by Joe Brunker, Monroe, WI

We talked about the new MaxEmerge5 row units, the ExactEmerge high speed planter and Deere’s new partnership with Dawn along with some other miscellaneous items. The Maxemerge5 units added a bunch of nice changes that make the meter easier to get at and adjust. We were also able to go out and walk a field that was planted with the ExactEmerge planter. The stand is very good. At first glance it looks like there were some skips, but we were able to find seed every time we dug in these areas.

I’ve talked to a lot of RTK customer’s in the north the last couple weeks and it seems like everyone got along very well with the additional base stations. Coverage was better than expected even in the hills and many were able to hold the signal farther away than we thought we would be able to. You can see our coverage are here.

Before you put your planter away, there are a couple items that you should be doing:

1. Record your tractor measurements, planter measurements and on/off times, so you can set the planter the same exact way next spring without digging up a bunch of seed.

2. Remove your data and import it into Apex. Don’t forget to set-up variety locator in Apex before the start of harvest. Contact us if you would like us to do this for you with our mapping service. Here’s some more information about our mapping service.