Chris Perkins, who lives about 40 miles east of Ray McCormick, calls his John Deere 1775 ExactEmerge planter a cheat code. It’s helped him break the 300-bushel barrier multiple times.

The 2024 Strip-Till Innovator Award recipient’s planter has hydraulic downforce, AutoPath and a 2-by-2-by-2 setup that allows for precise fertilizer placement. And he also has chains on his planter, which he says have some pros and cons but ultimately deliver ROI in more ways than one.

“It’s simple, it’s practical, it’s a pain in the butt sometimes. I’m not real crazy about them, and other times I absolutely love them. One of the things that I love to do, it does not concern me, when I look at a forecast if I see I’ve got 5 days I’m going to be in the 70s, 80s, whatever and there’s no rain coming, I’ll sock that corn in 3-3 ¼ inches deep. It doesn’t worry me a bit. One of the things I noticed that the chains did, they poke and they knead. I read an article about some research that had been done, saying even though we can’t see the light that might be getting down in the seed trench, it was present in the plant, and it could cause them to come out and follow that path. The chains just eliminated that, took that and smoothed it all out. As far as running chains because of the starter, I’m not really worried about that. I did it more for emergence on the corn — that’s the biggest reason.”

Learn more about some of Chris’ equipment cheat codes on StripTillFarmer.com.

Watch the full version of this episode of Conservation Ag Update.