by Bill Kletecka, Cuba City, WI

This past week was filled rain and colder than normal temperatures. However this gave us a chance to start a few new planters in the customers yards, driveways, or grass waterways. Doing this ahead of the “mad rush” gave us the ability to catch a few small set up problems that we had and also set clutches. It also gave the customer the peace of mind that when the weather straightens out they will be ready to go.

We had one planter that was on a non Deere tractor where the “radar speed source” check box was unchecked and the planter clutches were changed. We had the planter set up as a 10 section planter, however the box being unchecked changed the row clutches to a two section planter. When we tried to redo the section it would go to the save settings screen and wouldn’t go any further. After carefully combing through the planter set up screens to find what was missing, we noticed that the speed source box was unchecked. We checked the box and everything worked properly. Apparently the speed source box does more than just tell it where to find how fast it is going.

At the beginning of the week we delivered a new John Deere 2510H 23 row NH3 applicator. The applicator was set up with Raven ISO components to run through any ISO display. On the bar we installed a pump to help move the product on colder days and also get a higher rate at faster speed. We also installed a Hiniker “Nitro-Lert” blockage sensor system. The Nitro-Lert system was easy to install and will show row by row blockage in the cab of the tractor. Using this system will cut the amount of pressure gauges that some customers have installed to try and monitor blockage.