PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE, Man. — White has never traditionally been a big corn planter name on the Prairies, but that will change when its 90-foot 36-row planters start to appear.
Corn and soybean fields are expanding, and canola growers are experimenting with planters.
However, a corn planter can be a complex and frustrating piece of machinery, especially when farmers are planting expensive seed, said White’s Steven Epler.
“One of the main reasons White is expanding to the Prairies is that we have the simplest planter on the market,” Epler told the recent Corn Planter Clinic in Portage la Prairie.
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“For one thing, it’s a positive air system. We use pressurized air to push the seed on the disc. Not a lot of pressure. Just 0.07 (pounds per sq. inch). I believe Great Plains and Case are the only other planters using air pressure. Nearly everyone else uses a vacuum or negative air system to pull the seed. Vacuum is more sensitive and has a lot of seals and things that require maintenance.”
Epler said many first-time corn growers are looking for a planter that will get them started in corn production with the least amount of mechanical and electronic hassle, and that’s what White has to offer them.
“You won’t waste a whole lot of time tuning and maintaining these planters,” he said. “Plus, there’s a full three year guarantee on the metering system. Agco takes care of all the maintenance and repairs to the metering system for that period.”
The singulation metering disc is a simple design. Tickle brushes knock off the seconds as they come around, and brushes hold the seed in place to give it a gravity drop into the seed tube.
He said the tickle brushes are among the only wear parts on the machine, except for the eventual replacement of bearings.
The machine has a minimum of moving parts, he added.
Epler isn’t apologizing for the machine’s old school nature.
“Yes, it is old technology. We haven’t changed a whole lot on these planters for a long time,” he said.
“But that’s what some farmers really want. We still sell a lot of these planters in the corn belt, despite the idea that they’re old technology.”
He said growers in the corn belt view White planters as reliable rather than dinosaurs.
“They’re simple. There’s less to go wrong and easier to fix when they do break. In fact, we have a new series coming out in 2014 that’s even simpler than this one.”
The new machines will be rolled out April 10 in Davenport, Iowa.
For more information, contact Epler at 204-226-2775 or visit www.agcocorp.com.
