by Josh Zuck, Lanark, IL 

Planting has pretty much finished up in Northern IL. There are still a few beans to be put in, but customers are getting a crop of hay off their last year alfalfa before tearing it up and planting some late beans. Weather has been hot and dry for the most part, with a few shots of rain here and there to help get the corn out of the ground. Corn and beans are looking great so far. Some side dressing will be starting next week along with second spraying on corn.

With the corn being up, I have had the chance to visit with customers in their fields, checking section control settings, seed population, and looking for any issues that can be fixed before next year.

These pictures show the difference between fields planted with and without row clutches.

You can see how the row clutches really can save you money.  Farmers of any size can benefit from the input cost savings as well as increased yields. Don’t let anyone tell you that the clutches never pay for themselves. These pictures say it all.

Spraying has been going full bore in Northern IL. I have had the chance to calibrate the section control settings on several of the new R series sprayers. John Deere changed their theory of operation on section control about a year ago. If you are having an issue with gaps in your coverage maps, especially with GS3 2630’s follow these steps:

1. To set the on and off times, set the sprayer to manual pressure and have a stop watch handy. Start the solution pump, and use the stop watch to check the time from when you hit the master to when the spray comes out of the nozzles.  Let’s say it is 1.1 sec. This is your turn on time.

2. Turn on your master so flow is coming out of the nozzles and use the stop watch again to check the time that it takes from when you hit the master and the flow stops from the nozzles, let’s say it is .8 sec. This is your turn off time. So your turn on time is 1.1 and turn off is .8 sec.

3. Now in your section control settings, go to overlap settings and set your coverage overlap to % overlap. 100% overlap would shut the booms off as soon as it hits the covered area. Usually you want a little bit of overlap with a sprayer and it also depends on your speed.  1% equals 1 foot. Usually setting this to 103% works well. If you have any issues or need help setting this up please contact our call center at 217 693 6209 and they can walk you through it.

Hay making has also started up north with first crop hay. The new 569 balers are running great. One thing to make sure is that if you have a coverage baler and are running edge to edge net wrap, you need to make sure you have the spacers for the edge to edge net wrap in, otherwise the net wrap can walk from side to side and potentially rip the net wrap. Contact your local Sloan’s parts department to get these spacers, part number 567PLUG.

Sloan’s will be doing baler demos this summer, if you are thinking about a new baler contact a Sloan Implement salesman to set up a time to do a demo on your farm.

Lastly, make sure to get your planters in for service inspections. Service inspections are the best insurance for your farm. We will clean them out and get them ready for next spring. We have a really good service inspection going on now and details can be found here.  We will also run your row units on our state of the art test stand and make any repairs necessary. This way you have confidence next spring that you are ready to go to the field when the conditions are right.

If you are walking your fields and see that you had a row not performing the way it should be, bring it in to Sloan’s and we can test the meter and diagnose the problem. I would recommend testing your row units every year. They may look ok, but you won’t know until the corn comes up. Always remember that your combine is useless without a crop. Your planter is the most important piece of equipment on your farm and you only have one chance to make good yields!