no-till systems during that time. So, first and foremost I’m an agronomist. I only started working on seeding equipment for no-till because of a severe lack of
We now have Forges de Niaux opener blade assemblies for late-model JD planters (XP & ME5). And with larger bearings than OEM or another aftermarket! These puppies use double-row 205 bearings, whereas OEM and other aftermarket are double-row 204 bearings (smaller diameter). They also use 5/16″ rivets instead of 1/4″.
I’ve spent a lot of time over the years urging no-tillers to avoid compaction and ruts with their equipment by using larger, low-pressure radials (see article) or tracks on everything that might be in the field when it’s wet. For the most part, the long-term no-tillers who have done this came thru last
Derek is Kansas native who grew up in a 100% no-till farming operation. From an early age the benefits of no-till were made known to Derek by his father and by attending no-till conferences. From there he furthered his passion for soils while at Kansas State University getting his agronomy degree. He has had the experience of working in various roles and sectors of agriculture from sales and consulting to management, which have all been within production agriculture. Derek has also worked in specialty ag markets such as turf and ornamentals.
Sales & Service Representative
Prior to joining Exapta, Bob Pagel was an Agricultural Territory Sales Manager for Ritchie Brothers, serving parts of MN, WI and IA. He continues to support his family farm in SE Minnesota.
Current Product Engineer
He brings hands-on experience in no-till planting equipment, agricultural research, and design engineering. With a background in farming in NE Kansas and an engineering degree, he spent seven years at Kansas State University and three at Landoll Company. He’s passionate about solving engineering challenges and developing durable, user-friendly products.
