Corn planter ???’s

[woodland]

We’ve grown grazing corn a few times in the past and are definitely growing more of it going forward. One year we broadcast it and the next we used a press drill with 2/3 of the runs blocked off. Now we want a corn planter to do it right and I’m looking what model others would recommend to be fairly simple and reliable. We would like to be at least 35 feet wide with 15 inch rows since we’d probably experiment putting in canola with it as well. We’d like to stay under $40k so nothing like Furrow’s Horsch will be showing up here. 😉

Something that has good flex and can handle ugly hills. Next year there’ll be about 300 acres of corn and after that I could see about 600 of corn and about the same of canola possibly.

A JD 1780 caught my eye so far....... anyone have something good bad or ugly to say about them.

TIA

[Klause]

We’ve grown grazing corn a few times in the past and are definitely growing more of it going forward. One year we broadcast it and the next we used a press drill with 2/3 of the runs blocked off. Now we want a corn planter to do it right and I’m looking what model others would recommend to be fairly simple and reliable. We would like to be at least 35 feet wide with 15 inch rows since we’d probably experiment putting in canola with it as well. We’d like to stay under $40k so nothing like Furrow’s Horsch will be showing up here. 😉

Something that has good flex and can handle ugly hills. Next year there’ll be about 300 acres of corn and after that I could see about 600 of corn and about the same of canola possibly.

A JD 1780 caught my eye so far....... anyone have something good bad or ugly to say about them.

TIA

Any of the Deere maxemerge planters are a good choice... And the RRV canola disk will make it easy to seed canola.


20/20 seedsense isn't a necessity but nice.


Get some good row cleaners I'd you're seeding into stubble.

[furrowtickler]

Any of the Deere maxemerge planters are a good choice... And the RRV canola disk will make it easy to seed canola.


20/20 seedsense isn't a necessity but nice.


Get some good row cleaners I'd you're seeding into stubble.

Agree with Klause , had two JD maxemerge planters.
Liquid kits are easy to install on them , cheap and well worth it to get liquid phos in the seed row.
Ran them for 12 years of more, they work very well .
Had both a vacuum planter and a finger planter

[ajl]

I have used a JD1770 stack fold to seed canola and it does work fairly good. Do have to get the custom made disks as others have mentioned. Seed treatment and dust can plug some of the small holes in the disks so have spent poking them out with a small pin but other than that it seeds them. Did not use monitor because it can't count the fine seeds like it does when seeding sugar beets and corn.

[furrowtickler]

If doing canola I agree don’t use dusty shitty treated seed. Try to get 5 gram seed or larger seed with nice tight seed coat. Consistently is huge at lower seeding rates, actually essential

[furrowtickler]

Woodland, if you do decide on a planter whatever it is , I would consider looking at Blackbeans. The soybean disks work well and bean maturity is just a bit behind peas. They may work well for your area.
PM me if you want .

[GDR]

We’ve grown grazing corn a few times in the past and are definitely growing more of it going forward. One year we broadcast it and the next we used a press drill with 2/3 of the runs blocked off. Now we want a corn planter to do it right and I’m looking what model others would recommend to be fairly simple and reliable. We would like to be at least 35 feet wide with 15 inch rows since we’d probably experiment putting in canola with it as well. We’d like to stay under $40k so nothing like Furrow’s Horsch will be showing up here. 😉

Something that has good flex and can handle ugly hills. Next year there’ll be about 300 acres of corn and after that I could see about 600 of corn and about the same of canola possibly.

A JD 1780 caught my eye so far....... anyone have something good bad or ugly to say about them.

TIA

Have been curious to try some grazing corn too, locals who have tried it here and there aren't continuing. How do you find it for the cows cleaning it up and have you had much trouble with excess material the following spring? Do you move an electric wire every couple days or just give them the while field?

Does the high cost to grow make it up in feed over swath grazing oats and barley?

[woodland]

Any of the Deere maxemerge planters are a good choice... And the RRV canola disk will make it easy to seed canola.


20/20 seedsense isn't a necessity but nice.


Get some good row cleaners I'd you're seeding into stubble.

The corn will probably go into worked ground just to get it warm enough but the canola might go in to stubble with the straw baled off the previous year. The neighbors have a old 8r22 that they bought two years ago without monitors and did a couple unplanned experiments with low seeding rates so some sort of population monitor is a requirement.

[woodland]

Agree with Klause , had two JD maxemerge planters.
Liquid kits are easy to install on them , cheap and well worth it to get liquid phos in the seed row.
Ran them for 12 years of more, they work very well .
Had both a vacuum planter and a finger planter

Were you putting down a little phos as a starter with the seed and just floating the rest on before seeding? Never used liquid fert before that’ll be a learning curve as well. Seems about half the planters I’m seeing come with liquid kits.

I’d have to get a vacuum planter to do canola wouldn’t I as fingers would only work on large seeds?

