|
Callao, Missouri | On our farm
15" positives:
Lower seeding rates
Less concern about crusting (also a planter vs drill issue)
Easier to walk/scout
Nice looking stand when they emerge
Less machinery cost/maintenance per acre
Bigger machine (22.5' vs 15')
15" negatives:
Waterhemp
Pigweed
Cocklebur
Velvetleaf
Even FOXTAIL!! (Wasn't Prowl supposed to kick it?!?)
Slightly more erosion with big rains (had a 7" rain this spring, and a 5" last spring)
If I was still planting RoundUp Ready soybeans, 15" would probably suit me fine. But conventional beans on northern Missouri hillsides is driving me crazy. I can't even begin to imagine what 30" beans would look like. Even though all of my soybeans are canopied.......it's still not as dense as the 7.5" canopy. I wish that I had a machine that I could plant 10" soy, 20" corn with. I think that would be my happy medium for my ground.
For my bottom ground that is conventionally tilled as well, I really prefer the 15" rows.
It does seem like I could get a little more yield out of 15" rows, but I think that is a planter vs. drill issue.
Equipment is a 15' JD 750 drill that needs to be rebuilt, and a 8/15 split row CIH 950 cyclo planter that is in pretty good shape.
I just hit another 11.6 acre weedy patch with 1.5gl Ultra Blazer, 26oz. Cobra, 4.5oz Butyrac, .75gl Crop Oil with 20gpa at 45-50 psi dual coverage. It's right next to my house and the highway.....so I'll probably just burn the heck out of the soybeans, and feed the waterhemp!
Scott
Edited by NEMOScott 7/23/2006 19:37
| |
|