A neighbor called with 100 acres of corn that he wants to no-till. I use the term neighbor loosely. He is a day's journey by horse or a good hour at 18 mph on the M670 Super.
I really need to do something to the Corn planter.
We have a White 5100 with White frame mounted no-till openers. I've added Turbo-till coulters off of a great plains no-till caddy for the fertilizer. I used the Yetter style fertilizer injectors with a John Blue squeeze pump. My goal is 2" down and 2" over.
I am also applying six gallons of 10-34 right in the row though modified keeton seed firmers.
I need to figured out if I should try to find row cleaners that mount to the White no-till coulters or try and do a row unit mounted row cleaner, or should I do a unit row cleaner and no-till coulter?
I've been looking at the Martin catalogue and am now confused.
I'd like to do the whole Nu-till system. I can't afford it all. It would almost be cheaper to find a White 6100 with all the stuff installed!
We have single wheels in the back so it is hard to add closing wheels. I do have a funny Shaeffert closing wheel which sort of works and we have drag chains.
I'm kind of thinking about pulling it which the MM G1355 if it is cold weather.
I'm going to be planting into annual ryegrass sod following silage chopping. I think it will probably be a little on the damp side.
The system we have will slice right into that sort of conditions and may work perfectly. I planted under similar conditions a couple years ago and it turned out really good. Then I planted into ground that had been worked wet and was packed and cloddy. It did not work well.
I have never felt so much stress in the spring before. I have close to 1000 acres of hay that I have committed to stack, Might have couple hundred acres of silage to chop, have at least 200 acres of my own hay, don't even know how much straw I'm stacking for the neighbors, but I have 400 acres to bale myself.
I'm going to have to find a full time helper...
The one bright spot is that now that I've spend $10,000 on grain, all my feed customers have left me. Other than my friend who has collected 3,000 chickens...
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i am learning so much about business here....
ReplyDeleteThat's a pre-corn photo, I think it counts.
ReplyDeleteDecisions, decisions!
ReplyDeleteTime and money. Never enough. Prairie Gold paint is almost a corn color...
ReplyDeleteBetter to have too much work than too little. Don't stress. You already mentioned the solution. Get a full time helper.
ReplyDeleteEasy for me to say. :-)
That's a lot of hay.
ReplyDelete1. I enjoy your stress much more than mine.
ReplyDelete2. I am learning much about no-till reading your blog. It's left me confused enough to lent my non-rent-paying guy abuse my land one more season
3. You could hire me...actually I'd drive stuff for free...but I live on the other side of the planet.
4. Great photo.
Budde, I was ready to give up on that planter in 1995 until Paul Reed in Iowa told me to take the coulter off. It slabs the soil too much. I did and got immediate results.
ReplyDeleteThen he led me to the Martin system which I think would be ideal in your cold, damp soil. That is one thing we share in common.
I spent $6000 on a 6 row planter like yours and I honestly made it all back and then some in one short year on limited acres.
I really don't think I would be farming today or have made the progress I have made without making these changes.
We have taken over $600,000 off the 50 acres behind the house thanks to this system in ten growing seasons. I used the 750 drill inbetween and it is better modified also to plant into the conditions you describe.
I wish you well and also wish I was there to guide you but I would want to make you spend more money than you want to spend right now.
Look for that 6100 with the Martin system but you have a great planter and I would spend the money right now.
Just think of the shop pictures you could post! I don't want to think of all the questions you have though step by step. I would refer you to Howard and John Martin, Paul Reed and David Moeller.
www.moelleragservice.com
Ed Winkle
Ed, so you are saying a single disk fertilizer opener, no no-till coulter in front of the seed row, martin row cleaners, closing wheels and drag chains?
DeleteThe v-openers are all you need to make a seed trench?