First time corn planter

[struttingfool]

I have never planted corn before and looking for some knowledge for next spring. I found an IH two row corn planter this summer. It is in great shape and will need some minor TLC, that's my winter project is to get this corn planter into production. It has the fertilizer bins as well.

Here is my questions to get started. I was told that I will need to spray after planting of my corn or it will not produce. Is that true? I am not a big fan of spraying, I normally am a annual planter with a few small clover plots that I manage with mowing and not spraying. I am not looking for an extreme yield to corner the market with corn, just looking to plant some corn to help my local herd get thru the winter and use as an added draw. I plan on planting about 2 acres total.

Hope to get some pics of the planter on here after its cleaned up and ready to roll.

Thanks

Strut

 

[FarmerD]

You don't have to spray. Spraying does help maximize yield, though, but might I suggest another option:

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[FarmerD]

Weed control (when not using clover) helps to maximize yield, but there are several ways to accomplish that. Using a row cultivator, or hoeing are options too, all of which you can probably find pretty cheap.

 

[FarmerD]

 

[j-bird]

Corn doesn't like competition and can be fairly demanding of resources (fertilizer, sun light, water). As such.....the more you can reduce competition with the corn the better. You can even plant corn too densely and have an adverse affect. Using RR corn and spraying is simply a common method to weed control for corn. I use a 2 row ford 309 plate planter that I would assume would be very similar to yours....I plant corn on 36" rows with a target population of 32-36,000 per acre. I mow the plot, apply all my fertilizer at once (I would have to go back and look at what I generally apply - but I know I target a lb of N per bushel of corn grain I want to produce). The fertilizer portion of my planter is SNAFUed so I just use a cyclone type spreader to apply. Then plow/disc or till and then plant. I don;t spray until the weeds start to challenge the crop and the crop is just small enough to where I can get my tractor over it and not damage it. This pretty much gets me what I need. Now I am plotting in a previous ag field as well, which may make a difference.

 

[cutman]

I wouldn't plant corn if I couldn't control the weeds. Corn does NOT like competition - especially when it is young. Corn that fights weeds in its first month post emergence is going to suffer a real yield hit. If you don't care about grain production and just want a screen, plant something cheaper.

 

[bigbluetruck]

I made a big post that should help with some of your questions, seach "why corn is king"

Like the others have said, early in its life corn does not like competition, so some RR corn would be a good thing, even a conventional corn needs to be sprayed early to make sure it doesn't have to struggle, or your other option is cultivation. I prefer to spray because of the moisture lost from multiple cultivations. But once past the critical weed free period, corn doesn't really care, actually if there is some competition, it can trick the corn into producing more.

Another thing to look into is interseeding, its being done in areas to try and maximize the use of cover crops in areas where its hard to do covers after harvest. One that I think would benefit food plotters would be cowpeas interseeded in between the corn after the critical weed free period. The cowpeas would produce N for the corn and also provide food, basically doubling the amount of food in a plot without using more acreage.

 

[bigbluetruck]

View attachment 9616

You poor man and your Ford tractor lol.

I know this is farm country but those are few and far between around here, mostly for hobby farmers and people with acreages. Dad always tells about the time Grandpa borrowed a piece of equipment from a neighbor who did happen to have one and it was hooked to whatever he wanted to borrow, so the neighbor told him just to take the whole rig, after a round, Grandpa drove to the yard, Dad asked him if something was broke, to which he replied "Ya, the goddamn brakes! I'm not sure how they can build a tractor that has no brakes even when they ARE working!" He promptly unhooked the little Ford and hooked one of our tractors on. LOL

I understand why theyre popular, especially for food plots, but every time I see one I think of that story

 

[FarmerD]

LOL, no, not my tractor or cultivator, LOL. Just one I stole off the internet, to show that there are other ways of weed control vs herbicides. Back in the 60's, the field was cultivated then the hoe's came in and finished up. Cultivating with the proper equipment and proper ground speed can do a great job too. Covering a weed with dirt, will kill it just as well as herbicide. And he's just talking 2 acres ....... "We" grew lots and lots of corn that yielded 150+ bpa that way. Lots ....

Not many farmers use row crop cultivators anymore, so, if struttifool chose to go that route, he might be able to find one cheaply, at auction and avoid (for him) the use of herbicides. These days, there's lots of plotters who don't read the "label", nor practice a lot of the simple safety precautions that should be used, for spraying.

If struttinfool did not spray and did not cultivate, he would never get 200 bpa ...... but he just might get 75 bpa, which might satisfy him. He just has to analyse the cost of doing it and see if it meets his needs. Maybe he'd like to try the planting in clover route, since he already has perennial clover growing, which probably has a lot of pent up nitrogen, already waiting to be used. Experiment! Find what suits his desires.

Maybe he can get away with no nitrogen ... no herbicides and a little extra diesel fuel. More than one way to skin a cat. I've also grown corn, for a food plot, using "deer corn". The only thing I did was do a germination test on it first, to make sure it would grow, but like Forest Gumps box of chocolates, I never new what I was going to get, but for $10 a bag, I found out. And interestingly, most of that deer corn is round up ready ..... LOL, test some before you spray a whole field. You can see that my rows of deer corn were not completely weed free.

 

[FarmerD]

Food plotting is trying different things and finding out what works for your pocket book, for your soil and for your critters. We don't have to make a living doing this, this is a hobby, a fun one, but just a hobby. But, if you do have to make a living at it, you want to give it your best shot.

