\u201cWhat the river gives, the river can take away,\u201d says Steven Ewert who produces corn and soybeans near Liberty, Mo., with his brothers, Mark, Scott and Gary.<\/p>\n
The Ewerts have done a ton of work to get the most out of their ground, including laser grading and installing 20,000 gpm pumping stations along the levee. A more recent addition to their arsenal of equipment is a 45-ft. Kelly Diamond Chain Harrow.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt does about the prettiest job of making a seedbed you\u2019ll ever see,\u201d Steven reports. \u201cIt\u2019s the first truly revolutionary tillage tool I\u2019ve seen in a long time.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n The Kelly Diamond Harrow isn\u2019t just a seedbed preparation tool, though. The Ewerts also count on their Kelly for residue management in the fall. \u201cWe want to get those corn stalks on the ground where they can start rotting,\u201d Steve notes. \u201cThe Kelly is great for that. It does a nice job of very evenly processing residue.\u201d<\/p>\n The model used by the Ewerts utilizes aggressive 35-degree concave cast steel blades that weigh 47 lbs\/ft.<\/strong> The unit\u2019s diamond configuration means the chains are drawn across the field at an angle to fill ridges and smooth the land with evenly spread residue on the surface.<\/p>\n Smooth and even surface tillage is exactly what the Ewerts are after.<\/p>\n \u201cWith a field cultivator it\u2019s hard to control depth across the entire width of the machine,\u201d he explains. \u201cWith the Kelly, you can\u2019t work too deep and it\u2019s going to be even all the way across. It doesn\u2019t leave ridges at all and it does a great job of leveling the ruts out. It doesn\u2019t bring up wet soil like the field cultivator and since the depth is constant, you never pull-down. And it just walks right over logs and rocks.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019ll be using the field cultivator much now. Besides being faster, easier on fuel and doing a much better job, you get a lot of parts wear with a field cultivator. With the Kelly, we expect maintenance to be next to nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n Ewert Brothers Farm has a range of soils from sandy to fairly heavy. The Kelly works well across all soil types, they say. On the heavier ground, a trip with the Kelly effectively opens up the surface to allow drying \u2014 and timely planting \u2014 but it doesn\u2019t pull up slabs or clods. The moisture remains below the fluffed surface two inches for better seed germination.<\/p>\n And with a lot of acres to get across, the Ewerts appreciate the Kelly\u2019s low draft and operation speed. \u201cAt 8 to 9 miles per hour, and 45-ft. width, you can get across 300 acres a day pretty easily,\u201d Steven says. \u201cWe pull ours with a Challenger 85E track machine and that\u2019s a lot more tractor than you really need but it has auto-steer and the Kelly and auto-steer are a great combination \u2014 it\u2019s a very productive tool and the auto-steer makes it even more productive.\u201d<\/p>\n An added bonus to the Kelly\u2019s performance is weed control.<\/strong> \u201cIt\u2019s a lot more aggressive pulling out weeds than we thought it would be,\u201d Steven says. \u201cEven though it\u2019s only working a couple of inches deep, it really does a great job.\u201d<\/p>\n The Ewert brothers are all about optimum production on their west central Missouri farming operation and the Kelly Diamond Chain Harrow is one of the tools they rely on to accomplish that. Profitable production is their goal but it\u2019s kind of nice to get compliments from the neighbors once in a while, too.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople stop and ask what we\u2019ve worked that field with \u2014 it looks like a pool table,\u201d Steven concludes. The rich soil along the Missouri River holds big-yield possibilities \u2014 but it doesn\u2019t always give up its bounty easily. \u201cWhat the river gives, the river can take away,\u201d says Steven Ewert who produces corn and soybeans near Liberty, Mo., with his brothers, Mark, Scott and Gary. The Ewerts have done a ton of work […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":18070,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n
\n\u201cThe Kelly\u2019s the real deal and I think you\u2019ll see a lot more of these machines in the years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"