[Klause]

The corn will probably go into worked ground just to get it warm enough but the canola might go in to stubble with the straw baled off the previous year. The neighbors have a old 8r22 that they bought two years ago without monitors and did a couple unplanned experiments with low seeding rates so some sort of population monitor is a requirement.

That's true.


Deere has rudimentary systems for corn planters, but if you're going to be doing beans or canola, get the best...

That's either 20/20 seed sense from Precision Planting, or if you need the guidance solution too, Agleader SeedSense.


Even in clean till situations, a row cleaner setup will even the field, move small stones, and any straw residue out of the way...


We're trying to bring one of these in for next year, triple shoot, singulation, and conventional (small grains) seeding... It has 20/20 seedsense and Precision Planting meters.

Deere builds a good row unit and planter frame.

Kinze are also good, and cheaper, but no dealer up here.

Great plains builds a pretty tight setup that can do twin row and canola, but it's a spendy little unit.

We're looking at bringing a Gringa in... triple shoot dry and 20/20 Seedsense & row units.

http://crucianelli.com/services/gringa/ http://crucianelli.com/services/gringa/

[grassfarmer]

Have been curious to try some grazing corn too, locals who have tried it here and there aren't continuing. How do you find it for the cows cleaning it up and have you had much trouble with excess material the following spring? Do you move an electric wire every couple days or just give them the while field?

Does the high cost to grow make it up in feed over swath grazing oats and barley?

We've grazed in the past but will silage it this year to capture all the volume. Cleanup depends on the cows, but also on the varieties. Some of the Pioneer varieties are the worst I see - like expecting them to eat trees. If you get a decent crop you're going to have residue left over. That's a problem or a bonus depending on your viewpoint. It's done wonders for our soil worked in to build up organic matter - these slow decomposing stalks feed an army of worms and other soil critters. We balanced a ration by feeding alfalfa/grass silage along with the corn, boosts the protein, adds some moisture and mitigates the grain overload risk. Never given them more than a couple days worth at a time. You need good fences as they become like crack addicts for the cobs.
Potential for big tonnage from a small area is the attractive but we have never found the cost per day as low as many people claim. Like anything there are lots of bogus claims - the cow days/acre figures that are invented by dividing total tonnage by 35lbs/ day consumption with no allowance for wastage. Wildlife like it - dee, elk and particularly raccoons in our area do a lot of damage. Has done really well in this very dry season for us - I hear it said that roots can go 4 metres down if the need to access moisture.

[woodland]

Woodland, if you do decide on a planter whatever it is , I would consider looking at Blackbeans. The soybean disks work well and bean maturity is just a bit behind peas. They may work well for your area.
PM me if you want .

There’s a couple of soybean plots around Edmonton and I don’t see them replacing canola anytime soon this far west. We try to do one different thing/experiment every year just to change things up around here. The planter is next years excitement and figuring out how to do canola with it will probably be plenty. The following year if the corn works like we think there’ll be a bunch going in for silage as well. We’re losing some more ground in the next few years to the coal mine so we need to increase our productivity to maintain the cow herd numbers where they’re at.

New crops probably won’t be tinkered with for a while here but thanks for mentioning the black beans.

[woodland]

Have been curious to try some grazing corn too, locals who have tried it here and there aren't continuing. How do you find it for the cows cleaning it up and have you had much trouble with excess material the following spring? Do you move an electric wire every couple days or just give them the while field?

Does the high cost to grow make it up in feed over swath grazing oats and barley?

GDR we had great success and cleanup the first year when we grazed it early and the cobs weren’t mature. The next year we didn’t have much luck and we attribute it to the cobs matured and we didn’t graze it till later Nov//Dec and the leaves blew away so they ate the cobs and left the dried out stalks. A friend last year put in 50 acres and swathed it before it matured. He then moved in his pairs and left them there for 57 days without any cross fencing. He said they had to eat through the swath to get the cobs and the leaves didn’t disappear either.

The cross fencing and leaf loss was what turned us off of corn but i think the swathing and using free standing panels to divide off a week or so at a time should work. Currently using a 1/4 mile of panels to graze some pathetic late barley and two people can move them as quick as rolling up a string and moving posts I feel. The deer can make mess of temporary electric fences here so I think the panels are the way to go.

A dairy farm on a crop tour we were on says they average 9ton for barley silage and 18 ton for corn. I don’t think that it will be any cheaper than a cereal or alfalfa for producing cow chow but allow more head days off the same acre.

[GDR]

Thanks Grassfarmer and Woodland, may try some. Silage corn around here looks really good this year in comparison to cereals I thought. We don't usually get the heat units we did this year though.

[woodland]

Thanks for all the replies.

Grassfarmer I observed the same here where the cereals were burnt and pathetic while the corn across the fence was 8 feet tall setting cobs in the same type of ground. I agree about the feed waste or “future soil organic matter😉” and how it’s not an issue unless feed is crazy high like this year.

Looking forward to next year already. 🍀