row planter or no till drill?

[Mennoniteman]

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.

Some good insights. I agree with your observation that corn is more expensive to put out. I never really noticed the deer coming out earlier, at my place it's just about the reverse, bears come early and push the deer back till after dark. How do you feel about beans vs corn for deer?

 

[Buckly]

It sure would be nice to have both. I simply don't have enough area to plant beans. I only have 3 acres that I could plant beans in. I'm afraid with my deer population almost all of that would be eaten long before it would do any good for hunting or overwintering. 3 acres of corn won't be eaten until October and will last most all winter. Most years I just plant 3 acres of brassica which works real well also. I have 6 other 1/4 1/2 acre smaller kill plots that are in the LC mix that help spread deer out and help with a flow to the property but, on my place beans are not an option.

 

[Mennoniteman]

It sure would be nice to have both. I simply don't have enough area to plant beans. I only have 3 acres that I could plant beans in. I'm afraid with my deer population almost all of that would be eaten long before it would do any good for hunting or overwintering. 3 acres of corn won't be eaten until October and will last most all winter. Most years I just plant 3 acres of brassica which works real well also. I have 6 other 1/4 1/2 acre smaller kill plots that are in the LC mix that help spread deer out and help with a flow to the property but, on my place beans are not an option.

At my place the bears eat half of my six acres of corn before they hibernate. And they hibernate or go 100% nocturnal the day before hunting season. If I try to drive them out to shoot them I drive all the deer away. I'm thinking of quitting corn but I'm open to ideas?

 

[bigbluetruck]

Hmmm not sure what to tell you, never seen a bear in the middle of Nebraska, but we do have some pretty stout women with the same body shape lol

 

[Buckly]

At my place the bears eat half of my six acres of corn before they hibernate. And they hibernate or go 100% nocturnal the day before hunting season. If I try to drive them out to shoot them I drive all the deer away. I'm thinking of quitting corn but I'm open to ideas?

I'm sure a lot has to do with bear population. We have a good amount of bear but not like some parts of PA and VA. Like I said I only plant corn every few years. I like using the planter every now and then. I have found brassica to be a very good alternative. There's also a good amount of ag around me and that does take some pressure off for sure.

 

[Chainsaw]

I get by with an over the shoulder spreader and a PTO rotary spreader. They do just fine and do not take up much off season storage space and require no maintenance other than cleaning and a little storage oil on the PTO rotary spreader. Another option is to hire a contract farmer to plant your corn or soybeans. I've seen some of the farmers here even hire a contract planter to do their corn and soybean planting. Actually it is quite common.

Also a consideration here is that corn draws wintering deer and too many wintering deer consume a lot of browse and then leave us with browsed out woods. For that reason corn is not high on our planting list anymore.

 

[Buck268]

Did you plant that in a mix or separately?

Did them separate.

 

[bigbluetruck]

I get by with an over the shoulder spreader and a PTO rotary spreader. They do just fine and do not take up much off season storage space and require no maintenance other than cleaning and a little storage oil on the PTO rotary spreader. Another option is to hire a contract farmer to plant your corn or soybeans. I've seen some of the farmers here even hire a contract planter to do their corn and soybean planting. Actually it is quite common.

Also a consideration here is that corn draws wintering deer and too many wintering deer consume a lot of browse and then leave us with browsed out woods. For that reason corn is not high on our planting list anymore.

