Team FIN farmers Jack and Gary Appleby tested the Kinze 3660 Twin Line planter on their Illinois farm. Here is their report.

Why we wanted the planter
We’ve had a Kinze planter for several years, and we knew we would get another Kinze. We like 30-in. corn rows and 15-in. soybean rows. This one planter allows us to do both.

Features we like
The central hopper fill system saves time at refills; the Edge-Vac meters are very accurate for seed placement; and population can be changed on the go.

We have the Kinze Vision Monitor system, and it is tied into a Case IH EZ-Guide 500 with OmniStar. We have hands-off guidance. A map of the field is recorded on a data card as we plant, with information such as field name, date, time, crop planted and crop variety, area, seeds per acre, and acres per hour. As we plant, we can type in notes, such as a change in variety or marking a tile hole. The notes that we type while planting show up on the field map exactly where we entered them. The maps are pretty easy to download and print with Case IH AFS software. One of our favorite features is autoswath; this monitor knows where we have already planted and will automatically shut off rows in groups of four so we do not double-plant point rows or end rows.

Service
The people at Kinze are very helpful and they keep farmers’ hours. If we have a question, we start with our Kinze dealer — Jennings Implement in Bement, IL. We receive excellent service.

A few times after our local dealer had closed for the evening, I had some questions so I called the Kinze factory and left a message on the voice mail. Within minutes I received a call back with an answer to my question. The factory representative helped me with my problem, then said he had a few calls to answer and would call me back in a half hour or so to see how things were going. Sure enough, about 40 minutes later, the cell phone rang: “Jack, this is Phil at Kinze. How are things going now?” That is the kind of customer service you remember!

Dislikes
The planter is available in hydraulic or mechanical drive. We chose hydraulic, and it takes a little getting used to. It sometimes takes a few feet for the hydraulic drive to realize that you are moving.

Recommendation
We would highly recommend the planter. It increases your planting efficiency. Kinze has excellent customer service.

List price
$115,240

Overall rating
On a scale of 1 to 5: 5

For more information
Kinze Manufacturing, Inc.
Dept. FIN
Box 806
Williamsburg, IA 52361
www.kinze.com