by Josh Zuck

The weather up north has not been cooperating with us too well. We had another 8 inches of snow since Saturday night. This puts the snow fall for this year in Lanark up around 60 inches when our average is around 30 inches. The temps have been in the teens during the day and single to negative digits at night. My Dad said he has seen anywhere from 5 – 7 feet of frost in the ground!

We had a customer clinic last week on Self Propelled Forage Harvesters (SPFH’s) and had a really good turnout. We spent time discussing the new Kernal Star kernel processor vs. the Claas chopper and Shreadlage.

With the never ending winter, we have decided to add two more customer clinics. One clinic will be March 18th in Verona, WI and will about quality silage and the other is a sprayer clinic in Monroe on March 20th. We will focus on sprayers and the GreenStar displays and also the importance of the tire pressure. Register online at http://www.sloans.com/events/

We have been getting more and more interest in customers adding liquid fertilizer to their planters and we have been pricing a lot of Surefire systems for 4 – 5 gal. / acre in furrow and also piston pumps with openers for that 10 – 15 gal. / acre range.

Customers are also still thinking about adding row clutches to their planter before the planting season. The savings calculator that we have shown at our clinics really opens their eyes, even with $4.00 corn.

Schlagel closing wheels have really been a big hit up in the northern stores for customers that do a lot of no till. They work great in closing the trench in hard no–till ground, but also work well in softer ground. They don’t pack the trench like other closing wheels do.

Totally tubular has been a great in furrow option for fertilizer. It places the fertilizer in front and below the kernel. Some customers don’t like the Keeton seed firmer because it can drag the corn and create a poor stand. So if you have a customer that is looking for an in furrow option and is skeptical of the Keeton’s, this is the way to go.

We are still working on the RTK towers up north. If the snow would ever stop and warm up above 20 degrees, we will be hammering these out. We put the amps, radios and power supply in a weather proof box. All the boxes are almost done and won’t take too long to hang them on a grain leg and get them turned on. As long as everything goes good, we should have most up and going before the end of the month or fist week in April.

AMS sales have really grown in the last couple of weeks like Lucas said. The longer winter has given guys more time to think on how to maximize their equipment this spring with a very short upcoming window to apply NH3 and plant.

Planter row units continue to come in and out of the door. Our one tech in Lanark has been running them nonstop for the 3 weeks and still more coming in. With the extra window before planting season, get with your customers and talk to them about getting their units ran yet. We still have plenty of time.