Its amazing the difference between here and there, personally I think that corn done right, has a huge potential for food plotting. I realize that some think its too expensive, and because I have access to expensive seed for free that it changes my line of thinking a bit. But considering that, as a whole, the state of Nebraska lacks the amount of cover that alot of other states have, corn does double duty as both cover and food for me, especially during the winter months which can be pretty hard here with bitter cold, windchills that dip in the double digit negatives fairly regularly, and anywhere from 0-5' of snow.
Big bucks loooove to bed in stand corn, its thick and its hard to walk through without making some kind of noise, so they love it. Its not uncommon for guys to carry a rifle in the combine with them during deer season, and Ill bet youd be suprised how many have been shot from the platform of one. I chased the buck I shot last season out with a combine, he ran out, then bedded back down in the pasture by the field, after we finished filling everything for the next day we went out and put a stalk on him and got me a nice 138" (gross) 4x5. A few years ago after rifle season we we combining and chased a buck out that when he was running down the rows he had to cock his head a bit because his rack was too wide to fit between the rows of corn, we plant in 36" rows. I thought there was something wrong with him because of the way he was running, until I got to the end and finally got a look at him, it was probably the biggest or second biggest deer Ive ever personally seen alive.

Corn planted fairly thin (as far as corn for production is concerned) will stand up to some pretty strong straight line winds, weve seen 70mph winds only knock over the outside few rows a little. It will also catch alot of snow if left to stand, even harvested fields catch alot of snow, not a big deal for you guys that get plenty of rain in the summer, but for us, we live and die with the moisture, good rains at the right time and its some of the prettiest country youll ever see, no rains, like in 2012 and its like a desert, so the more free moisture we can catch the better our chances are. Right along with that, standing corn, besides being the best winter feed a deer can get, is sometime the easiest to, that ear is right at a deers level, they can eat it when everything else is buried in snow.

Sorry for the rant on corn, Ive got some great ideas that I think will really change the way people look at corn as a food plot species. Watch for a thread on it later this year hopefully

 

[Mennoniteman]

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/

Plate planters don't work well for corn anymore because the seed companies don't size their seed anymore. This pretty much makes plate planters obsolete.
Addendum; They're not making them anymore and no serious farmers are using them for ag anymore, but they're absolutely great for food plots.

 

[bigbluetruck]

Corn is still graded, they just consolidated a bunch from back in those days into about 6 total different grades, 3 sizes and either flat or rounds. But for food plot work, the old plate planters are plenty good, and simple enough.

 

[Buckly]

My planter is an antique from the 50's. The seed I bought was what I would call a medium round hybrid. I just went through the plates and got one to match. There's literally a myriad of plates to pick from. Threw a handful into each bin to make sure it was coming out alright then went to plant. It came out as close to perfect as you can get. I bought it for $250 but, I've seen them for $6-800. Worth the price in my opinion for the food plotter if they want corn.

 

[bigbluetruck]

The deer don't care if it's planted at 20k or 19.5, it'll grow and make an ear all the same. Either way, a 494 JD is still more accurate than any drill made

 

[Chainsaw]

Its amazing the difference between here and there, personally I think that corn done right, has a huge potential for food plotting. I realize that some think its too expensive, and because I have access to expensive seed for free that it changes my line of thinking a bit. But considering that, as a whole, the state of Nebraska lacks the amount of cover that alot of other states have, corn does double duty as both cover and food for me, especially during the winter months which can be pretty hard here with bitter cold, windchills that dip in the double digit negatives fairly regularly, and anywhere from 0-5' of snow.
Big bucks loooove to bed in stand corn, its thick and its hard to walk through without making some kind of noise, so they love it. Its not uncommon for guys to carry a rifle in the combine with them during deer season, and Ill bet youd be suprised how many have been shot from the platform of one. I chased the buck I shot last season out with a combine, he ran out, then bedded back down in the pasture by the field, after we finished filling everything for the next day we went out and put a stalk on him and got me a nice 138" (gross) 4x5. A few years ago after rifle season we we combining and chased a buck out that when he was running down the rows he had to cock his head a bit because his rack was too wide to fit between the rows of corn, we plant in 36" rows. I thought there was something wrong with him because of the way he was running, until I got to the end and finally got a look at him, it was probably the biggest or second biggest deer Ive ever personally seen alive.

