LOCAL FARMER INVENTS 'DREAM MACHINE'; PAUL LANPHER'S 'STRIP-TILL DREAM MACHINE' SAVES FERTILIZER, SHOULD INCREASE CORN YIELDS

ADVANCE, Mo. -- Stacks of plow blades rest on old wooden pallets inside a large barn and tool shed on the Paul Lanpher farm near Advance.

Pipes have been welded into places on the plow blades. Some of the pipes contain small holes, others are larger.

The piles represent five years of experimentation, a process that Lanpher is ready to call successful and share with the farming world.

"There's probably a hundred of the blades there," said Lanpher.

Lanpher, 72, a semi-retired farmer, set out to develop a strip-till machine designed to cut down on anhydrous ammonia and liquid fertilizer wastes while increasing his corn crop production.

The plow blades, designated by Lanpher as "Conservation Jets," were a key ingredient in the development of his new "Strip-Till Dream Machine."

Lanpher, who has used his Strip-Till rig the past three years, demonstrated it to a group of farmers and extension representatives Tuesday during a Strip-Till Test Plot Field Day and Demonstration sponsored by University of Missouri Outreach and Extension at the Lanpher Farm.

An agriculture row cleaner rakes away the straw and rubble in rows, the Conservation Jet plows the soil and injects the fertilizer, and a cultivator fills and settles soil back in the rows, preparing a seed bed and sealing the fertilizer. The seed is planted the next day.

Patent sought

Lanpher has applied for a patent for his Conservation Jet and already has an agreement with a farm equipment company to manufacture the Conservation Jet and its components. The retail cost hasn't been determined and will be based on volume.

Lanpher is familiar with no-till farming, which allows farmers to skip the cultivation process while the plants are growing.

He and his son, Rus, are among numerous big corn-growers in Southeast Missouri and are usually among National Corn Yield Contest top producers every year.

The Lanphers, who farm about 1,600 acres, plant as many as 700 acres of no-till corn each year.

"We used to have problems with no-till corn because of soil compaction problems and cold wet soil," said Lanpher, who has been on the farm scene more than 50 years.

In 1996, Lanpher came up with his Conservation Jet as a new means of spreading anhydrous ammonia and liquid fertilizer into the soil. Since then, he has used his agriculture ingenuity to develop his Strip-Till rig, combining the Conservation Jet with a Spider Rolling Cultivator and a Martin Row Cleaner.

A dream come true'

"It's a dream come true" for no-till corn farmers, said Lanpher.

On hand for the four-hour field day and demonstration were Dr. James Stevens, a crop production specialist with the University of Missouri Delta Center, and Van Ayers of the Bloomfield Outreach and Extension Center.

Also among a crowd of about 50 area farmers was Advance farmer Tony Jenkins, who farms about 1,400 acres and has used one of Lanpher's rigs on a plot of corn.

"It's looks like it will work," said Jenkins, who is anxiously awaiting this year's corn harvest to see the results.

"It works," said a confident Ayers, agriculture engineering specialist at the Bloomfield Outreach and Extension office. "We've watched Lanpher's project since he started it, and you can see the savings in liquid fertilizer and increases in corn production."

Stevens, who has conducted some test comparisons with Lanpher's rig and others, presented data that reflected increases of five to eight bushels of corn per acre in addition to fertilizer-waste savings. The comparisons involved the new Conservation Jets and the single-blade knives used to inject fertilizer into the soil.

Lanpher led the farmers on a corn field tour showing various irrigation systems. Farmers also watched the new rig at work.

"My Strip Till Dream Machine will produce a higher yield and save soil, moisture, nitrogen, fuel, machinery and labor," said Lanpher.