About 10 years ago, Dennis and John Kutz needed to trade planters and decided it was time to try something new. So the Fort Atkinson, Wis., father-and-son operation purchased a 12-row Great Plains planter and gave 30-inch twin rows a try.

“It was a way to go to narrower rows without changing a lot of equipment,” Dennis says.

They found the new row setup was not only successful for their corn and soybean crops, but it provided them a way to no-till their wheat behind corn.

A few years after they adopted twin rows, the Kutzes also began using cover crops, which allowed them to no-till their corn and adopt the practice on all of their acres.

Combining the practice of twin-row no-till and cover crops with their application of chicken litter, the Kutzes now have a system in place that’s protecting and improving their soil, while also helping them raise higher yields.

Twin-Row Upgrades

While the Kutzes were happy with twin rows, they felt they needed different equipment to better handle their variable soils. Without a suitable option on the market, they decided to build their own planter in the winter of 2013.

They started with a used, bare, John Deere DB60 toolbar and added Deere row units to…