Photo Gallery: Can You Top This? Show Us Your Shop-Built Equipment

May 20, 2011

Roller Crimper

This roller crimper, fabricated in Pennsylvania, is used to kill cover crops without chemicals. Available in widths up to 60 ft. wide, it can be filled with water for extra weight, as needed by a given cover crop and/or soil type, to effectively kill the cover crop. The remaining cover-crop residue is then ready to be planted into with a no-till planter.
Homemade fertilizer cart

Pat Breen, Seneca, SD, built this 22-ft.-long, 18-ft.-wide fertilizer cart. It accommodates two 1,000-gal. anhydrous tanks and two 750-gal. liquid fertilizer tanks. (Photo by Greg Lamp)
Homemade fertilizer cart

This shop-built cart uses 27-in. wide tracks to reduce compaction. The undercarriage cost $20,000 and whenever possible, Pat Breen, Seneca, SD, used used parts, including retread track belts. (Photo by Greg Lamp)
Stalk roller

Ross Wahlgren, Gothenburg, NE, designed and built this front-mounted stalk roller to minimize minimize damage to tires from stalk stubble, as well as interference with planting. (Photo by Dave Howe)
Stalk roller

Just three bolts on either side of the mounting bracket secure the stalk roller under the tractor front end. It takes just 20 minutes for two men to install or remove the stalk cutter. (Photo by Dave Howe)
Cover crop seeder

This shop-built cover crop seeder extends to 9 1/2 ft. tall to seed cover crops in standing corn. Built by Charles Martin and his four sons, Perry County, PA, the 5-1/2-ton machine has hydrostatic all-wheel drive and a John Deere air seeder attached to drop tubes. (Photo by Dominic Martin)
Cover crop seeder

The rear wheels on the seeder are hydraulically coordinated to follow in the same tracks as the front ones. Rear wheels can be disconnected from the front ones in a fixed position to compensate for hill slippage. Each wheel has its own independent cylinder with no tie rods going across so the machine can be spread manually. All operations, including height control, are controlled from the cab. (Photo by Dominic Martin)
Shop-built plow

Dal Luther, Leachville, AK, built this shop-built plow that will chop stalks, run the middles, bed up rows, sow seed and run irrigation pipe middles -- all in one pass. (Photo by Larry Stalcup)
Shop-built plow

The plow that Dal Luther, Leachville, AK, built is built on a 12-row W&A DoAll plow. He added a second 4x4-in. toolbar and chisel plow shanks with points included. Then he attached middle busters, then a Valmar air seeder. The implement saves him up to four trips across the field. (Photo by Larry Stalcup)

We know it's out there...the machinery you've modified and built to help you be a better farmer. Whether it's for the sake of efficiency or the sake of saving the land, we want to see what's making your operation a better farm. Can you top what's been done here? Check out the pictures, and send us your photos.