8
www.FarmProgress.com ◆ December 2010
NewsWatch
Mid-South Farmer
Farmer-inventors get it
done with One Trip Plow
Key Points
■ Innovative growers develop a
One Trip Plow.
■ The next-generation plow helps
with irrigation and drainage.
■ Growers see benefits when
going to wider rows.
By LANA LAWRENCE
TURNBULL
NUMBER of years ago,
some innovative growers in
northeast Louisiana began
experimenting with alternative
row patterns in an effort to address the irrigation and drainage
problems associated with flat
planting. The premise was to
develop a wider, raised seedbed
that allowed more planting surface and fewer plowed furrows,
resulting in slower runoff, adequate drainage and more effective irrigation.
The experiment called for
a plow built for wide rows.
Enter Tommy Condrey of Lake
Providence, La., a man who is
no stranger to innovation. He
is a former grower and cotton
gin equipment designer who
invented the One Trip Plow for
Mod-Track Corp. The One Trip
Plow is now licensed for sale
throughout the Cotton Belt by
the KBH Corp. He developed the
multitasking plow in an effort to
eliminate the need for rotary cutters and mowers to chop cotton
and cornstalks after harvest.
“Most mowers are highmaintenance and short-lived
products,” says Condrey, “and
they also require additional trips
around the field, consuming
time and fuel. My goal was to adequately break the land, remove
the root wad as the debris was
mulched into the seedbed, and
put the land back into a row in
one trip.”
A
A custom-built plow
In the fall of 2006, Bob Manning,
a grower from Waterproof, La.,
contacted the Mod-Track office.
After seeing the original One Trip
Plow, he was interested in having
a similar plow custom-built with a
wide-row configuration.
“I had seen other farmers
who were using a wider planting
bed for cotton, beans and corn,”
Manning notes. “I wanted to try it,
but the standard One Trip Plow
didn’t lend itself to the degree of
row-width adjustment I needed to
make it work.”
Condrey and Manning converted a six-row 38-inch-spacing
standard One Trip model to a
three-row 76-inch-wide row. The
new plow was delivered in the
spring of 2007, and since then
Manning has used it on every acre
of his farm, utilizing the wide-row
pattern for cotton, corn, soybeans and wheat. Because there
are fewer coulter blades, middle
busters and chisel plows on this
version of the plow, it is lighter,
requires less horsepower to pull,
and consumes less fuel than even
the standard One Trip equipment.
Using the next-generation
plow, Manning drills two rows of
cotton or corn on the wide bed,
or multiple rows of soybeans
or wheat. Besides the savings
in time and fuel, he has found
that the wide-row pattern has
other significant advantages. It
conserves moisture, since the
seedbeds are wider and there are
fewer furrows. This makes runoff
slower, giving moisture more time
to be absorbed into the ground.
The plant material from the previous crop year, incorporated by
Manning’s altered One Trip Plow,
also tends to slow runoff and
leave the soil in a loose, “spongy”
condition that is good for early
root development. It helps to
prevent fertilizer leaching due to
runoff because the wider, flatter
seedbed allows fertilizer to be
laid on top, where it is less likely
to be washed away.
Meeting expectations
According to Manning, the widerow plan is proving to meet the
goal of improving drainage and
irrigation issues that it was designed to address.
“I’ve found the wide-bed
system works well with furrow
irrigation, especially with crops
such as soybeans and corn that
can be planted in multiple rows,”
adds Manning. “The greatest challenge has been setting planters to
correspond to the row pattern of
the plow. It has taken some trial
and error, but we have been able
to make adjustments to the equipment to produce the results we
were looking for.”
Manning also notes that he
can’t solely credit increases in
yield to his use of the wide-row
pattern and plow, but he has seen
an increase of 5 to 10 bushels an
acre from his soybeans since
adopting the new system.
Toney Lensing and Raymond
Harris, of Lensing-Harris Farms
in East Carroll Parish, La., are also
using a wide-row pattern and a
custom-built plow designed by
Condrey. Their equipment is set
up for a five-row, 72-inch-wide row
plow they use for their corn and
soybean operation.
“Three or four years ago, we
quit growing cotton and wanted
to look at using a wide-row setup,” explains Lensing. “When we
took a look at what Bob Manning
was doing in Waterproof with his
custom plow and wide seedbed,
we adapted the idea to fit our
situation.”
Important factor in yields
According to Lensing, being able
to apply fertilizer directly on top
of the seedbed could prove to be
an important factor in their maintaining steady yields, even during
the past two excessively wet fall
seasons.
“Keeping that fertilizer in
place and reducing leaching with
the flat, raised bed could have
contributed to the fact we’ve
had steady crop yields — even
when logic tells us they should be
down after the trouble with the
harvest due to the heavy rains,”
adds Lensing. “It’s too soon to
tell, but I’d like to think we could
see a tangible increase in production if the conditions were better
in the fall.”
One positive outcome Lensing
says can be directly attributed to
the One Trip Plow is the reduction of fuel use since 2008 when
they first used the equipment.
Although fuel costs increased
in 2008, the savings in fuel used
ONE TRIP PLOW: Tommy Condrey, a former farmer and gin
equipment maker, invented the One Trip Plow. He and Bob
Manning developed it for wide rows.
BETTER DRAINAGE: One of the benefits of using the One Trip
Plow, say growers, is that the wider rows help irrigation efficiency
and drainage problems.
Year
Gallons
Purchased
Gallons Used
in Field
Gallons Used
in Irrigation
$ Spent
$ per Gallon
2005
27,071
16,571
8,500
$50,516
$1.19
2006
23,696
14,696
9,000
$49,761
$2.10
2007
22,339
16,591
8,600
$48,571
$2.17
2008
17,497
10,797
6,700
$62,464
$3.57
2009
17,594
8,594
9,000
$30,613
$1.74
kept the cost increase from more
substantially affecting the operation’s bottom line.
Raymond Harris, who farms
with Lensing, describes their work
with the wide-row planting configuration using the One Trip Plow
as a work in progress. The biggest
challenge is to get all the elements
to work together properly.
Tweaking the equipment
“We’re committed to the widebed system and are tweaking the
equipment to improve the effectiveness of the operation,” comments Harris.
Harris also noted that due to
the weather, they didn’t have the
opportunity to fully utilize the
One Trip Plow in the fall directly
following harvest to set up the
wide-row planting beds and have
them ready for spring.
All the growers agree that,
ideally, the plow has the most
potential for savings and for field
GOOD JOB: Wide rows work well with furrow irrigation on corn
and soybeans.
preparation when it can be used
in the fall, giving the plant material time to break down in the soil
over the winter.
“I’m convinced innovation
is the way farmers are going to
solve the problems they face with
fuel and production costs going
up every year,” adds Condrey.
“We’ve hit on a system that could
positively impact a lot of growers
who are looking for ways to make
their operations more efficient.”
Turnbull writes from Alabama.