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North Central Ky | Deereman, this is starting to sound a lot like a Ford/Chevy thing to me.....but I'll dare to step into the fray and offer up my $.02 worth
I farm close to your area so maybe I can inject a different perspective to this decision for you. I have been continuous notilling corn and beans for over 20 years, during which I have tried 30" planted, 15" interplant, and 7.5" drilled beans. Yield checks and visual observations have convinced me the 15" interplant beans are the most consistent winners.
Before I am burned at the stake by the drill guys, they must understand that our soils, climate, weed and disease pressures are totally different.
Muggy, hot, humid summer days are a hotbed for fungal disease, the somewhat wider rows allow a little better airflow. Stalk rots in corn and a very moist, warmer winter allow our cornstalks to breakdown and decompose quicker, in addition our corn is usually shelled before soybean harvest ever commences allowing cornstalks to begin the process even quicker. Our soils are so variable that it isn't uncommon to have 4 or 5 soiltypes in a small field, and our Organic Matter is on the most part quite low, which can cause crusting problems and during dry weather allows our soils to get quite hard.
I have found that with a Kinze planter I have better depth control, and better spacing which has allowed me to comfortably lower populations, this year the early beans went in @ 120K.
Granted the drill guys have the advantage of one hopper seed filling, but I have a Friesen seed tender that I can fill a 31 row planter in 15 minutes by myself. Of course the planter will (usually) have the seed monitor advantage.
Another BIG planter advantage that the Yankees (no offense) don't have to consider is transport width, and with the heavy traffic (everbody wants a house in the country) moving on narrow roads, even more narrow bridges, and dropoff culverts 2 feet off the road (which just so happens does not have ANY shoulder) will spell disaster for a drill.
Another item for your consideration is rust prevention/control, which we have luckily avoided so far. With a Kinze planter it is quite easily setup for tram rows by raising one row unit , i.e. #2 in the rear, and with attention to planting travel direction you will have a 60 ft set of 30" skiprows. Matches up quite well with most spray coupes. No GPS or foam necessary for perfect coverage of quite tall beans. The row spacing for best coverage has not been given a test yet, but I would think that wider rows would allow better penetration of the fungicide......that's just my SWAG
I'm sure the pro-drill guys are probably correct for their region and situations, but our conditions are indeed different. Case in point, ask them about no-till corn or doublecropping beans behind their wheat. Can't be done, or it won't work..... I am a no-till believer and advocate, but I'm also smart enough to know no-till corn/beans won't work everywhere or for everyone..........and maybe, just maybe......drilled beans are kinda in the same boat
Hope this helps........and Good Luck with your decision ! | |
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750 drill vs kinze planter
