row planter or no till drill?
- Thread starter split toe
- Start date
X-farmerdan
Well-Known Member
A 4-row (corn) planter is a very specialized piece of equipment. So far as I'm concerned you use it to plant corn. Period. I've planted some soybeans with it, splitting the rows, but it's a real tedious process. I lust after a no-till planter! I rent one when I need it. The soil & water conservation districts around here have one or two. If you were starting fresh and had money to buy only one implement I think it should be a no-till planter. No-till means you don't need tillage equipment! This is hard to say because we all like our toys, but you won't need a disk. You won't need a cultipacker or a drag or a harrow. Sure, you need a tractor to pull it and a sprayer for sure. So, considering all of that, is a no-till drill so expensive? And we haven't even got to the ecological benefits of value to you and to those you love! And, you can plant corn with it too.
Buckly
Well-Known Member
I guess a lot of the answer would be in how much acreage are you planting? You can easily plant 5 acres of corn with an old 2 row planter that just takes a little work to find but are reasonable priced. Add a very used conventional drill and 10 acres of plots planted easily for less than $3000 investment. If you're planting more than that, well you need equipment.
Doe Shooter
Active Member
Depending on your equipment, you can add some additional parts to pretty closely match a no till drill. Given the price ,I don't see why more folks don't try it. You Tube has many examples.
j-bird
Well-Known Member
The ONLY reason I see to having a row planter is to plant corn. Many, many, many other seeds can be productively planted by other methods. A drill is much more flexible than a row planter as far as seed it will plant for you. A drill won't (at least in my experience) plant corn however. There is a reason production grain farmers have a planter and a drill. Different tools for different purposes. A row planter can be adapted to plant larger seeds for you (soy beans, peas, maybe sunflowers) but is useless for small seeds like cereal grains, clovers, brassica and the like.
bigbluetruck
Active Member
It depends on the planter too, the old plate (pre 1980s) planters could plant everything you list (corn/beans/milo) for sure, did some research and found out that they also have sunflower, and sugarbeet plates. Based on seed/lb size theres a few more you could plant with some of the plates, it might take some figuring, but can be done.
A few common food plot species and their approximate seed/lb
Red clover 180,000
White clover 500,000
PTT 170,000
Nitro Radish 25,000
Rape 175,000
Corn 2,500
AWP 4,000
Sorghum 22,000
Oats 15,000
Rye 23,000
Sugar beets 10,000
Soybeans will probably be about 3000 Im guessing off the top of my head
Based on that, you could plant AWP with the bean plate, and radishes with the sorghum plate, also might be able to use it or another plate to seed the rye or oats depending on how many seeds fit into each space and figure out the rate from there, but your rows will be whatever the spacing of your planter is, or half if you split them. everything else could be sown with a spreader and probably should. I know our White planter has plates for wheat which would cover rye too, and maybe oats. But thats way out of a food plotters budget and it has to have a hydraulic source to run the fan for the air. So for me, Id rather have a planter with a full set of plates. It makes it easier to spray your crop without running some over, and whatever you cant plant with it, usually needs to be spread anyway, and the smaller seeds like the clovers really need to be in a seperate small seed box, which some drills dont have. A drill is only slightly more accurate than a broadcast spreader, its really just a meter that lets the seed fall right behind a disk and then covers and packs it, no different than a harrow pass and a cultipacker.
heres a place that makes plates for the older planters, the JD style was the standard back then, https://lincolnagproducts.com/faqs/
A few common food plot species and their approximate seed/lb
Red clover 180,000
White clover 500,000
PTT 170,000
Nitro Radish 25,000
Rape 175,000
Corn 2,500
AWP 4,000
Sorghum 22,000
Oats 15,000
Rye 23,000
Sugar beets 10,000
Soybeans will probably be about 3000 Im guessing off the top of my head
Based on that, you could plant AWP with the bean plate, and radishes with the sorghum plate, also might be able to use it or another plate to seed the rye or oats depending on how many seeds fit into each space and figure out the rate from there, but your rows will be whatever the spacing of your planter is, or half if you split them. everything else could be sown with a spreader and probably should. I know our White planter has plates for wheat which would cover rye too, and maybe oats. But thats way out of a food plotters budget and it has to have a hydraulic source to run the fan for the air. So for me, Id rather have a planter with a full set of plates. It makes it easier to spray your crop without running some over, and whatever you cant plant with it, usually needs to be spread anyway, and the smaller seeds like the clovers really need to be in a seperate small seed box, which some drills dont have. A drill is only slightly more accurate than a broadcast spreader, its really just a meter that lets the seed fall right behind a disk and then covers and packs it, no different than a harrow pass and a cultipacker.
heres a place that makes plates for the older planters, the JD style was the standard back then, https://lincolnagproducts.com/faqs/
Brokenbear
Active Member
Before you buy a planter ...buy or borrow an old John Deere Van Brunt drill or equivlent ...and where you were thinking of planting corn ...plant milo ...it has great attributes ....seldom is it fed on as a small plant ....coons will not even come close to damaging milo like they will corn ...upland game birds go nuts around it ...the cover is a rabbit heaven ...and best of all the deer go nuts over it once fully headed out and mature in late fall....
Plus I've had some hard winters where the milo was what carried the day for our deer heard
Plus I've had some hard winters where the milo was what carried the day for our deer heard
bigbluetruck
Active Member
Just the word Milo makes me itch lol
split toe
Member
Seems like a heck of a deal? Hydraulics? Got anymore pictures?I bought this from a guy who cuts down old drills and refurbishes them on Craigslist. He is in Brown County Illinois $2,000. I planted 7 acres of beans with it for the first time this year and so far Im happy with it.
bigbluetruck
Active Member
Maybe its the cheapskate in me, but $2000 for that, it better have come with some lube. Hes buying them out of tree lines and on junk auctions for pennies on the dollar then turning turning around and making a killing selling them after a couple of bearings and some Krylon.
Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
If you're planting for deer go with the drill. Soybeans beat corn for a food plot, and the drill will plant every other plot crop there is except corn. I tried corn in my drill and it didn't work well
. Then you can drill wheat, rye, oats, triticale, peas, millet, sunflowers, brassica, turnips, sorghum, sunn hemp, buckwheat, daikon radish, hairy vetch, chickory, chufa, lab lab, kale, clover, alfalfa, trefoil etc. Of course some of these can be broadcast as well, but I usually just put them in my small seed box.
Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
One thing on corn; I go to a lot of effort and expense to grow a nice crop of corn and then the bears show up and literally destroy half the field. Are bears destructive by nature? And when the bears are marauding the deer stay away. I don't know about you guys but I'm not food plotting to feed bears.
Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
Did you plant that in a mix or separately?
Buckly
Well-Known Member
This is true and certainly a big factor if you plant corn, you have to plant enough if you plant corn. On my place the bear will destroy a lot of the corn and it gets frustrating. However, I will point out that with the negatives there are some positives that I have seen on my place. If there is enough corn, the bears only last so long before they hibernate for the winter thus leaving the deer to the rest of the corn December thru the spring getting them through a stress period of winter. Also the bear seem to hit the corn later at night, usually well after dark. Because of this the deer will hit the corn earlier in the day and right before dark which helps in the hunting aspect. I don't plant corn every year as it's just too expensive. I use brassica mostly and it works great but, I believe corn has a place for over winter nutrition that I'm looking for.
