Paul,

I think it is pretty well agreed through the posts above that seed trench sidewall smear occurs in beans, what is usually open for debate is whether or not it is a problem to worry about, as Larry points out. That may really be a here/there thing. Personally I dont like walking a field and seeing an open trench after planting and the soil dries.

That may be related to soil types and location/weather. The other fact is that beans are always planted later than corn and at much higher populations...

Please try some strip till beans since you have a strip till setup for your corn anyway. Make some test strips for 30" beans between standing untouched corn stalks and do your own comparison. Especially with a JD7000 planter you will be amazed at what you see.

One trick that several of our strip till customers do is to strip till and plant the beans between standing corn stalks then roll the field with either a Canadian type roller (not common in your area I understand) or a Brillion Cultipacker or what ever they call their serrrated roller. It does a couple things - flattening things for a beautiful place to harvest with a platform, kinks the stalks so they break down faster but does leave them attached to the ground, pushes down rocks for areas where that is a concern, especially for rotary combines. Curvetines do help, on the 750 drill family and the planter.

Best of Luck,

Jim at Dawn