00:00 Is your planter current? That's the question. And we're also gonna provide a lot of answers. This is a great topic that I'm very excited to cover with Chad Henderson and 00:07 Mike Evans here. You know why? Because at Louisville Farm Show we're obviously the brightest, biggest, most expensive machinery is wheeled out by the manufacturers. 00:16 We had a panel with extreme Ag and I heard Chad Henderson, I heard Kelly Garrett. I heard the guy step there and talk. They said, 00:22 you know what to do a great job of planting. Arguably the most important thing we do in our farming. Get that seed in the ground to get off to a great start. 00:28 You don't have to have the brightest and the newest and the greatest cuz you can take an old machine and keep retrofitting it. So is your planter current? 00:35 I think there's a cool baseline starting right here. This is not a new planter, but it's been updated, refurbished, retooled a number of times. Take me there, 00:43 Mike. How does it start? 2012. Yeah, this is, uh, so Kelly needed, we need to add a third planter on his operation with all the corn acres. 00:50 So we went and looking for another 24 row, um, to get everything done. So we're out there looking at the marketing. You uh, 00:56 new ones I looked up are four to $500,000. You know, brand new one. I don't know if you've probably on Chad, but No, 01:02 I I no, I hadn't. I just didn't mean it's just, that's wife for myself. So A four to $500,000 planter and you might even have some add-ons from there. 01:09 Yeah. So it, you know, when you're trying to run three bought equipment, you know, obviously he's conscious on your brain. 01:14 So we worked with our dealer and, uh, found this one. It is a 20 2012 bar. Um, they updated it to the 2018 Zack Demerge retrofit kit. That's 01:24 This part here. Yep. Okay. And had those pieces that we want. And then we had made some updates from there once they got here. So it, 01:30 you know, we put a lot of work into it, but we got it to where we wanted to for probably half to two thirds of cost. Yeah. 01:37 So you're in this for a lot less than the four to $500,000 machine and you're command still does the same good as good a job. 01:42 Yeah, I mean, I did what we wanted to Do, you know, you know, it was like when we was at the field day and uh, they was doing that imagery running a, 01:51 flying the drone to where we had a 40 20 and a 7,200 and we planted our plot with it, one of the plots with it. 01:57 And then I had my planter about like this right here and a, and a tractor, you know, sitting there and they said, like I said, 02:02 about five or $600,000 or stuff sitting there and they said, well, we gonna run and see what the deviation is between two. I said, oh no, 02:07 you ain't, you ain't hurting my feelings out. It was a $15,000 rig. You know, I think that you can still go out with a John Deere 40 20 in a, 02:14 in the 1970s or a six row plan, but to the Same thing. But to the point is, if you take a, take that 40 20 at about four mile an hour, four and a half mile an hour, 02:22 and that tune planter is tuned up, you can do the job. That's what we're talking about here, using equipment that's could be possibly older, 02:29 but as long as it's tuned up in good shape, it's doing the same job and The update. So I think let's just start with that. 02:34 So 2012 bar and remember I'm way more planter than you two. And then this right here, there was a version of this in 2012, 02:42 but this is the updated version. Is that understanding? No, this came out and I don't, 1515, 02:47 Yep. Okay. So they put this every year. They have an update kit by year, but the, the, this was an 18 model. So 2012 you could not get this technology. 02:55 What was the technology in 2012, Mike? Just new promax meter. I mean, It just dropped, it just dropped the seed. 03:01 So what, what we've learned here is we trying to control the seed as much as possible. And then, you know, 03:05 they come out with this thing and I think it was one of the worst marketing things they could ever done. Like, 03:10 so they come out and they called it a high speed planter, you know, a Talladega planter, you know. And so the first one they brought to our place, 03:16 a dad said, uh, they brought one down. They said, we gonna run it. You gonna plant beans with it, you know, just how many acres? 