When we have one of the planters in the shop, it pretty much takes up the whole shop! I’m glad to report the first planter is nearly ready for work. I’ve checked tracking this morning and it looks as though the parts I need should be here today.
With the seed vacuums, bulk seed fill, air compressor, alternator and fertilizer pump all run by hydraulic power, we are maxing out the tractor hydraulics. While the planter was in the shop, we did some reconfiguration to ensure efficient hydraulic flow. I think we cut 5 to 8 GPM of demand from the planter. That is about 12% of the maximum tractor capacity. We hope to reduce tractor RPMs and be a little more fuel efficient, too.
We don’t have a lot of acres on the wear parts, so we inspected everything and replaced only a few things. Hopefully, we can get another couple of years out of the seed disc openers and seed boots. We adjusted depth stops on the trash wipers as we tended last season and ended up with a “washboard” effect. Shallowing them up should reduce that. We’ll find a dry spot and test the setting when the planter comes out. Inspection revealed some sketchy hoses, which we replaced. I’m glad we replaced them now as it was quite the task to remove covers and pull hoses through the nylon hose protection. Precision planting technicians came out, updated the software and tested the systems.
With the ethanol plant still not receiving corn this week, small projects or excavator work are the other two options while a planter occupies the shop. Excavator work won out toward the end of the week. Since the fire, the ethanol plant was only open about 8 hours last week and is scheduled to be open 5 hours today. It was two weeks ago when they first broke down, so hours were limited then as well. Farmers are getting frustrated as corn needs to move to meet cashflow demands.
