Floating Across The Field with Fendt Tractor and Planter

Roger and Nate Wallace (see their full story here) are in their first planting season with a Momentum in the 16-row, 30-inch planter, but were already running a Fendt 1042 tractor. The two work well together, says Nate: “The tractor and the planter together just seemed like they float across the field with ease,” says Nate. Roger and Nate trade off time in the cab during planting season, and Roger recalls watching Nate work and he “went through a waterway and it was unbelievable, the way the planter will flex.”

The flexible frame is both a notable and very visible feature of the Momentum planter, but the Load-Logic® weight management system literally avoids making an impression. “We’re probably looking at a difference in yield that would be significant, one row to another… one that’s pinched, another that’s not,” says Roger Wallace. “You could probably see anywhere from 20 to 40 bushels difference.” (See “A Deep Dive into Soil Compaction” for more information on the ROI of avoiding pinch rows.)

The Wallaces added a Fendt 1042 tractor to the operation a couple of years ago, and first noticed the comfort and ease of operation. “It’s a large tractor, from the standpoint of horsepower, but it really doesn’t handle like a big tractor,” says Roger. “It handles like a smaller tractor. But then, we have the power we need to climb some of these hills, and pull some of the tillage stuff that we have,” he says. “And it’s very comfortable to run. You could run this tractor for a lot of hours and get out not feeling nearly as fatigued,” he says.

Nate says the Fendt Tractor Management System, which controls the engine and the transmission so they are always working most efficiently, took some getting used to. “We were used to cranking it up and running our throttle wide open” on other tractors, he says. As a result, “we’ve seen quite a fuel savings,” says Roger. “We’re planting at somewhere between 1100 and 1200 RPM and it just kind of stays there.”

In a difficult planting season, “we will get a lot done in a shorter amount of time” with the Fendt setup, says Nate. Meanwhile, the ultimate goal of “picket fence corn,” says Roger, is achievable with the 1042 and the Momentum planter. A plant that comes up late or out of place “acts just like a weed,” he says. “And we want to avoid that if at all possible.”