By Farm Progress editors

The CDS- John Blue Liquid Blockage Monitor System is good news for anyone who has applied liquid starter fertilizer off the planter using a sight gauge system. The position of a red ball in a tube corresponding to each row tells you if that row unit is applying liquid fertilizer correctly or not.

CDS-John Blue introduces a system which monitors each row and reports the information to you in the cab. There is no more straining your neck to look back and see the balls, and no more remembering for sure which row was plugged when you get off to investigate.

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See and know: The CDS-John Blue liquid blockage monitor ushers starter fertilizer monitoring into a whole new era.

Choose between the standard and premium system. The standard system consists of hard-wire from the sight gauge on the planter to the cab. A readout monitor tells you if a row is blocked, which row it is and if there is no flow or low fuel on any of the rows. You can also set an alarm if you want to be sure to know when something goes wrong.

The premium option sends wireless signals to an iPad that you supply and place in a mounting bracket inside the tractor cab. You need an iPad 2 or newer system display running iOS 6 or higher software.

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With the premium system you can see what's happening, row-by-row, displayed in chart form. You have all the capabilities of the standard system plus more.

With either choice you have a system which functions well even if the liquid you're applying is dark-colored or gray. Even red balls can be hard to see in those solutions.

Learn more at www.cds-johnblue.com. Or call the company in Huntsville, Ala., toll-free at: 800-253-2583.

Here are comments from Farm Progress editors about this new option:

Tom J. Bechman, Indiana Prairie Farmer: I'm getting older and it's tougher for me to turn around and look back. If I was operating a planter with a fertilizer system applying starter, being able to know if it is working by looking forward at a monitor instead of backward at a sight gauge would be a big plus.

Lon Tonneson, Dakota Farmer: With so many functions displayed in the cab now, a liquid fertilizer blockage indicator needs to be where the rest of them are so that you don't miss it.

Mindy Ward, Missouri Ruralist: Follow the red ball. If you apply liquid fertilizer, you know that monitoring those red balls is key to even fertilizer application. CDS-John Blue Liquid Blockage Monitor System sends a signal when a unit is not working properly. Two systems, wired or wireless, monitors units and alerts you if there is a low flow or no flow in a row. You can also set an audio alarm to go off. The only drawback to the wireless system is that it works only with an iPad for now.