Corn planted fairly thin (as far as corn for production is concerned) will stand up to some pretty strong straight line winds, weve seen 70mph winds only knock over the outside few rows a little. It will also catch alot of snow if left to stand, even harvested fields catch alot of snow, not a big deal for you guys that get plenty of rain in the summer, but for us, we live and die with the moisture, good rains at the right time and its some of the prettiest country youll ever see, no rains, like in 2012 and its like a desert, so the more free moisture we can catch the better our chances are. Right along with that, standing corn, besides being the best winter feed a deer can get, is sometime the easiest to, that ear is right at a deers level, they can eat it when everything else is buried in snow.

Sorry for the rant on corn, Ive got some great ideas that I think will really change the way people look at corn as a food plot species. Watch for a thread on it later this year hopefully

Bigbluetruck, There is no doubt that corn makes for excellent food plots and cover. Our unique deal here is that the deer travel from miles east of us to spend their winters here in this area. Last winter there were 64 deer that wintered here (estimated) and a portion of those maybe half (more of a guess than an estimate) came from away. The wintering deer here ate mostly rye, triticale and barley and apples and browse. A friend of mine had two to four hundred (counted) spend some of the winter on his property; His property is within a distance that if I had standing corn, more of those deer would be on me. I don't mind feeding some of these transient deer but simply can not afford to carry a couple of hundred either. An early extra heavy snow one year saw the deer and squirrels, coons, etc. eradicate seven acres of standing corn here and that was in December well before January even started. Granted my tonnage is less than row planters as I plant only 20,000 seeds per acre with the spreader but still that was a lot of corn. Will keep an eye out for your corn thread though.

 

[bigbluetruck]

Here where I live, we have deer move away quite often during the winter, especially if we get cold weather without much snow. Water is the issue, right in my area theres no flowing water so when the ponds freeze up, the only open water is where there happens to be cattle, so they move over to the river about 5 miles away.

My acre of corn got planted yesterday, at about 15K, I thought I had plenty of seed but when I got started I realized I wasnt gonna make it at 20K, so it got 1 row of beans per pass and 5 of corn, but it should work out better for what Im planning anyway.

Here on dryland acres we usually plant between 20-25k, but we make sure that its a good flex ear hybrid and as long as the weather cooperates, we can have 175+bu yields, so even at low populations the right hybrid will still make alot of feed.

 

[swat1018]

Plate planters still work fne for corn, especially food plots....

 

[Steve Rogers]

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.

I just registered for this forum when I saw this post from you. I have been trying to contact a guy who posted on Shoppok about a drill. I have not had any luck and would really like to see about getting one of these drills. Could you give me his contact information? I have sent several emails as per request on the Shoppok site and have not got a reply yet. I sure would appreciate it if you could help me out. You can just call me at 309-945-7126 or home phone is 309-944-4131. Thanks, Steve

 

[Elkaddict]

All of my grain (large and small) planting has been broadcast. I have no experience with either a planter or a drill. Can someone please explain why a drill won’t handle corn? Is it a matter of inefficiency? I’m certain my broadcasting corn is inefficient as well.

 

[Mennoniteman]

All of my grain (large and small) planting has been broadcast. I have no experience with either a planter or a drill. Can someone please explain why a drill won’t handle corn? Is it a matter of inefficiency? I’m certain my broadcasting corn is inefficient as well.

Been there, done that (tried to drill corn) and it just doesn't work well. Corn is an easy crop to grow after you plant it right, but the planting is very dependent on depth and spacing between stalks. A drill just dribbles seed over the edge of a cog wheel, which works great with small seeds like grain, or round seeds like soybeans, but with corn seeds they tend to bunch up and leave a 12" skip then plant 5 seeds on a pile. I've tried it twice and ended up discing it down both times. It seems like it should work but it just doesn't.

 

[swat1018]

I have had descent luck with it, good enough for deer plots. I've had really good luck planting with soybeans from 10% corn up to about 40%.

 

[Mennoniteman]

I have had descent luck with it, good enough for deer plots. I've had really good luck planting with soybeans from 10% corn up to about 40%.

The problem with mixing corn and beans is that herbicide options get much slimmer.