Tom Nugent of Elnora planted corn for 23 years with a John Deere 1770 Conservation Planter. In the summer of 2020, he took a leap of faith and ordered a new planter for 2021. Only he didn’t order a planter ready to go to the field. Instead, he ordered a toolbar, individual planter units and all the technology to go with it, knowing that he and his son, Thomas, must assemble the planter.
“I see it as making an investment for Thomas,” Tom says. “It should work for at least the next 10 years.”
The arrival of the Harvest International, 16-row, 30-inch row toolbar was delayed by pandemic setbacks, finally arriving in late 2020. “The rest of the technology came on four pallets,” Thomas quips. “There’s quite a pile of empty cardboard boxes from what we’ve installed.”