There is still a lot of corn to be planted in IL even on Memorial Day. I helped a customer start up a 16R30 strip till machine near Mendota IL this morning ahead of coming showers. He is finishing up his corn and just starting with strip till.

This is the first time I have worked with one of the more recent Elk Creek caddies. This customer is starting with a modified Sukup cultivator bar on this caddy. This caddy has a longer tongue and built on liquid tank which helps counteract the inherent negative hitch weight in transport.

I was not particularly looking to take pictures of the toolbar setup so I am limited in photos. We did have 2 of 16 row units that were functioning differently than the other 14 so that was my focus until we got that figured out.

This looks like a way to get a "pull type" 40 ft strip till bar with onboard fertilizer (no trailer or saddle tanks) at a moderate price. I believe this customer owned this cultivator bar. This setup would be even better with a Moore-Built new 16 R 30 vertical fold toolbar.

Here are some pictures (Paul - West Illini, I think this setup would work even better on a 12R30 system).  It was drizzling in some of these pictures. Some are from video so apologies for the quality of some.

Many corn planters running as I drove up and down I-39 in N ILL today. You folks with corn to plant not to mention beans don't feel you are alone.

In the pictures you will see differences in the width and quality of the strip. These photos were taken in various stages of our startup adjustments such as air bag down pressure and row cleaner depth setting.

Jim at Dawn

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1Dawn Strip Till Mendota IL C on C 052509_IMGA0003.JPG (109KB - 537 downloads)

2Dawn Strip Till Mendota IL C on C 052509_IMGA0985_2.JPG (64KB - 460 downloads)

3Dawn Strip Till Mendota IL C on C 052509_IMGA0991_3.JPG (74KB - 442 downloads)

4Dawn Strip Till Mendota IL C on C 052509_IMG_0590_4.JPG (95KB - 500 downloads)

5Dawn Strip Till Mendota IL C on C 052509_IMG_0591_5.JPG (102KB - 456 downloads)

6Dawn Strip Till Mendota IL C on C 052509_IMG_0593_6.JPG (78KB - 479 downloads)