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After conducting a thorough comparison between Germinator Closing Wheels and Yetter Twisters, my son-in-law and I reached a unanimous decision to utilize the Germinators for the upcoming 2024 planting season. Twisters left the soil loose around the seed. Germinators demonstrated their ability to create a proper seed bed, firming the soil, ensuring optimal, firm seed-to-soil contact and an ideal germination environment. Recognizing the significance of seed bed germination environment in determining crop success, we are confident that the Germinators will contribute to improved yield and overall productivity. As farmers, it is essential to get this last mechanical action of the planter right!

In the spring of 2023, I had a very nice crop emergence. I had just one issue; my neighbor’s emergence was “more even”. On the clay hills some of my furrows opened up… his did not! He had the best emergence/most even-stand in the neighborhood. He has been using Germinator closing wheels by Farm Shop MFG, and has been very pleased with his results! With my resent purchase of 16 rows, I expect I will be just as pleased in the spring of 2024.

Stay Tuned for Emergence
I finished our first round of planting this afternoon. Our Germinator closing wheels worked great, conventional and no-till. We were impressed by how firm the soil was around the seed and soft on the topside. The “best” seed furrows I have ever planted: period! Appreciate all your help.

Earlier Emergence and More Even Stand on Every Row! 

In the spring of 2021, I purchased some Germinator® closing wheels in an effort to do a better job of closing the furrow on the rows right by my tractor tracks. I bought twelve for the rows between and beside my duels. To my surprise, my problem furrow’s, became my best rows! The corn emerged easily a day earlier and with a more even stand. In 2022, all of my closing wheels are Germinators.

“Even” and more rapid emergence on every pass! 

In 2021 my brother Reid, bought a set of Germinator closing wheels for his planter. Being from Canada and unable to obtain repair/replacement parts rapidly, he bought two extra. Since Reid is a great brother, he told me to put the spares on one of the rows of my 20-row planter and try them out. To my surprise, I had one row on every planter pass merge more rapidly and evenly than the other 19. Those Germinator closing wheels did an impressive job and in January 2022, I bought my own set!

Germinator®, it’s not just any closing wheel…

Spring of 2021, my sons and I decided to purchase spiked closing wheels for two of our three 24 row planters. After researching, my interest was in the performance generated by Farm Shop MFG®’s Germinator® steel closing wheel. The reviews of its inner-shoulder maximizing seed-soil-contact looked to make it the best performer. The 50 grade steel construction’s longevity also added value (after 4,500 acres, they still look new!).

My sons, following some research that they had read, wanted to get Yetter Twisters. We outfitted 23 rows on my planter with Germinator® closing wheels and one row of Twisters and 23 rows of Twisters on my sons planter with one row of Germinators. As we started out, aside from the “firm seed zone” generated by the Germinator®, we thought the results were similar. As crops started to emerge, we all fell into agreement; the Germinators were edging out the Twisters with performance by it’s “inner-shoulder-firmer”! I’m glad I didn’t let my boys talk me out of Germinator® closing wheels on my planter!

My planter has never worked well on soybeans. I’ll definitely be using the Germinator wheels again and will be telling everyone I know.

After hearing about the Germinator closing wheels on a radio ad, I decided to give them a try. I realized that for the 48 years I’d farmed, I was usually disappointed with the job my various closing systems had done. This year, I was very impressed with their performance in a variety of soil conditional.

I just finished corn. No issues with the Germinator wheels whatsoever. Great seed furrow closing action in both no-till and conventional till. Thanks for making such a great product.

The Grain Temp Guards® that I have, I put on a couple of my smaller bins. It is a more cost-effective way of maintaining the temperature of my soybeans. I have the Alarm HT which tells me the temperature and humidity. It comes with a nice chart to tell me where the grain moisture level is at. This has really worked well for me this year. How this Alarm HT works for me is simple and straightforward. I put in the parameters on where I want the temperature and humidity. The Alarm HT would tell me if the grain got too high or too low depending on what I was trying to do. This year I was trying to dry the grain down and maintain it. When the weather warmed up the Alarm HT monitored the temperature so my fans did not run unnecessarily. Also if there were times of the year where it did spike a little bit, the Alarm HT was able to quickly notify me of the problem. Having a little more information really helped us understand and see the patterns. When the humidity gets higher and the temperature goes up we can almost know which fan was going to need to be turned on. It’s for your own information, you’re not just trusting; you learn a little bit more about maintaining the grain. I do anticipate putting Grain Temp Guards® on all my bins. I don’t think I would want to go back to not having them. It’s just the peace of mind that I’m maintaining my grain properly, especially when you’re considering moisture discounts and spoilage problems when selling grain.

Grain Temp Guards® seem very effective and I’ve looked at other systems, the price points are not justifiable with smaller bins. This is a good way to take advantage of the same technology with a better price point.