J.Y., Nebraska - Schaffert Mfg. Co.

J.Y., Nebraska

I used to use cast wheels in everything. In conventional it pushed the seeds back up in seed furrow, even on the lightest setting. I even tried the straight finger wheels on my John Deere planter and they would go too deep and bring seeds up in the seed V. They’d also loosen the seed trench up too much, causing reduction in stand counts in dry weather.

Then, I found the Mohawks and have been using them ever since. I’ve taken most all of the spring pressure off the press wheels and only run in the first notch. They break the side wall compaction and compact the soil around the seed better than the cast wheel or the straight spike wheels.

With cast sometimes it plugs up with root balls and then the press wheels would slide and not roll over the residue. About every other year we had to rebuild the tail sections with new bushings and bolts when running the cast wheels because of the heavy wheels planting on contours.  With the Mohawks there is less wear and tear on the press wheel brackets.

There is still at least another 9,000 to 10,000 acres left in wear on our present Mohawk wheels and we’ve been running them for 9 years at 1,000+ acres every year.