|
Northwest Illinois | I changed to 20’s for my 2018 soybeans and don’t plan on going back. I like being able to run trash whippers vs the no till coulters. At first I was skeptical to the setup because I was used to the no tills, but feel I can start reducing rates with the setup plus it’s capable of variable rate. When I was 15’s I used a 1530 drill with planter row units, so I can’t really compare apples to apples because I was planting more seeds per acre as it was tough to pinpoint the rate with a barf cup metering system. I used to plant 15’s on sand and 30’s on heavy soils. Just what we did. I felt with the 20’s I could do both and have designated bean and corn planters. I planted 20’s and 30’s in 2018. My side by sides didn’t go as I’d planned and can’t give a good yield comparison, but know when looking through the data which soils won’t get a 30” row. Could it be variety driven? I needed another planter as I switched my 24 row 6 times in 2017 and felt 20’s were the best fit.
Also, no tilling between the rows will work, but would rather go at an angle as very few fields are square. I did plant 90 acres no till with it and planted the first 6 passes straight with old 30” corn stalks and finished field at an angle. I could see no yield difference as I expected. I started 5 inches off the corn row. Every bean acre is vertical tilled with a sunflower and will go straight for 2019.
0,30,60,90,120,150,180,210,240
5,25,45,65,85,105,125,145,165,185,205,225
You can see which rows would be close on 8-30’s vs 12 20’s.
| |
|
20” beans... anyone gone to 20” and switched back to 15’s?
