Planting corn with drill??

Double L

Well-Known Member
I got a Great Plains 3pt806NT no till drill With us trying to do better with keeping cover crops on plots over winter to aid in getting better soil conditions. Is it possible to block off main seed box except for maybe 3-4 rows of corn and plant cover crop in small box? Is this possible to do and how well does it work? Do you think it’s worth a try?


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Yep. Great Plains makes seed cup blockers, but I don’t see why you couldn’t just use cardboard or duct tape. I think I would block off 2 rows at a time so that 1 in 3 rows drops seed (22.5” spacing). It might be tricky to calibrate lb per acre, so you’d have to experiment with that.

You wouldn’t have perfect spacing but if it’s just a food plot...who cares?

What cover crop are you thinking? Small seed box can do clovers, chicory, certain brassicas. I use my large seed box for grains though.
 
Can’t believe I didn’t think of duct tape. I think it’s 56 hand cranks equals 1/10 of acre coverage. I think I can do the math to get close on calibration. Don’t know yet what to plant with my corn and soybeans. I figure I got 3/4 weeks yet till it’s warm enough. If I can get some ideas I may try several different mixes. Variatity is the spice of life right. Lol
 
Yep, I use duct tape. Block off row 1, leave 2 open, block 3,4, leave 5 open, block 6,7, leave 8 open, block 9. It's plenty good for deer corn. I don't have my settings, my drill journal is in the drill at the farm. What I like to do even better is add about 10-15% corn in my beans. I've found that it keeps the bucks from skirting the bean fields looking for does. They actually have to go out in the plot to check it due to the added cover.

Great plains use to sell dividers for the large seed box, so you could alternate seeds by the row, I was told.
 
I have a cut down 6' great plains drill that I just installed those "V" dividers for the large and small seed box. About $9 per divider, there just tin so if your handy with cutting and bending you can make your own. If you need part numbers, let me know. I put them in because I got tired of stopping and moving the seed around when it got low. With the dividers in, I also separate different seeds if need be.
 
I have a great plains 1006nt, I have several pcs of 1/4" plywood that I cut to fit in the big seed box for dividers, I plant several kinds of seed at a time so I can do experiments and see what brand grows best and which plant my deer prefer. As far as planting corn with a notill drill, I had the same idea and even bought the black plastic hole blockers that great plains sells, even though my farmer friends told me not to, and I learned the hard way, planting corn with a drill does not work well, because of inconsistent seed depth, and inconsistent seed spacing. But if you are still itching to try, my OEM GP black plastic planter hole plugs are for sale...
 
I have a cut down 6' great plains drill that I just installed those "V" dividers for the large and small seed box. About $9 per divider, there just tin so if your handy with cutting and bending you can make your own. If you need part numbers, let me know. I put them in because I got tired of stopping and moving the seed around when it got low. With the dividers in, I also separate different seeds if need be.
Thank you. If you have a cut down drill do you have the pieces that were left over?if so I’d like to buy them.
 
I have a great plains 1006nt, I have several pcs of 1/4" plywood that I cut to fit in the big seed box for dividers, I plant several kinds of seed at a time so I can do experiments and see what brand grows best and which plant my deer prefer. As far as planting corn with a notill drill, I had the same idea and even bought the black plastic hole blockers that great plains sells, even though my farmer friends told me not to, and I learned the hard way, planting corn with a drill does not work well, because of inconsistent seed depth, and inconsistent seed spacing. But if you are still itching to try, my OEM GP black plastic planter hole plugs are for sale...
well Mennoniteman if you didn’t get it to work well I’m won’t think about even trying. I may try simply broadcasting some clover after I plant the corn.
 
well Mennoniteman if you didn’t get it to work well I’m won’t think about even trying. I may try simply broadcasting some clover after I plant the corn.
If you just want some random corn stalks in your soybeans with no ears to speak of you can throw seed corn in with your beans and some will grow. But if you want a nice cornfield like you would see in a farm field it's not going to happen with a drill. A drill has notched wheels in the planting units to handle the seed, and they are sized to work well with soybean seed and smaller seeds. corn kernels are bigger, smoother, and are conically shaped, and just don't do well in the mechanism of a grain drill. They tend to stop up for a bit, then all come out in a little pile. Also, corn needs to be planted deeper than smaller seed, a drill is harder to get to that depth and consistently hold it there. When you plug half of your units they are still requiring down pressure to draw furrows in the ground and help keep the drill from reaching and consistently holding that optimal 2" depth you need for corn.

