Southwest Illinois | TNalfalfa - 3/18/2020 09:15
So what are you all using for planting prescription equations?
We have yields within fields that run from <100 up to 250 or so. The lowest yields are generally around fence rows.
Currently, I'm looking at yield/7 with a minimum of 25k and a max of 32k. Would you adjust the minimums or maximums? What about using 7 bushel per thousand seeds? I've heard some suggest 10, but that seems like pretty low pops for our area.
I use 4 rates. 95% of my acres fall in 3 rates. My personal opinion is I don't think you gain much with 1K seeding rate breaks, it just isn't that much of a difference. When we started variable rate seeding I let someone do the Rx on 1 field just to try it. They used 13 rates. Way too many. When I started writing my own I started with 6 and I have cut it back to 4. you are going to use more seed, not less. We have some variable soil and I really wanted to push it in the good soils, but I am finding we have probably maxed out on our high end. If I were using your range I would do 25K, 27K, 30K and 32K. We use 28K as our low end even on the crappiest dirt, and here is why. Generally that dirt tends to crust so bad after a rain and you lose more in those spots. In the worst years no matter how thin you plant those spots they won't raise crap anyway. In the good years they can rise great yields with rain, but not at 18 to 22K actual stands(which is what we would see at best if we planted 25K in our worst spots). I am a firm believer in it depends if you are seeding for the worst case scenario, the best case scenario or somewhere in between. |
Planting Rx
