By LARRY KERSHNER

kersh@farm-news.com

ADEL – Stine Seed Co., based in Adel, is so convinced that Twin 20 row configurations for corn and soybeans will work for farmers, it’s offering an incentive for giving the practice a try.

Myron Stine, vice president of sales and marketing, said the company has three planter choices to offer a farmer to try switching to twin twenties.

If they like the practice, they buy a new John Deere or Great Plains planter for a third of the total cost of new.

Here’s how it works.

The first year, a farmer will pay Stine Seed 10 percent the cost of the planter’s listed retail price.

“At this point,” he said, “we still own the planter.”

If, at the end of the season, the producer likes twin twenties, they pay Stine an additional 23 percent of the list price, or 33 percent of the total over two years, and the planter is the farmer’s.

The three planters are a John Deere 72-row; a John Deere 48-row; or a Great Plains 48-row.

Here’s how the dollars play out:

A). JD 72-row: List price is $439,670. The first-year 10 percent payment is $43,967. The second year, if the farmer likes the Twin 20 system, is $102,588, for a total two-year payment of $146,555 to own the planter.

B). JD 48-row: List price is $315,707. The first-year 10 percent payment is $31,707. The second year, if the farmer likes the Twin 20 system, is $72,761, for a total two-year payment of $104,468 to own the planter.

C). Great Plains 48-row: List price is $229,817. The first-year 10 percent payment is $22,982. The second year, if the farmer likes the Twin 20 system, is $53,624, for a total two-year payment of $76,606 to own the planter.

A local dealer near the farmer will set up and service the planter, Stine said.

Although the planter deal is a good one, Stine said, “They still have to buy a 20-inch corn head.”