Fendt Momentum Planters Meet the Challenges

Tony Hegemann knows farm equipment. He now runs the business his father started, Hegemann Sunflower Sales and Service, along with farming his own corn and soybean rotation in Newman Grove, Nebraska. (See his full story here.)

As an equipment dealer, he knows that matching a farmer with the right technology is key to success. As a farmer, he knows where that success starts. “It’s kind of up to you as the farmer to get that seed placed right,” he says. “Farm success actually starts with the planter, because that’s the foundation of the farm. If you don’t do it right from the start, it’s a long haul,” he says.

For Tony, doing it right from the start meant a new 48-row Fendt® Momentum™ planter, which he pulls with a Fendt 1042 tractor.

“I looked at five other companies of planters,” he says. Momentum “caught my eye because we are 18% slope one way, 15 the other way,” he says of his challenging layout. “So this Momentum gives you … that toolbar to have its ride and float,” he says, as AGCO-exclusive SmartFrame™ technology catches the contours of the land across various configurations for corn (24-row) or soybeans (the full 48-row setup).

But the hardware is just the start of the impressive feature set. “I finally got into a piece of technology that it’ll tell me what my soil temperature is and what my organic matter is. That’s what I was hoping for this year, is to build the map,” he says, using Precision Planting technology like the SmartFirmer® seed firmer, which monitors furrow conditions in real time while also recording high-definition field maps. “Data layering is a key component for the agronomic side,” he says. “So we can look at that sheet and say, okay, this is what we planted. But how is our soil reacting to it?” He’ll layer that map with yield results, “then we compare the maps so we know how to fertilize for the next year and starting the process,” he says.

Meanwhile, monitoring also gives confidence that the seed is placed right. “We can singulate our seed, we can check our downforce, we can also make sure we’ve got a clean furrow in front of us,” he says.

Tony’s challenging soils with varying structures across plots also mean conservation efforts are vital to his success. That’s where the Load-Logic™ weight management system comes in. It automatically adjusts tire pressure in the field while planting to minimize compaction, and then from field to road transport to improve ride quality and tire longevity. “We don’t create a pinch row like your competitor planters. They’re trying to put a big tire on for flotation, but when you have so much air in that, that’s going to put pressure on where that seed has to come up,” he says. “So we’re treading lightly.”

Farm technology, he says, “can be hard to keep up with, but you have to do it.” Tony did his research and had the background to know a good match for his farm when he saw it. He remembers spending years visiting the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Kentucky, perusing the latest and greatest equipment and meeting the engineers that designed it. Still, he credits his AGCO dealer with helping him along. “Manzer Equipment Company up in Osmand, Nebraska, has been awesome,” he says. “This, I think, was their first Momentum sale.”

Tony doesn’t mind being “first.” “You can be the guy that just does the same old thing every year, but if you want your farm to prosper, you’re going to have to step it up and try new things,” he says.