I sometimes am called upon to do the impossible: Make a poorly designed planter or drill work well in no-till. And I then have to convey
An article this past summer (2017) in Corn & Soybean Digest raises this question, and sets forth the reasons that its inventor, John Baker, claims it is. To a large extent, it regurgitates a propaganda barrage from Baker’s PowerPoint presentation without any skepticism or counterpoint. Many of Baker’s claims are preposterous, and his views warped from reality.
For most of the readership in North America, it’s not too late to establish cereal rye (or triticale). Cereal rye ahead of soybeans is almost a no-brainer. Except in the driest
For the winter wheat (or cereal rye) you may be about to plant, will it have enough nutrients for what it needs to do this fall? Lack of N and other nutrients will
These are notorious for dust getting inside, not taking grease, and then seizing up entirely. While the update that Deere did with making a flat spot on one side of the shaft to allow grease to flow along it did help, there are still too many that seize up, requiring
Farmers always have drought worries close to top of mind. No-till with abundant mulch certainly blunts the effect of a drought. However, the extra moisture
These carts generate lots of unnecessary heat from the fan circuit because the JD setup is silly. Our recent newsletter on our Smallaire Heat Exchangers for JD air drills describes JD battling the heat buildup by converting drills to run Power Beyond for the rockshaft downforce, but there’s a much easier fix,
Quite a few people have trouble with oil overheating on their air drills (and even if it’s not overheating to the extent of shutting down the tractor, high temps break down hydraulic oil faster, and shorten the life of pumps, seals, etc — you really want it to stay below
When used in benign conditions, our Mojo Wires have a long-life expectancy. However, when flexed to the max, they may start to take on this greater curvature (of max-flexed position) and lose their tension when back in normal operating position. When this happens, they’re not putting down nearly as much pressure on
You’ve probably often heard of the importance of uniform timing of emergence, which has been well-proven to be much more important to yield than uniform spacing of plants in the row. This is true for all crops, but especially for corn, sunflowers, and cotton. What is forgotten, or assumed, is
Many of you know that I view these drills as being superior to many others on the market because of: 1) depth gauging alongside the blade, 2) an in-furrow seed-lock wheel. Yet there are plenty of shortcomings with these drills, and Exapta has been busy addressing those. Perhaps the worst
I’ve spent much of my adult life researching ways to make planters and drills function better in no-till, and it never ceases to amaze me how garbled up the thinking can get on some design issues. Take, for instance, firming points. Please, take them! Away, far away! 🙂 Seriously, some
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.
