I did it but most of the equipment we have bought is used. I'm not sure we could have justified it if we bought all the 20" equipment we have now new. I'm guessing 3-5 bpa. We were in 15" corn and 3 year average advantage was 9 bushel on the strip trials we did but one year it was a lot more at one site and skewed the results up. Quite a few observations so I think the numbers were accurate but that is the only field/time with a 20 bpa advantage. Most common was 3 to 5 bpa advantage 15 over 30 and I think we do just as good with 20 because we had some compaction issues sometimes with the 15" in the rows where the transport tires ran. 20" the tires are between the rows. Have no actual tests 20 vs 30 because no way to plant 30's now.

We bought two 12r20" corn heads at a farm sale used and a DB60 36 row 20" planter from a dealer used and I think we paid no more and maybe less than if they had been 30" machines. If we had to buy them new at a cost way higher than 30" I would have thought twice about it. Only bought a 1790 24r20" planter new and we sold a 15" Kinze and were ready to upgrade anyway. Sold the 15" corn head for more than we paid and used it 4 or 5 years so came out ok there. 20" planters are easier to justify than the corn heads because we like the narrow rows for beans anyway. I bought both the used 1290 JD corn heads for considerably less than one new one would cost. That's how I made it work. Narrow row corn has been kind of an equipment opportunistic change for me rather than a planned agronomic change. I wanted to go narrow but only did it when equipment opportunity presented itself.

John