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UpLogin  May 2009 Archive for In the Shop  RSS By: Dan Anderson,
Farm Journal   48-Row Planter Follow-up  May 31, 2009  Earlier
this spring I mentioned there was a prototype 48-row planter
running in our territory. The 120-foot wide machine drew a lot
of attention and provided some interesting points to ponder:
The farmer who ran it says he averaged 80 acres an hour when he
was actually planting. Folding, unfolding, filling, and
transporting took a lot of time, so he averaged 500 to 700 acres
per day over the entire planting season. The big planter was
most at home in big fields--he noted that in fields of 80 acres
or less, he spent as much time fussing with endrows and corners
as he did planting the body of the fields. In 40- to 60-acre
fields with irregular borders, he admitted that he may have lost
time due to the sheer size of the planter.   Another interesting
comment the farmer made was that he had to pre-plan his
movements between fields to acc