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Exapta Solutions Newsletters

Milo being harvested by Case IH equipment.
Matt Hagny

Shelbournes: The Value of Tall Stubble

by Matt Hagny, freelance agronomic consultant for no-till since ’94; founder & president of Exapta Solutions since ’99. Some no-tillers who grow a fair number of acres of small grains have been using Shelbournes (or the old AGCO stripper heads) for 20 yrs already. It’s time for the rest of you

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Up close look at a cross slot.
Matt Hagny

Cross-Slot The Future of No-till?

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.

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Soybeans going into cereal rye.
Matt Hagny

Cover Crops: It’s Not Too Late!!

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

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Up close look at depth shaft.
Matt Hagny

Depth-adjustment Shaft Seizing on JD 60/90 Drills?

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

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Smallaire-Heat-Exchanger-on-JD-1910-TBH-cart
Matt Hagny

Re-route Fan Return on JD 1910 Carts

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,

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Smallaire-Heat-Exchanger-on-JD-1910-TBH-cart
Matt Hagny

Oil Overheating on Air Drill?

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

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Logo for Exapta Solutions.
Matt Hagny

Check Your Mojos

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

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Zinc deficiency in corn
Matt Hagny

Uniform Early Growth

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

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Graphic for showing the issue with OEM springs.
Matt Hagny

The Problem with JD 50/60/90 Series Drills

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

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Name

Derek Tjaden

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.

Bob Pagel

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.

Jon Zeller

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.