IMO if you have soil where you can grow corn and beans, soybeans are the way better choice. If you have a plot that's too small for beans try mixing them with something else to help keep the deer from wiping them out.Thursday, ‎March ‎30, ‎2017 OATS.jpg
 
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I guess your results may vary. I have planted corn stand-alone with the drill, and frequently with my beans. It always produces well, if you put down the nitrogen. A drill is a controlled spill of seed, not a precision planting method. If you want accurately spaced corn plants or rows spaced to harvest, it's definitely poor. It grows good deer corn, in my experiences.

I'd also be interested in those plugs if you really want to get rid of them. I have no idea what they cost, but I'm about sick of mesing with duct tape.
 
I have been planting corn/soybean plots for 10 years with a Great Plains 1006NT and have had outstanding corn. These plots are on 3 different properties. You have to be close to the plots to see that they aren't normal corn plots, meaning they aren't tidy rows and the fact that there is soybean mixed in the corn stalks. TONS of ears that feed our deer into winter every year. I don't plug holes I just mix my corn and soybean seed. Works great for us, they are by far our best hunting plots.
 
I have been planting corn/soybean plots for 10 years with a Great Plains 1006NT and have had outstanding corn. These plots are on 3 different properties. You have to be close to the plots to see that they aren't normal corn plots, meaning they aren't tidy rows and the fact that there is soybean mixed in the corn stalks. TONS of ears that feed our deer into winter every year. I don't plug holes I just mix my corn and soybean seed. Works great for us, they are by far our best hunting plots.

Would you mind sharing your settings and seed ratio? I too believe the last corn/bean plot I did with the drill was my best plot ever, especially after I overseeded with brassica and rye.
 
I use a 706NT and not a 1006NT, not sure why I always forget that. I rent it and unfortunately don't own one yet. I am looking hard at purchasing a 606NT just because I can't always get the one we rent when planting conditions are right. The stress of worrying about having the weather work out on the week I have it rented is slowly killing me, lol. We plant enough acres to justify owning one. I know there are lots of seed ratios that guys use, I tried a mix the first year I mixed my own that worked and have not dared to stray from it. I plant my corn with Eagle beans and I use 3 bags of beans and one bag of corn. I don't worry about the specifics of the particular corn seed and have never had a problem. Meaning any bag of corn seed around 40lbs works. The settings are pretty much the same I use for the straight soybean plots. The 3 bags of soybean and 1 bag of corn do about 5 acres of plots usually.

I use Drive 1 with the seed cups on the largest setting and the main seed box is set at 42-44. I have used this same set up since I first used the BioMaxx corn/soybean mix that Biologic sold for a couple years. I started mixing my own after using theirs the first year it came out. One of their reps helped me figure out what settings to use on the drill. It has worked great. I generally broadcast 400lbs of triple 19 and disc that in before planting. We buy the fertilizer in bulk with the co-op trailer spreader and it is not overly expensive that way. I have drilled into old clover plots without the fertilizer and had some of my best corn ever. I have only done that with 4+ year old clover plots. I use RR corn and spray the plots 2-3 weeks after the plants emerge. I started with a 4 wheeler sprayer and it had to be where the sprayer wasn't hitting corn stalks. This seems to be about the optimum time to spray anyway.

I will try and document planting these plots this year with photos. They work out extremely well for us. The only time I have ever had an issue was where the plot was too small and the deer ate the young corn stalks while they were eating the soybean. Even the beans in those plots didn't survive the browsing. The whole plot was a failure 2 years in a row from over browsing. I did buy an actual corn planter this year so we will not be doing as many corn plots with the no-till. Main reason for the new corn planter is the limited acreage for plots on some of our properties and we want to be able to rotate between the corn and soybeans for soil purposes.
 
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