I know it is the first of August, but this week I spent some time thinking about planting. Yep, planting!

And, specifically, our new-to-us planter. We used it to plant double-crop soybeans in June and aside from getting used to a different machine, everything seemed to work fine.

Fast forward five or six weeks, and now rebuilding and updating this planter has to make the short list if we’re going to use it this fall. Yep, I said this fall!

One of the thoughts with this machine has been to plant wheat in 15-inch rows. We only started growing wheat four or five years ago, and until now we used a broadcast application and then worked in seed. This method has worked okay, but I think we would do better using a more traditional planting method.

The thought of using this 15-inch row planter for wheat is to make it easier to plant double-crop beans by planting between the wheat rows. We are also considering the same concept with cover crops. In both these scenarios we won’t have to fight leftover root mass to get seed-to-soil contact.

The steel on the machine is shot. We need new opening blades, firming points, seed boots, and closing blades. That is the bare minimum. We will also have to upgrade the seed meters in order to be compatible with wheat and cover crop seed.

From there, I begin the wish list! I can tell you two things I would like, but know are outside the budget at this time: hydraulic down force and speed tubes. Those two upgrades alone would nearly equal what I paid for the planter!

Air cylinders on the closing system, improved seed sensors, and upgraded (air) downforce control are all under consideration.

How and where we deliver fertilizer will also have to be determined but won’t be done until this winter when we tool up for corn and soybeans.

We will have to get harvest equipment through the shop before we start on this project, but I’m thinking we’re looking at a week of work in the first part of September. Decisions will be made when the quotes come back.