j-bird
Moderator
I put a post together on another forum I frequent and figured I might as well clutter up some of the other forums I visit as well! So here goes. I'll be dipped! Cut and paste worked!
Well this past weekend you would have found me with my butt planted in the seat of my 790 JD tractor. I was planting corn. I am a little late this year as I normally do this on Memorial day weekend, but I had some other things to address first. I'm going to share how I do this.....this doesn't mean it's the only way.....or even the right way!
The process started a few weeks ago when I used a rotary mower to mow the growth that has come up since the spring. This plot was a failed corn plot and I had overseeded some rye and brassicas into. So when I went back this weekend this was what I started with. Various green things growing and some corn stubble.
I don't worry about spraying as I know the tillage I have to do will kill a majority of what is there.....and I'm lazy! I went to the local co-op and got my fertilizer. I planned on planting about 1.5 acres in corn and bought 200 lbs of Urea (46%N) and another 200 lbs of 15-15-15 to apply on my 1.5 acres. This isn't based on a soil test, just what I apply and have gotten good results with in the past. A FEL makes handling all that fertilizer a lot easier.
All this goes into my conical spreader. But I only put in what I intend to spread on that plot.....I tend to not be able to keep track and apply more than I should. 2 bags of triple 15 and 2 bags of urea for this roughly 3/4 acre plot. A large capacity spreader like this is great for applying fertilizer, lime and hard seed over a wide area.....I am NOT spreading hundreds of pounds of fertilizer with a shovel or some sort of dinky spreader.
Now something you need to watch when adding your fertilizer is that it mixes. Last thing you want is what is shown on the left. This tends to lead to only one typ eor the other of the fertilizer coming out at a time which isn't good. The urea is the all white stuff if your not familiar with it......Oh and don't breather real heavy when your dumping urea, it burns! You want to get a good mix of your fertilizer even when you load it like on the right hand side.
Next comes the broadcasting. I simply take my time and try to make 2 passes - trying to get it in just one tends to lead me to coming up short and missing a spot or two and that irritates me. I have all weekend - taking 2 passes to ensure you get everything as even as realistic is fine. For what it's worth the tractor is a 30hp and I don;t recall the capacity of the spreader - both are mine and I got just short of $100 wrapped up in my 400 lbs of fertilizer.
After the fertilizer is spread I head back to the house to swap implements. This is where it's good to have friends! I borrow a roto-tiller (because I can't justify owning one for 1 or 2 uses a year). This is a King cutter 60" I think. All I care about is that it's wider than my tires and it does a real nice job for me.
I used to use a 2 bottom plow and disc and those will work fine.....but the tiller leaves a much better seed bed in one pass. Yes I creep along with the tiller, but it levels and incorporates organic matter better in my opinion. The only issues I have with a tiller is that they don;t like rocks and they don't like long tough materials.....I refuse to plant rye any more because I spend so much time pulling it out of the tiller and winter wheat will work just fine in my area. So tilling incorporates the organic material, also puts the fertilizer in the ground, kills the weeds and makes a great seed bed to plant in. As you can see it does create a lot of dust however.....the tractor and I both got a bath after the day was done.
So with the tilling done only thing left to do was put seed in the ground. For corn I plant between roughly 30K seed count per acre on 30" row center. This means I can get about 2.5 acres per bag of seed. However - I'm a plotter and as such I like saving money. The seed I planted this year is left over from the year before which came out of a local farmers planter. The deal was that he was done planting but had not yet emptied out his seed boxes. I offered to do it for him (because it's a dirty job) if I could keep the seed. The farmer was going to throw the seed out any way so a deal was struck. So back to the house to swap implements again. This time for my 2 row planter. Now don't laugh! This little ford 309 planter gets the job done. It isn't new or fancy and the fertilizer box doesn't work and it's rusty, but it does put the seed in the ground. And for $50 - I am not complaining!
So the plate planter "clicks" away.....and if you have ever used one you know what I'm talking about. I turn and watch during every pass to ensure seed is falling into the furrows and being covered - because seed can get stuck and jam the plates - which is very frustrating. I don't use row markers - I guess and guessing is close enough.
It's been a long day and I'm done. I'm tired, I smell, and I'm covered in dust, maybe even a bit sun burnt. Time to head back to the house. Nothing to do now but pray for rain....which is forecast in the next few days. Once the corn germinates and gets 6" tall or so I will be back with my boom sprayer and apply some gly to kill off any weeds that survive and that should conclude everything I need to do. If I have a chance I may come back in late summer and toss in some winter wheat and brassica just for some diversity because as the corn dries down more sunlight will reach the ground and I can provide even more food that way. After that, it's a matter of finding the right tree to put a stand in and wait for the deer to come by looking for a late fall, high carb dinner, especially when it's cold.
