Planter manufacturers report strong sales for 2010. Particularly hot this year are twin-row planters and narrow-row planters in 20-in. row spacings.

“We're a little nervous we're going to run out of planters,” says Tom Evans, Great Plains vice president of sales and marketing, who credits the rise in sales to the company's Twin Row planter line. “A lot of seed companies have proved we need to push populations into the high 30s and low 40s, even up toward 50,000 plants per acre with the new genetics. They know you can't push populations that high in a single 30-in. row and still have corn. So the Twin Row option is really gaining momentum right now.”

Alan Forbes, marketing manager for Case IH, reports similar findings with the company's new 20-in.-row planters. He attributes the popularity to seed company research that shows a yield advantage to planting at high populations in 20-in. rows. “The large professional growers who are interested in pushing yield, which means pushing populations, are understanding that they have to go to narrow rows in order to get there,” Forbes says.

Whether you're planting in twin rows, conventional 30-in. rows, or narrow 20-in. rows, manufacturers have you covered with a host of new models. Here's a preview of the new planter configurations you'll see on dealer lots this spring.

Continue reading about the new planters below
AGCO White
Case IH
Great Plains
John Deere
Kinze Manufacturing