03:21 And I asked Dennis, I said, well, how many acres you want me to plant with this thing? You know what you wanna try it on? Hey, so I'll tell you what son, 03:25 you just go plant whatever you wanna replant. That's what he told me. He said, go plant whatever you wanna replant. Okay. 03:31 Meaning that you thought it was gonna be going too fast. Yeah, the technology ahead of us. 03:34 Yeah, it was, it was the technology ahead of this time. And, and they should have more labeled it as, uh, 03:39 more of a precision type or exact emerge, you know what I'm saying? Precision placement type planter. Because that's what it was. It wasn't, 03:46 it's not about speed. Yes. It'll allow you to plant this meter. Will let, would generate the seed faster than a regular meat. So 03:51 Would, before we get off, this wasn't the exact emerge type of planter, but it didn't quite have this next level of evolution. No, it 03:57 Just had a seed meter. Uh, then when it hit the extractor, it dropped, drop a seed, just dropped it seed. 04:03 If this has got a belt that tanks it from here all the way to the green, not At least gravity's actually more 04:07 We're controlling the seed within two inches. Three of the gram. And By the way, there's somebody that's probably gonna say, 04:12 I don't know if all that stuff matters. And I remember I asked you, uh, a few weeks ago about drilling, uh, soybeans, which we start, 04:18 started thinking was cool, like in the 1980s and nineties. You said, what's a drill? 04:23 A controlled spiel. A controlled spill. It's controlled spill. This is all about controlling for population. You'll have accurate population, 04:29 uh, of, of your, uh, seed based on this. Okay. That's the first thing you just showed me. Also, let's talk about the valve right over, uh, Chaz's left shoulder. 04:36 What's that all about? So we put a, we do in furrow two by two on Kelly itself. All those, uh, pretty much all his planters. So we put this on here. 04:45 We've been running before this cap stand select shot system. Okay. And that puts the products in furrow exactly where you want it on a time basis. 04:52 Yep. In the right. Yep. It's the right amount, right place. We're exactly placing this with the seed. Yep. 04:57 We're exactly placing the fertilizer with that. Okay. So we're being very precise When this try, when this planter would've come out in 2012. I'm looking here. 05:04 Okay. I know that's the, that's the cap state. Yeah, I know. It all shows that. What, when all these hoses come out in 2012, All this one is an add on. In 2012, 05:12 you wouldn't have had the capstan system from confer? Nope. In 2012, would we have had this Chad? 05:16 I mean it is possible. I mean two but two, but hoses been out a long time and they, and they, and it's been around a hundred different ways. You know, 05:22 you can put nitrogen out or whatever, phosphorous, whatever you're choosing to put out, you know, from the bar mounted to a unit mounted. 05:28 So there's been ways of tubby two around since I guess the Indians, you know, that was the first two by two, you know, 05:33 they laid a to the fish on each side of Yeah. I dunno if that's quite true, but okay. That's, That is, that's more true than a lot of stuff you hear 05:39 To the, to the listener. I already, to the viewer that saying, uh, right man, I'm a cranberry, cranberry grower. But I love what you guys are talking about. 05:46 What is this two by two means, it's two inches off the row and ideally it's two inches down. Yeah. This one's not. 05:53 No, this would be more two by zero. So Normally when we thought of two by two, it was two inches off the furrow and also two inches down. These are not, 06:00 and if you show that this is just dribbling it out there, why does that versus it ing in? 06:07 Why did you make it the drip instead of the knife at Well, Go ahead, you tell and let me tell it. Okay. You know, just from Iowa, what, 06:14 Alabama? Yeah. So for us here up in, uh, Kelly's no-till and everything knives and stuff are, are pretty challenging. Plugging up wear, uh, just time and stuff. 06:25 We got the hills and we've got the debris and we've been, This has never seemed to work. We trialed it, uh, three, 06:31 four years ago with one planter and it just didn't work. So, you know, this allows us to be, use the technology. 06:38 We actually get a little corporation with the wheels and try to mimic what we're, what you can do with a knife. All 06:44 Right. That's the Iowa respective for your respective, do you have the knives in or do you do the drip? Both. Okay. So I split my planter this last year and half the planter is knife and and end 06:51 the other half of the planter's dribbling it off the back. Mm-hmm. And I can't find it now we haven't taken it to yield where that's where it's at, 06:58 but in the visual part so far we can't see from one side or the other. And you know, you gotta remember like I'm planting all my corn with one planter. 