Getting the job done faster

CISSNA PARK – After the challenging 2019 season, growers want to know how to get field work done more quickly in a small amount of time.

Paul Schmid, owner of Schmid Ag Technology of Cissna Park, has some solutions for 2020. The precision farming specialist and certified crop advisor notes there are new capabilities for planters.

“Ag Leader has released its Sure Speed planter system which is an electric drive and a redesigned meter to enable higher planting speeds and that’s available for a retrofit for a number of major planter brands,” Schmid said at last week’s Midwest Ag Expo.

Even though every farm has different needs, many want their planting and side-dressing done faster with a steering system to run longer hours or electric drives to increase planter speed.

“Every year, we’ve got some sort of struggle to get through and in 2019 it seems like we had every one that was available,” said Schmid.

Last year may have been tough for those in agriculture but several farmers were pleasantly surprised at harvest with higher-than-expected yields despite those yields being less than we are used to.

“Everything got either washed out by too much rain or dried out by too much drought,” Schmid added.

Valuable information was still observed in the past year, such as the stress qualities of different seed varieties. Schmid feels there is always something to learn even in a really hard year.

Schmid Ag Technology can be found online at: www.schmidagtech.com, on Twitter: @schmidagtech, e-mail: schmidagtech@gmail.com or by calling 815-546-6014.