Though Cedar Meadows Farm in Holtwood, Pa., may be small in size, it’s got plenty of innovative solutions when it comes to no-till equipment.

Cedar Meadows’ 175 acres is owned by no-tiller Steve Groff. Eighty of those acres are in vegetables including pumpkins, sweet corn and squash. Other crops include sunn hemp, kenaf, roselle, flax, corn and soybeans.

With such a variety of crops to maintain and nurture, Groff set out on a mission to find a no-till planter that would be flexible enough to accommodate his farm.

No-Till Planter Design.

Groff first approached three dealerships, Case IH, John Deere and White. He decided on Binkley & Hurst Brothers of Lititz, Pa., a Case IH dealer that also handles Monosem units and pushes its line of Kinze planters.

To make all the parts fit to Groff’s specifications, Binkley & Hurst Bros. had to custom-design some of the parts. “Not only did they have what I consider good components, but as a dealer, they made this no-till planter. They had to get the torch and welder out to make this work,” he says.

The planter, Groff explains is “A combination of trying different planters, different attachments talking to people who used the components and putting together an ideal planter for my situation. This planter would not be ideal for someone who just no-tills corn and soybeans.”

The planter has a Kinze frame, Monosem row units, Yetter parallel linkage for row units, Rawson coulters, Ausherman row cleaners, Zimmerman foam markers, Keeton seed…