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.

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!

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.

This is the first year that we did not have a spoilage issue coming into the spring season due to using the Grain Temp Guards®. We have been able to monitor what was going on in the bins before it actually went bad. By being able to watch the temperature and humidity in the bins, we were able to harvest and put our grain into the bins wetter than what we were doing blindly before…. I felt more comfortable being able to watch what was going on. I know some guys who have other versions but dollar wise Grain Temp Guard® seems to be the more doable for a multi-bin situation.

I have the Farm Shop, Grain Temp Guard alarm HT and I religiously check them weekly. It will tell you right away if the temp is going up, or the humidity is changing(moisture migration) and you need to run the fans. I’ve been doing this for 40 years and as you get older it gets harder to climb the bins. With the Grain Temp Guard system, I can stand on the ground, read what is going on! I don’t have to worry about frost, ice, rain; I can stand on the ground, read the monitor, it tells you what is going on and you do what you have to do!
Roger T., Iowa

In 2019, I knew I needed a higher performance closing wheel, but which one? I purchased  Yetter Twisters, Copperhead Furrow Cruisers andGerminator® steel closing wheels by Farm Shop MFG. We put them on the planter both as singles & paired and compared the results. In all conditions the Germinator® performed with exceptional results. Under some conditions the competitors did little more than poke holes in the dirt. The traditional rubber wheel consistently showed the poorest outcomes. After one season’s use, the poly wheels (plastic) inserts used by the  competitors showed noticeable wear, but you can tell the Germinator® with its 50 grade steel construction, is going to be on the planter for a long time. March 2020, I purchased 39 more wheels to complete all my row units. I tested and I’m going with Germinator®!

I added Germinator closing wheels to my planter in the spring of 2019. My agronomy company scouts my fields and many others in the surrounding communities, paid me an incredible complement. Not knowing what I had done differently, he said, “of all the fields he scouted through his territory in central Minnesota, mine were the only ones with the consistent even germination and contained the best stand”. My first indication of how great that expenditure would turn out to be.

Spring 2019 was as frustrating in Rich Hill, Missouri as in many parts of the Midwest. Too many rainy days and not enough sunny days! After struggling through April and May and continuing to have problems, one being our inability to close the seed furrow in all the variable soil conditions we were encountering (mostly WET). Our neighbor bought some Germinator Closing Wheels earlier in the season and was getting results that were much more successful than ours. After seeing his results I parked our two planters and jumped in the pickup and drove to Iowa purchasing 128 Germinator Closing Wheels for our two planters. My initial reaction to the results was quite positive, but as they say, “the proof is in the pudding”; after seeing our harvest results, I am an enthusiastic supporter of the Farm Shop MFG Germinator Closing Wheel! That day I drove up to Iowa was well worth my time.

I feel fortunate to have had Germinator closing wheels on my planter in 2018. Here in Northwest Iowa it was extremely difficult spring with frequent rain delays and the complication of occasionally needing to plant on stale tillage. The Germinator closing wheels system worked great in normal conditions, wet spots and where crusts had developed on stale tillage due to the frequent rain showers. In every case our germination rate and stand was better than expected! When digging behind the planter we always found the total destruction of the furrow sidewall and ideal seed to soil contact.