Although it was way too wet here in N ILL even before the rain and snow hit (again) this evening, we couldn't resist a chance to get in the field today with a local farmer who started putting NH3 down today. He had a coop toolbar applying NH3 with a standard type system.

We mounted one of our 3004 fertilizer coulters with our new "zipper" closers to the tool bar row running in one of the tractor tire tracks which was then run over by the tank tires.

This neighbor has often had trouble sealing the ammonia especially in the wet, heavy compacted soils in the tire tracks. The 12 row bar was really pulling hard, lots of tire slip.

We were pleased with sealing of the 3004 with our new dual product anhydrous/liquid boot and the zipper closer.

What was really noticeable was the minimal soil disturbance in the 3004 row compared to the other rows with a standard NH3 knife. It was almost as if nothing was running in the RH tractor and tank tire track as you see in the photo in the distance.

In the middle photo you can see the losses from the standard knife in the LH tire track and no loss visible from the 3004+Zipper+new boot track in the RH (as you are looking at them) tire track. This difference was typical all afternoon.

Here are some photos for a cold wet night. 2-4" of snow moving this way from Iowa and NW. This was really too wet to be out there. A number of other folks racing to apply nh3 this afternoon in way to wet conditions.

The neighbor is a former ridgetiller who has left the ridges as you can see and now no tills everything on top of the ridge. They really value controlled traffic. We are applying the ammonia between the ridges. 

Jim at Dawn

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Dawn_3004_w_Zipper_NH3 ILL_Wet_TireSlip_041007_DSC01021.JPG (41KB - 335 downloads)

Dawn_3004_w_Zipper_NH3 ILL_LossCompInTireTrk_041007_DSC01017.JPG (49KB - 292 downloads)

Dawn_3004_w_Zipper_NH3 ILL_MinSoilDisturbance_041007_DSC01021.JPG (36KB - 304 downloads)