Well this past weekend you would have found me with my butt planted in the seat of my 790 JD tractor. I was planting corn. I am a little late this year as I normally do this on Memorial day weekend, but I had some other things to address first. I'm going to share how I do this.....this doesn't mean it's the only way.....or even the right way!
The process started a few weeks ago when I used a rotary mower to mow the growth that has come up since the spring. This plot was a failed corn plot and I had overseeded some rye and brassicas into. So when I went back this weekend this was what I started with. Various green things growing and some corn stubble.
I don't worry about spraying as I know the tillage I have to do will kill a majority of what is there.....and I'm lazy! I went to the local co-op and got my fertilizer. I planned on planting about 1.5 acres in corn and bought 200 lbs of Urea (46%N) and another 200 lbs of 15-15-15 to apply on my 1.5 acres. This isn't based on a soil test, just what I apply and have gotten good results with in the past. A FEL makes handling all that fertilizer a lot easier.
All this goes into my conical spreader. But I only put in what I intend to spread on that plot.....I tend to not be able to keep track and apply more than I should. 2 bags of triple 15 and 2 bags of urea for this roughly 3/4 acre plot. A large capacity spreader like this is great for applying fertilizer, lime and hard seed over a wide area.....I am NOT spreading hundreds of pounds of fertilizer with a shovel or some sort of dinky spreader.
Now something you need to watch when adding your fertilizer is that it mixes. Last thing you want is what is shown on the left. This tends to lead to only one typ eor the other of the fertilizer coming out at a time which isn't good. The urea is the all white stuff if your not familiar with it......Oh and don't breather real heavy when your dumping urea, it burns! You want to get a good mix of your fertilizer even when you load it like on the right hand side.
Next comes the broadcasting. I simply take my time and try to make 2 passes - trying to get it in just one tends to lead me to coming up short and missing a spot or two and that irritates me. I have all weekend - taking 2 passes to ensure you get everything as even as realistic is fine. For what it's worth the tractor is a 30hp and I don;t recall the capacity of the spreader - both are mine and I got just short of $100 wrapped up in my 400 lbs of fertilizer.
After the fertilizer is spread I head back to the house to swap implements. This is where it's good to have friends! I borrow a roto-tiller (because I can't justify owning one for 1 or 2 uses a year). This is a King cutter 60" I think. All I care about is that it's wider than my tires and it does a real nice job for me.
I used to use a 2 bottom plow and disc and those will work fine.....but the tiller leaves a much better seed bed in one pass. Yes I creep along with the tiller, but it levels and incorporates organic matter better in my opinion. The only issues I have with a tiller is that they don;t like rocks and they don't like long tough materials.....I refuse to plant rye any more because I spend so much time pulling it out of the tiller and winter wheat will work just fine in my area. So tilling incorporates the organic material, also puts the fertilizer in the ground, kills the weeds and makes a great seed bed to plant in. As you can see it does create a lot of dust however.....the tractor and I both got a bath after the day was done.
So with the tilling done only thing left to do was put seed in the ground. For corn I plant between roughly 30K seed count per acre on 30" row center. This means I can get about 2.5 acres per bag of seed. However - I'm a plotter and as such I like saving money. The seed I planted this year is left over from the year before which came out of a local farmers planter. The deal was that he was done planting but had not yet emptied out his seed boxes. I offered to do it for him (because it's a dirty job) if I could keep the seed. The farmer was going to throw the seed out any way so a deal was struck. So back to the house to swap implements again. This time for my 2 row planter. Now don't laugh! This little ford 309 planter gets the job done. It isn't new or fancy and the fertilizer box doesn't work and it's rusty, but it does put the seed in the ground. And for $50 - I am not complaining!
So the plate planter "clicks" away.....and if you have ever used one you know what I'm talking about. I turn and watch during every pass to ensure seed is falling into the furrows and being covered - because seed can get stuck and jam the plates - which is very frustrating. I don't use row markers - I guess and guessing is close enough.
It's been a long day and I'm done. I'm tired, I smell, and I'm covered in dust, maybe even a bit sun burnt. Time to head back to the house. Nothing to do now but pray for rain....which is forecast in the next few days. Once the corn germinates and gets 6" tall or so I will be back with my boom sprayer and apply some gly to kill off any weeds that survive and that should conclude everything I need to do. If I have a chance I may come back in late summer and toss in some winter wheat and brassica just for some diversity because as the corn dries down more sunlight will reach the ground and I can provide even more food that way. After that, it's a matter of finding the right tree to put a stand in and wait for the deer to come by looking for a late fall, high carb dinner, especially when it's cold.
