AURORA CHARGER 

Aurora, Ne. April 14, 00, John Yockey and his father-in-law Wilt Forsman combined their efforts to build their own toolbar. In fact John ‘s son who recently won the State of Nebraska welding contest did a good deal of the fabrication and welding on this unique mounted bar.

The bar is designed for pre-plant and side dressing of NH3. The 20 modified Yetter 2996 openers are on 15 ‘centers.   The bar is purpose built for seed corn production which requires a 10 row planter. John also raises popcorn and soybeans.

  The family’s goal was to cover more ground with the highly accurate Exactrix 2KD Weigh Master system. Also the previous NH3 shank type tool bars would destroy the ridges damaging the no-till seed bed. An excellent seed bed with pinpoint accuracy with NH3.

  Wilt was very key in the purchase since he had been looking for an NH3 system that would improve nitrogen efficiency. Wilt was the first to install center pivots in the 60’s.

  The Yetter 2996 openers were modified with a unique closing wheel developed by John. The narrow steel wheel is mounted to close the slot immediately and allows residue to flow. The knee action design lifts the closing wheel up when the opener group begins to plug with residue.

   John tested the Yetter 2996 openers before he actually installed the 2KD system. Thus the ground engaging system was well perfected before the Weigh Master applied the NH3. Virtually no tillage was the result with excellent sealing at 4 in.   The Aurora Co-op installed the A-3210 bottom outlet valves on three tanks. They soon realized that they needed more tanks to keep up. Three 1850 gallon tanks would be better for this high speed application.

John soon learned that the Weigh Master was very accurate. So accurate that his numbers and the Co-op’s numbers were within 0.2% of the field wide goal. The question was who was right since wind blowing on the tanks can throw off the mechanical scales.

One GSO change was made. The Mid-Tech hydraulic servo valve was changed to a 3 second valve to improve the response.
  John attended Annapolis and apparently he didn’t miss too many classes. He could probably write the book on how to apply NH3 accurately and timely.