A new sidedress rig

Brent Schmitz owns Schmitz Ag Products (217/357-5010), Niota, Illinois. He has several ventures including building fertilizer applicators and strip-till machines. Last year, he built a liquid sidedressing machine to rent out, but ended up using it for custom application instead.

The first day of June found Schmitz sidedressing his first field of the season. He has several thousand acres of custom application lined-up. Rain that night knocked him out of the field until Saturday. Then rain Saturday night stopped him until Monday. He had a good run from Monday until Wednesday, but rain was threatening to shut him out of the field again Wednesday night, June 8.

Nitrogen is carried in a 1,600-gallon tank on a Yetter All Steer cart, but Schmitz only fills it part way to reduce weight.

Schmitz built the sidedressing bar in such a way that it can be used for 12 rows or 16 rows by folding or unfolding the wings.

Injection nozzles shoot 32% liquid nitrogen into the slot opened by ripple coulters. Injected nitrogen is less subject to loss than liquid nitrogen applied to the soil surface. 

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