CORN PLANTING METHOD

[FARMERJIM]

Since 2009 I have been experimenting with ultra narrow row corn planted with a double disc drill and this year broadcast incorporated vs a planter.

Like everything else in agriculture you have to be particular but based on what I have learned it is far more profitable to broadcast plant corn than use a planter and there are some side benefits in terms of soil health, air quality and water quality that come along with it.
Rotary silage harvesting heads make this pretty simple and there are a couple of new grain corn headers now on the market that will harvest any row width in any direction.

 

[Denny]

I'll stick to my planter seed costing $180 a bag and up I want to make sure it germinates my planter is a 12 row 30" spacing and cost $2750 ten years ago. We chop with an older 2 row gehl chopper cost me $750 and about $500a year in parts this year we spent $3500 on chopping that's fuel parts and labor 106 acres another $800 on plastic to cover the pile custom guys wanted $12,000 In my book I saved enough money chopping to keep an extra 13 heifer calves.I spent 10 days on the project so I got a heifer for each day of labor and three for the labor I traded.

 

[FARMERJIM]

That was my first thought Denny but the results surprised everyone. This year for example near Batavia NY which was on the droughty side we ended up with 14 ton from the planted plot at 37,000 ppa and 13.4 ton from the broadcast plot at 29,000 ppa. This picture tells another story. Tonnage is one thing nutrient value is another.
The 6 cobs on the left of the tailgate were plucked from 6 plants in the planter plot. The 10 cobs on the right side of the tailgate came from 6 plants in the broadcast plot.

The tool we used to broadcast was this one shown below
It is hard to switch from one system to another and this is the kind of thing where you dont do it without trying it first. The cool point is that you don't need anything fancy... you just have to keep your head about you because we have all been doing this long enough to know when we have a good seed bed and when we dont.

 

[WB]

Every area is different. We haven't tilled our ground for over 25 years so broadcast seeding corn wouldn't work very well for us. My experience in production agriculture says go with what works and expirement on occasion.