Robert Walsh, Vermillion, S.D., really likes the corn planter he has been running since 2014.

Walsh, who farms with his father, Patrick, bought a 24-row/30-inch John Deere DB 60 planter. But when he took delivery of the planter he drove from the John Deere dealer’s lot straight over to his Precision Planting dealer, S&S Implement of Lawton, Iowa, where they removed the John Deere meters, seed tubes and depth-control airbags and replaced them with Precision Planting parts.

“It was a painful transaction because I only got about 10 cents on the dollar for the old parts on eBay,” Walsh says, “but it was worth it in the long run.”

vSet meters
Walsh replaced the John Deere meters with Precision Planting vSet meters. Walsh thinks the vSet meters do a better job of singulating seed. Also, they have a reputation for being reliable, easy to maintain and easy to use. Each vSet meter has a flat disk with a single vacuum setting. The meters release seeds down the center of the tubes, which is critical to optimum spacing. They have a floating, 5-lobed singulator that makes sure no two seeds of any kind can occupy the same hole. One seed locks in and one seed drops. “The meters have worked perfectly,” he says.

WaveVision seed tubes
Walsh replaced John Deere’s seed tubes with Precision Planting’s WaveVision seed tubes. WaveVision tubes use high-frequency radio waves, to measure mass. Other tubes sense shape. As a result, WaveVision sensors aren’t confused by dust and debris. The sensing also takes place closer to the soil surface, which is a plus, he says.

DeltaForce Hydraulic Down Force
Walsh replaced the John Deere down force air bags with Precision Planting’s DeltaForce Hydraulic Down Force system. It automatically increases or reduces down force with military precision on each row individually. As it encounters different soil conditions — wheel tracks, old road beds, soil types, clay knobs, headlands — each row adjusts independently.

Yetter row cleaners
Walsh added Yetter 2940 air adjust floating row cleaners to each opener, too. They can be raised and lowered from the tractor cab on the go. Preset positions are available that can be used for wet areas, waterways, end rows and other situations. “We are trying to reduce tillage, and the row cleaners help us get a good, uniform seedbed without having to do extra tillage trips across the field,” he says.

20/20 Seed Sense
Walsh tied all the systems together with Precision Planting’s 20/20 Seed Sense monitor. With its color-coded, touchscreen display, it’s easy to immediately spot errors in spacing. The most important things are the largest. Green means go, yellow means caution, red means stop and fix whatever’s wrong. Just tap the screen and you’ll see row-by-row details, so you know where to look.

Future additions
There one other modification Walsh might make on the planter. He’d like put Precision Planting’s new SpeedTubes on the planter in the future. The SpeedTubes have flighted belts that take gravity out of the seed placement equation. There’s no opportunity for seeds to ricochet into the seed trench. Even at twice the normal planting speed, every seed arrives safely at the bottom of the trench, spaced evenly, the company claims. You can double the planting speed and maintain the proper seed spacing. “I don’t necessarily want to plant 7-8 miles per hour, but I’m interested in more accurate spacing at any speed,” Walsh says.

Perfect planter
“I think I’ve got a perfect corn planter now,” Walsh says. “I am very happy with the job it does.”