07:05 Okay. And we planted somewhere around anywhere from 2 20, 200 to 3000 acres with one planter. I, there's comes a a, a law of diminishing return or however you, 07:14 you know, that I've gotta plant the crop. Yep. And there's certain things that we know that we've established that like he says that I have to work on it when we have to work on it. 07:21 I can't get the crop planted. So you know, you have to give and take. That's interesting cuz Johnny Rell removed his for the same reason he said the 07:27 knife and it got logged up. It didn't work with my topography. You know, in, in certain no-till situations the knives wear faster, you know, 07:34 it's, people have rocks. It's harder to do when you get in a big no-till cover crop type deal. When you get moisture on top, they try to drag. 07:40 There's just multiple things that goes on. Alright. What else has been updated? Refurbished, revitalized, redone on this machine from when it was new in 2012. 07:49 Shoot every bit of it. Yeah, we put uh, Closing wheels are new. Yep. I know, I know they've been replaced, but are they different than what was on this machine 11 years ago? 07:57 Yeah, they're not a rubber wheel, they're the spike closing wheels. The closing wheels are different. The brackets here on the, no, 08:02 Let's just stick about closing wheels for a second. Why? He's one of them. What was on this in 20? We 08:06 Gonna talk about closing wheels for a minute. We gonna start a thing here on closing wheels and it's going to go on for about three decades because there's about 3 million different types of closing wheels 08:15 and and you could literally have five different kinds across here and they would work better or worse on each and the field, wouldn't they? 08:20 Okay. So maybe we still haven't have gotten this completely down to there's one answer, but the point is there's some good answer. Well, 08:26 The one answer for these, what I've seen in Alabama on these, and Kelly runs these and they actually sell these, 08:32 but what I've seen in Alabama is if we gotta have something that we replace easy. Okay, this is a standard barren. Yep. Barons are gonna go out. Yep. 08:38 We got fertility run through here, it's a standard barren, we knock a baron in it. And then on this, 08:42 on the where here we put a lot of acres on these and I don't know how what is wore out. Like it's doing the same job when it gets, 08:48 it wears so far and then it kind of just stops wearing. And so if you wanna replace these, they're minimal to replace. So that's what we're looking for is farmers something that's easily to find 08:57 parts for. And then the next thing is something that's easily replace at a affordable Yeah. Something you can work on. Uh, electronics. Uh, 09:04 we've come a long way probably in the last 11 years. Electronics upgraded on this from when it came out new 11 years ago. Yeah. I mean you can about monitor everything on this planter, um, with electronics. 09:14 So like right here you can't really see it very well, but there's a weight pin in here that controls these hydraulic cylinders and keep the down pressure down force on the planter. Right? It's 09:22 Rope. What, 11 years ago would this have had down force to make sure that we maintained, uh, this AC 09:28 Elevens go to just, just hitting the market. Okay, so we want consistent seed placement. We say we're gonna plant at two inches, 09:34 we're gonna plant at two inches everywhere. This makes that happen. Yes. You know, 09:38 at first we had springs and then we had airbags and we went from airbags to the hydraulics. And the hydraulics is just so much faster. You know, 09:45 it's about the speed of the planter and then it's the fastest and keeping this unit stable the whole time. Yep. 09:50 Yeah. Bouncing then means that you don't have, uh, adequate, uh, I'm sorry, consist seed 09:55 Plate. And that don't mean you can just jack the pressure up on it and keep it from bouncing. You might have to slow it down too. 09:59 Even though they did come out with a down force. I don't know if this one's got it, but wing the wing down force, you know, we don't have it on this, you know, some, so there's certain things, there's 10:06 Some other add-ons guys can do. Yeah. All right. So I think we uh, point we wanted to make is you guys stood at North America's largest, uh, 10:14 one of the largest machinery shows where it's all about selling the newest and the niftiest and all that. And you all sold the people in our room. 10:21 You don't have to go over there and buy the newest Niftiest. I'm not sure they'll invite us back. But the point is, 10:25 you don't have to buy the newest Niftiest. $500,000 might be this new machine. And you're saying you're in this for considerably less than that? 10:32 Well yeah, I mean we're in, we could be in two planters for one. Yeah. You know, and for us that's a big deal. 10:37 Yeah. The person that's gonna say, yeah, but I don't have the time, I don't have the manpower, I don't have the shop. I'm not a mechanic. 