Happy March Madness, welcome to CAU! Hard to believe some of you might already be planting when our next episode airs in early April! I figured now is a great time for some last-minute planter maintenance tips from our good friend, Clay Scott.

He’s a field support specialist for Precision Planting. Clay’s 5 action items — Make sure your boxes are cleaned out, your meters, openers, seed tube guards and drive chains are good to go. He’s a big believer in replacing drive chains every year. Also, make sure your seed firmers have the right tension on them. And when it comes time to plant, Clay says don’t go too crazy on the first day, just in case there are some gremlins lurking. 

“Do not go out the first day of 2025 and think, ‘Man, I am going to set the world on fire. I'm going to go plant 200 acres today,’ or whatever your number is a good day. Do not go out there thinking that. I want you guys to plant 10 acres your first day of 2025 because I want more time out of the cab than I want in the cab. Right? That first day, maybe we have done our planter maintenance. We've gone through, we've took every nut and bolt loose, we've painted, we've done everything. Maybe we missed some stuff, right? Maybe things didn't get tight. Maybe we didn't get something shimmed right. Maybe we need to tighten some things up. So that first day of 2025, I want to make sure. Let's slow down. Let's pump the brakes. Let's get out of the cab and check things.”

For more details on Clay’s 5 action items, we included a link to his No-Till Conference session in the episode article on No-TillFarmer.com.

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