Does anyone apply anhydrous on 20" spacing instead of 30"? Neighbor and I were having friendly heated New Years discussion about the so called CEC x 10 theory of maximum N application rates. My argument was with 20", more attachment sites, more N could be applied. Just curious.
Posted 1/2/2016 10:35 (#5005098 - in reply to #5005067) Subject: RE: 20" anhydrous
Northwest Illinois
My cousin had the same thoughts as you and built a 20" bar. Variable cecs made him think narrower spacing would allow more attachment sites. He claimed he saw good results. He has since retired and sold bar to a neighbor. Neighbor still uses the setup and has since made a 15" nh3 toolbar. So if 20" is good, would 15" be better?
Posted 1/2/2016 13:20 (#5005483 - in reply to #5005368) Subject: RE: 20" anhydrous
Northwest Illinois
I side dressed a field for a neighbor with 60" centers and he said it was the best corn that was ever on the field. I'm nit saying it was solely from 60" centers, but it obviously didn't hurt either. I side dressed all of mine on 30's and used the neighbor for the Guinea pig, but he was ok with it. Next year I want to some testing with 60's and 30's sidedress.
Posted 1/2/2016 14:55 (#5005620 - in reply to #5005483) Subject: RE: 20" anhydrous
East Central Ia
60" sidedress has repeatedly proven its at least as good as 30" from the studies i have seen.
But side dress and pre plant i would consider a whole different ball game... Unless you have some other source of more localized N available until the root system gets mature enough to reach those concentrated bands on 60" spacing.
Posted 1/2/2016 14:52 (#5005614 - in reply to #5005368) Subject: RE: 20" anhydrous
West Kentucky
In some climates, it appears that there is no drawback to wider spacing. Here, when skip rows are used during sidedressing, the skip rows almost always show signs of nitrogen deficiency, but have never actually tested the yield difference.
Posted 1/2/2016 17:43 (#5005939 - in reply to #5005812) Subject: RE: 20" anhydrous
Morris, IL
I think that is more caused by corn not have the same equal chance at nitrogen in the guess row with 30" spacing. 60" spacing every corn plant has equal chance at N. Every row 30" have equal chance at N, but skipping the guess rows does not? I build a every row NH3 bar to put N on every side of the plant and it's great but i can't quite keep the guess row shank running.
Posted 1/3/2016 08:59 (#5007055 - in reply to #5005812) Subject: RE: 20" anhydrous
West Central Illinois
I believe you are talking about two different things. With a bar set up for 60 in. spacing, every row is treated exactly the same. Starting with rows 1 and 2, they each share a band of N between them.
I think you are referring to a sidedress bar which has a knife between each row except for the guess rows. They are not all treated equally.
Posted 1/2/2016 19:41 (#5006158 - in reply to #5005067) Subject: RE: 20" anhydrous
Madision County, IL
We routinely had streaking when doing pre-plant on 30" centers. It was worse on cool wet years. Even when we put down liquid to help out. Purchased a 39' Wil-Rich chisel plow and put NH3 down on 12" centers. Problem has completely gone away. We wouldn't do it any other way.
We farm soils with low organic matter that doesn't release much organic N.
Posted 1/2/2016 20:09 (#5006225 - in reply to #5006158) Subject: RE: 20" anhydrous
Iowa
From the air I often see streaked corn from 30" ammonia preplant. Some years it's quite bad.
That being said if I run ammonia it's on 30's. I also apply some N with the planter and/or broadcast to buy some time till root systems can reach the ammonia.
Based on what I see over and over - in a perfect world with no budget I would apply ammonia on 15" spacing with a coulter rig.
When I was a kid there was a guy around here (now retired) that had a bar set up on 20" spacing. It wasn't the only thing they did differently but they felt strongly about the practice. Their yields weren't exceeded by much of anyone in the area.
Posted 1/2/2016 21:20 (#5006425 - in reply to #5005067) Subject: RE: 20" anhydrous
Southeast Colorado
Why not pre-plant nh3 on 30s and then either plant on top of the strip or a few inches to the side if worried about root burn?? Basically it would be the same as strip tilling.
Posted 1/2/2016 22:53 (#5006648 - in reply to #5006425) Subject: RE: 20" anhydrous
Hancock county, Illinois
Pre-plant was my intention with 20" spacing. Less concentrated band but closer together and planning on corn picking it up quicker as was mentioned. Not to worried about seedling burn as we put her down 8". Also, cost of ammonia versus urea or 28% per pound here. Would actually up the amount of NH3 per acre in 20" configuration and cut back on amount of pre-plant 28 incorporated. We wont be putting liquid on with planter and wont be sidedressing. Could make the planting over the strip work on half the acres, the other half is non parallel terrace hills with not a square field. I wont be the top yield in the neighborhood but will be close. Thanks for everyones input.
Posted 1/3/2016 09:52 (#5007191 - in reply to #5006648) Subject: RE: 20" anhydrous
Have always applied NH3 on 20" centers. Went to 20" corn and beans in '99, love the system. In '2015 you could see the NH3 streaks in the 30" applied NH3 but not in the 20".
20" anhydrous
