The Best Time of Year to Inspect Your Planter and Why

07/01/24

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By July, planting has finally concluded for everyone, so we understand that the last thing you want to think or talk about is... planting. We can't blame you! You work hard through the season, living and breathing it day in and day out.

However, even with that clear, we can confidently say that the best time to prepare your planter for next spring is... right after you're done planting THIS season.

As the adage goes, “The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second-best time is today.”

Why Prepare My Planter the Season Before?

Though the last thing you may want to do as you wrap up planting this year is to consider your season next year, there are significant benefits and reasons why you should.

For one, it's still fresh on your mind! You can consider more clearly the problems or challenges you had during the season and the details surrounding them to address them.

Your planter is still hooked to your tractor rather than stowed away behind all your harvest equipment in the back of the shed. If you wait to prepare it, you'll have to hassle with pulling it back out. Plus, when you bring your tractor and planter to Titan Machinery for an Uptime inspection by July 15, 2024, you can also receive a FREE tractor engine oil/filter change!

Take advantage of post-planting season parts specials, stock orders so you can order parts without paying for freight, and interest-free and payment-free Productivity Plus promotions to have the work done during the summer while preserving cash flow until after harvest.

It gives you priority in scheduling a date and time that works best for you, rather than having to work through a busier schedule during a shorter time window. Waiting and leaving these repairs for later increases the risk that there won’t be time to complete the inspection and install the parts

What If I Miss the First Window?

Life happens, and we can't always get everything done when we want to. If you need more time to prepare your planter for the next season, we recommend arranging that time for the fall or over the winter. If you didn’t do it post-season, the fall or winter will still be better than going into the field in the spring with a planter that hasn’t been thoroughly inspected and certified to be field-ready. You'll still reap the following benefits:

Your harvest equipment is out of the shed now, so you can more conveniently reach your planter if you put it away at the back of the shed before harvest season.

You can still order in parts with free freight.

It still gives our shops adequate time to schedule the work for your machine over the winter, and you'll have your planter ready before your planting season.

Does It Really HAVE to be a Trained Technician Inspecting?

While we understand it can feel more convenient to work on your own equipment, the reality is that the experience a certified technician has as a result of working on dozens of planters every year versus just one far outweighs the temporary convenience and short-term savings that come with skipping the shop.

Our Uptime inspection technicians have years of experience and know what to look for, such as:

Worn disc blades (planter row unit openers and fertilizer openers)
Worn/seized bearings
Worn firming points
Seed meter calibration
Worn seed plates/discs
Software updates
Check hydraulic motors for leaks
Pinched/frayed wire harnesses and hydraulic hoses

Another huge benefit of our techs' experience across a larger quantity of machines is that they can begin to spot patterns. When you bring your equipment into the shop, our Service Team has the opportunity to share insights into recent repairs they've seen come through the shops more frequently, ones that otherwise would have gone undetected without an Uptime Maintenance check. Last March, we interviewed Avoca Equipment Technician Justin Schechinger and learned about a repair many farmers didn’t know anything about until the shop's Service Team discovered it in one customer's planter.

The Cost of Neglecting Inspections

There is a cost associated with inspections and the repairs that go with them. However, experience shows that there is a greater cost of NOT doing an inspection or trying to self-inspect and possibly missing a critical component that is out of specification or about to fail. When it comes to your season and economic well-being, we're on your side. Ultimately, you want to get the seed in the ground as optimally as possible. At the proper spacing and correct depth, with the right amount of fertilizer during the optimal planting window. Anything that compromises any of those factors reduces your yield potential, adversely affecting profitability. That's why it's important to us that we help you avoid:

Frustrating, unscheduled downtime
Reduced planter performance like:
- Uneven seed placement (seed spacing and seed depth)
- Higher seed population variability row-to-row
- Uneven fertilizer application row-to-row
Increased operator fatigue that comes with dealing with breakdowns or constant monitoring for plugged row units due to discs that are too worn to cut through debris or bearings that are starting to seize.

On-Site Inspections

Have the facility and prefer to do the inspection there? We can still help! Avoca Equipment Technician Justin Schechinger shares,

If you have the facility and you’d rather have us do the inspection on-site, we are always more than willing to come do it there. And often, when we do that, customers want to be there to learn. We can show you what we’re looking for and explain, ‘This is why we’re seeing this.’ If you live an hour away and don’t want to drive here, get your work done, and drive an hour back, we can come, work in your shop, and do it there."