ROULEAU, Sask. Ñ Daryl Tiessen has used liquid fertilizer for the past 10 years. His first two pull-behind carts were 800 and 1,250 US gallon commercial units, but he wanted more capacity.
“I thought with the high cost of buying a new one, I could build one myself for a lot less money, with some used axles and spindles,” the Rouleau farmer said.
“And if I’m going to build one, I might as well build it big enough so I could seed at least 80 acres on a fill. So I chose a 2,100 gallon tank.”
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Tiessen thought the hubs, axles, tank, tires and rims were most costly; buying most of those at salvage value would keep the costs down.
Using ideas from a variety of carts, Tiessen designed a front steering axle around a three-inch ball and socket with a big, long tongue for steering.
“For the front axles I used 914 IH combine spindles and axles. The rear hubs and spindles are from a 1482 International combine, so they’re very heavy,” he said.
“The steel for the frame is all four by six square tubing, with three-eights wall, so it’s really heavy.”
Because lots of 1482 combines are still in use and salvage parts are fairly expensive, Tiessen said he bought a whole combine for $2,500 to use for parts. He used the axles and spindles, but not the tires.
“I found that the bolt pattern for the combine axle was the same as for a 4386 International tractor, so I bought some used tractor tires and put duals on the back. My logic there was that the big flotation tires are nice, but if you do run over a harrow tooth or something in the field and ruin one, it’s expensive to repair or replace. With these, you get as much or more flotation, but they’re not so expensive to replace.”
The rear duals are 18.4 x 34 tractor tires, while the front tires are 18.4 x 26. He said the duals have worked well in his heavy clay land.
“We’re so wet down here, the more tires we can have under the inputs the better. To do 80 acres you’d have to have a big cart with huge tires. This way you can have two carts and more tires under it,” he said.
“This cart has never sunk. The very first cart I had used 16.5 tires. I noticed yellowing in the wheel tracks because it packed so hard, so I knew whatever I did, I wanted to make sure I had lots of tires. Emergence in the wheel tracks (with the new one) has never been a problem.”
The cone-bottom tank was a $500 factory reject. Tiessen had two bands of flat steel rolled the same diameter as the tank, then filled in with quarter by six inch flat steel to make the support for the cone.
A two-inch Honda pump, mounted on the rear frame, pumps product into the tank. By reversing the hoses, it can also circulate the tank or pump it out when he’s done seeding or if he has a flat tire.
A wheel-drive Banjo pump delivers fertilizer to a distribution system he built himself. The faster he goes, the more fertilizer it puts out. Following his experience with the previous two liquid carts, Tiessen wanted to be able to change his fertilizer application rate from the cab.
“The John Blue ones, you change the stroke on the pump to get your different rates. So you have to physically get off the machine, go back and set it. I’d had two John Blue pumps before. You’d get out, adjust it a little bit Ñ loosen a lock nut and adjust the cam so the stroke is less Ñ then get back in the cab and it was just a little too much. The other option was to go to a rate controller, which is $2,500. Instead, I put a butterfly valve in the return line, so that whatever I don’t return goes to the seeder.”
The TeeJet sprayer control valve cost about $100, as well as the wiring and a toggle switch.
“It’s variable rate without the controller and all the brains, but it works nice to change the rate going from field to field.”
Tiessen installed the electric toggle switch in the tractor cab and a pressure gauge just outside the cab window.
“If you open the valve, you send more product through the return and less to the drill. If the valve is completely closed, no product returns to the tank. The only restrictions are the orifices in the manifolds and you get the highest rate going to the drill.”
Tiessen said he could use the same system with a John Blue pump if he ran the pump wide open and controlled it after that.
He typically applies 45 to 70 pounds of nitrogen per acre in a mid-row band.
“The phos and sulfur I’ve been using dry because it’s generally a significant saving going with dry fertilizer. I have capacity with the cart to still do 80 acres,” he said.
With his “poor man’s variable rate” and after two years experience with the system, Tiessen knows that if he wants to put on 70 lb. of nitrogen, he must run about 70 lb. of pressure on his fertilizer delivery line.
However, he said the absence of a flow meter is a down side because if there are problems he can seed out one fill before noticing. In one case, a notebook accidentally fell into a fertilizer tank and the partially dissolved pages plugged his screens.
He doesn’t do a lot of rate changing within each field. The system is used more for changing rates from field to field, depending on soil test recommendations.
“You know canola needs more nitrogen, but if it’s chem fallow, you can cut it back. We have some more marginal land and I don’t like putting a whole pile of inputs into it.”
Total material costs for the cart were about $3,500.