 

[bigbluetruck]

Nothing wrong with a $5 bag of whole corn, it'll grow and most of it will be RR.

I totally agree with everything you said. We do still cultivate quite a bit because of gravity irrigation, but the dryland and pivot watered stuff is no till, just to save as much water as possible, not as big of a concern in NY or GA. I do think that long term no till is great for the soil, but some like ours needs to be opened up from time to time.

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[FarmerD]

Just something I posted in another thread, that is an option for people who don't want to use herbicides to control weeds. The green one could likely be found pretty inexpensively. They also have toe behind models too.

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[Brokenbear]

Strutt
I am going to propose that your first year you do it the commonly accepted agricultural way the first year to learn all the ropes and then from your "benchmark" year ....the next ensuing years experiment with take aways to see how much you can eliminate and still have ENOUGH deer food left going into winter to do your herd some good ...I say this because you will most likely experience serious loss of production to some of the following:Raccoons, weeds using your nitrogen, grass using your nitrogen, too much or too little rain, worms etc etc

So considering your equipment ...and for first year forgive yourself and spray the first year ...then try later years skipping some spraying (maybe?) ...unsure of your reason for no spray wishes but know you can buy a 14 gallon sprayer for $100 and rig a 6' wide spray boom to run off your atv.mower/tractor ....PLUS run some water and ammonia thu it after herbicides to clean out prior chems ...then use the sprayer to spray Cleth in you clover ...it will add 2 years easily to the life of you clover plots thru better grass control and easily recover the sprayer cost

1. do a soil test ...tell lab you want corn at medium Ag yield level
2. spring mow ...week later do a 2-4D and glysophate burn down a couple weeks into green up
3. apply fertilization at the rate prescribed by the soil test (remember the analysis will be in REAL pounds of N.P and K so you will need to figure actual pounds of each in a 50lb bag ...EXAMPLE: 24-15-10 ...a 50 lb bag has 24% Nitrogen,15% Phosphorus and 10% Potassium so the math is 50# X 24%= 12 lbs of actual Nitrogen ...7.5lbs for P and 5 lbs for K ....so a 50lb bag has 24.5lbs of real stuff and the rest is FILLER ...dont't worry too much about the N at this point as you have fertilizer tanks and at planting you will apply UREA ONLY at a max rate ....Nitrogen will make grass jump/grow like crazy ....the grass has the jump on corn seed as it starts as a rizzone/root and the corn has to geriminate from a seed ...so spreading Nitrogen all over your field is a BAD THING that promotes grass growth ....with your fertilizer bins on your planter you will in a narrow band apply you Nitrogen fix right beside your seed!!!
5. now pre-merge(apply) Aatrex(atrazine) following the label rate (usually no more than 2lbs of actual material per acre per year)
6. now lightly disc
7. planting time ...with your planter ....you won't need the ground tilled to dust but no big clods... you will need it 65 degrees ( corn will actually germinate at 50 degrees but unevenly and if in pockets of moist ground it can rot before emerging) moisture wise you will want to pick up a hand full of your tilled dirt and lightly close your hand making a "ball" ....open you hand with the ball in the flat of your hand ...you can plant if the ball tries to come back apart under it's own weight ...if it stays a ball your soil is too moist for your closer wheels on your planter to close the seed furrow back up over your seed corn which creates poor to zero contact between seed and ground ....Urea is cheap ....run you discharge rate at near max or at least 75% rate
8. DO NOT ...DO NOT let grass get more than 2" tall ...do not let broadleafs get more than 4" tall ....I highly suggest RR (roundup ready)
corn seed and use roundup at a 2% rate (i use 2 3/4oz / gallon with 20gal/AC) OR ....cultivate ...cultivate ...then cultivate again right before the corn gets too tall for you equipment to move over

I realize you did not ask how to feed the world ...but a bench mark is very important to establish what you can get away with in your "take aways" ...and the fun of plotting is these experiments in reducing chems and costs

Cost saving hints: There are several sources for free or low cost seed ...such as conservation agencies, various wildlife federations etc
as well as simply using "deer corn" ...but as suggested ...buy the amount you need and grow it planting 10 kernels
from each bag and spray it with gly ...if 8 of 10 germinated ...you need 120% of your planned plant population ...if 2
of remaining 8 died from gly spray you will need 140% of planned population

go to you local Coop and get your Urea which is your N ...show them your soil test ...let them figure you fertilizer
needs ....round up some large open top containers or whatever to haul fertilizer from them ...dont'y worry ...they've
seen it all ....use GENERIC chemicals from your Coop also ...many cases 1/2 the cost or less than branded stuff ..
...also while at your Coop ask about food plot corn seed if the other avenues don't produce ...it is 1/3rd to 1/2 the
cost of ag seed corn and will get the job done

This is a great adventure ...just rare back and enjoy the fun of it

Bear

Bear

 

[bigbluetruck]

I was up to my plot the other day to seed my oats/rye before a forecasted rainy weekend. I just picked an area and pulled ears off 5 plants, got 10 ears. This is planted on freshly broken sod, planted at 15000 and 100lbs of N spread, nothing else. Defiantly plenty of nutrients, notice the big ears are full to the tip. Next year I'm going to try with 50lbs of N and any leftover from a crop of soybeans

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[bigbluetruck]

Only thing I would add from Bear is that when you pick up fertilizer, get it in bags, lots of time the COOP can fill the bags if you bring them or they might have them. DO NOT use an open top container, dry fertilizer will get EVERYWHERE and it does not react well with steel.