The Gold Standard for Seed-to-Soil Contact
Farmers know that the first 48 hours after planting are critical in getting crops off to a good start.  

Seed-to-soil contact is essential. When it’s established, water easily reaches the seed. In turn, the seed absorbs moisture, germinates and then emerges.

That’s why it’s so important to use a high quality closing wheel on your planter.

Senior Service Representative for Kinze Manufacturing Brad Niensteadt says, “There are more than 50 closing wheel options on the market. But we feel the Furrow Cruiser offers the best bang for the buck.”

“We’ve partnered with Copperhead Ag to offer the Furrow Cruiser closing wheel as a factory installed option and as a retrofit kit available for all Kinze planter models,” he says 

Why Furrow Cruiser Closing Wheels?
Brad installed the Furrow Cruiser closing wheels on his own planter this past spring.

“The best part I’ve noted, and have told a lot of customers, is that you get the benefit of a spike closing wheel along with the benefits of a rubber closing wheel.”

“The spiked wheel crumbles sidewalls,” Brad says. “But because of the shorter spikes, or fingers, it sets its own depth so it doesn’t get too deep or cause the seed to get flicked out.”

 The style of the Furrow Cruiser closing wheel allows farmers to use it in all tillage conditions, from conventional to minimum and no-till, Brad notes.

“You don’t have to change your closing wheel for any specific planting situation,” he says. “It also works well in hard or wet ground, where it can be harder to close the trench.” 

In Brad’s own operation, he uses conventional tillage and no-till corn into beans. “Historically on our farm, no-till is wet,” he says. “The issue we ran into was closing the trench in muddier soils, which was causing the seeds not to grow.”

With Furrow Cruiser, however, Brad has seen little to no open trenches.

“We’ve had better emergence and better live plants when we look at the final stand after it’s emerged,” he says. “It’s a whole lot better than with standard style wheel.”

Two Lifetimes of Use in One
Another point Brad makes to customers is that the Furrow Cruiser has two wear sides.

“Over time the closing spikes can wear down. But if one side wears down, you can flip them over,” Brad says. “It’s basically a double life closing wheel, which is a big benefit when guys start talking about cost and ROI.”

“Furrow Cruiser has just been an increasingly popular option on new planters,” says Brad.