10:41 Your response to them would be You, you know, any farmers that ain't, Yeah. I mean you gotta look at each operation, but it's worth the look. I mean, 10:49 putting a little elbow grease on something is worth 10 grand, you know? Yep. What's the average age? You've got three planters. What's the average age? 10:56 2012. Okay, so you got two, two twelves and a 13. Okay, so you're, uh, you're right there. And then your operation, I got um, a two seventeens and 18. 11:07 So when you look at then, uh, what the, the recommendation is you can do this and there's a whole bunch of stuff out there and we've put out a number of videos on this topic 11:15 And, and you know what, we stand to risk here. Let's look at what we do. Stand to risk from it. You know, where's hydraulics on these? 11:20 There's wear points on the frame, you know, that we have to deal with. You know, there's a hydraulic big valve block in there we have to deal with. 11:26 So there's other costs. It's not like, oh we're just gonna buy this frame. Like it's gonna be good forever. Yeah. We're not saying that at all, you know, 11:32 uh, but what we are saying is that those things are things that you can work around, you know? Yeah. 11:36 Well we back motors will go out. Yeah. Hydraulic hoses aware. They'll get cracked, they'll, the sun will beat on them. Tires blow. 11:42 But that's just part of the game we choose to Play. Yeah, I guess what I like about this topic is there's probably, you know, our listeners and our viewers and there might be somebody that there that's even 11:50 like saying, oh, well it's easier for you to say, Chad Kelly, you guys are big time farmers. I'm over here. I'm a smaller 11:55 Farmer. You don't have to, you don't have to spend Half a million dollars to have a really good updated current model planter. And that's I think, the big takeaway here. 12:03 Cuz if this makes sense for a smaller operation, probably even exponentially for a bigger operation because they and don't happen to be acres to cover. 12:10 And, and let's say you have older planter and you don't have all these add-ons, just make sure your planter's in top-notch shape. I mean, you know what, 12:16 what's the recommended se speed for a speed or for a regular drop tube is what? Like four and a half mile an hour. 12:22 Just stay at the mile an hour that your's recommended. You know, stay at that slow mile an hour, keep the unit from bouncing. 12:28 There's things you can do and operating a planter Well I just think of the big, if you ask me what the best thing we did to this planter is putting down these 12:34 parallel or these gauge wheel arms cuz they were bushing they were screwed in, you know how many times we got red and the guys would have to run out and 12:42 replace these cuz they fall out. We put these on there, they lock on there, they're ruler bearing, no looseness. So 12:47 They just skid, They just, they're just tight. Oh, okay. Never, they never wobble in. So what'd You call that? These are the press 12:53 Wheel gauge wheel arms, Gauge wheel arms, gauge wheel Arms. And That's, you said you wait till the very end. The best thing that's the, uh, 13:00 is those right there Because that was downtime. I mean, know how many boxes we went through last year cuz they, they'd lose these out with the no-till and the train that Kelly and all the 13:08 curves, okay. Stuff falls off. All right. He gave our, he gave us the best. Relax. What's your best relax? Oh, I don't know. I'm, I'm the same way. You know, 13:15 we say in the racing all the time, you know, we can win a race if something don't fall off the race car. You know, and it's the same way with the planter. 13:20 You can plant a beautiful field of corner beans if something don't fall off the planter. 13:24 Yeah, I think we're gonna leave it right there. So the point is, you don't have to spend bazillions of dollars to have good current planting 13:31 equipment. These guys don't, and these are as good as they get. I mean, we're talking about Evans and Chad that obviously go out with, you know, they, 13:37 they, they look at everything on return and how they can get a big yield. So I think there's a grid topic, uh, for us share with you. He's Mike Evans. 13:44 He's, he's Chad Anderson. And what is it? You don't have to win the race. You just gotta not break. Is that what it's, 13:49 Don't let something fall off a race car. You can win the race something. Don't fall off a race car. Same thing with the planet. 13:53 Thanks for being here. We're talking about keeping your planter current from ion Iowa Extreme Ag.