2025 field work
- Thread starter BCClone
- Start date
Finished planting today also. Love reading the back and forth banter on planting dates and what to plant first. The king of planting first in this area? He must be 80 plus by now. He has planted corn in March more than once. Did it work, I don’t know, don’t care. Funny, my 30 year old son was ready for us to start planting soybean first this year. I agreed. But when that forecast for rain and cool temps showed up, we shoved the planter back in shed. His idea. Maybe next year. Try this on for size. I have a customer who struggles raising good soybeans, they are raising oats, and loving it. Says he won’t go back to soybeans for along time.
I’m sorry but the last 5+ years of data and my personal experience says beans planted first are better. If it’s April 15th and you have fields ready, it’s beans all day long. Beans will take the cold soil temps and frost so much better than corn. I had beans just emerged and it got down to 23 that night. I thought for sure they were done for, replant was eminent, and it didn’t phase them. I know it’s hard to change the way things have been done for 50 years but it’s time to adapt or die.
Well, I believe he’s much older than that, but thanks for painting with a broad brush there.
I am having some beans two years in a row now, first time in 15 years or so to have beans was last year. Running numbers, it may be back to all corn again next year.
We got the second planter 4 years ago. I couldn’t imagine not having it now. A few bugs the first year as that’s expected with an older planter even after a “rebuild”. Now 4 years in I had zero issues with it this spring and we started corn and beans within a day of each other and finished 2 days apart.
With buying planter, replacing worn out parts (gauge wheels, openers etc), adding row shutoffs, new row cleaners, etc, and buying another tender we were still easily 1/5 the cost of new when all totaled.
Easily one of the best equipment purchases we’ve ever done.
Finished yesterday at 4 coop was spraying at 5. Sprayer operator has covered 15,000+ acres this spring.
We’ve talked about a second planter several times. Luckily, we haven’t had a bad spring in a few years so haven’t needed it. It’s amazing how many acres you can fly through when the weather is good and the new high speed planters are awesome.
My Dad said when he started farming, after they milked a few cows, tended the rest of the livestock, and maybe worked a little ground, they thought if they got 20 acres planted in a day they considered it a big day. My first experience planting when I graduated ISU in spring of '76, I planted 80 acres with our new 12 row planter (one of the first in the area) before noon. Yes, this dates me, but I still am fascinated thinking how far we we've progressed in my lifetime. Such a remarkable industry.
I also finished yesterday. It was nearly a month from when we started planting to when we finished because of the rain but when we were going it was some of the best conditions we have had. Now if the manure tanks would just wash themselves.
I built an autosteer system over the winter. I didn't get to use it for the corn because it wasn't quite done, but used it for the beans and it worked good. It's pretty nice to look back at the planter and not worry about driving straight. I'm only a few decades behind.
I built an autosteer system over the winter. I didn't get to use it for the corn because it wasn't quite done, but used it for the beans and it worked good. It's pretty nice to look back at the planter and not worry about driving straight. I'm only a few decades behind.
Shoot I still hand steer and use my markers on my planter. All the BTOs in the thread can laugh but it works for me.
Retired now, and was progressive while farming but never thought of myself as a BTO, although a few in the area might have viewed me as that at times: one of the first in the area with a 12 row planter, 4 wheel drive tractor (JD 8640), Great Plains 20 ft no-till soybean drill, disc chisel plow (one landlady had to OK it with her JD engineer son before we could attempt this new concept on her farm) etc. but you won't catch me laughing at the planters with markers. We added a 13th row on the planter and planted a half rate in both directions to achieve a 4-1 pattern planting seed corn for Pioneer and my field man remarked he had to count rows several times to figure out which row was the double planted half rate male row when checking populations. Neighbors remarked that they knew I didn't have auto steer and GPS when it came out---they said they could tell because I planted straighter than what could be achieved using that, LOL
Something that I think is overlooked with the two planter model, and even the high speed planters to an extent, is harvest power. We can plant waaay more acres in a day than we can harvest which I think is a casual factor attributing to the low harvest moistures we've been experiencing in recent years (alongside warm, dry falls obviously).
And of course a computer board shorts out on the last day of planting. **** this
If there's a month between planting windows, I'm betting that there was some less-than-great weather events that almost certainly hurt stands and likely leeched nitrogen. Id rather there was a stand issue with beans (we are planting probably 20% too many anyway) and I'd prefer to keep my nitrogen thanks.
120 feet wide is about 6.6 acres up and 6.6 acres back is 13 x10 mph is 130 acres an hour.x 10 hours is 1300 acres a day. So in 2 weeks he covered 15,000 acres? Somehow, that usually doesn’t happen.
Sprayed liquid N this spring with chemical and incorporated it right after. We kept our nitrogen. No problem.
We aren’t the ones concerned with stand issues in either crop. What we do works for us. You do whatever you want.
Good article on corn and soybean planting. Bottom line is if you can plant corn in good planting conditions, plant corn first.
If you have the ability to plant corn and soybeans at the same time, that’s great. But, if you can’t plant corn and soybeans at the same time, “don’t waste good corn planting conditions” trying to get beans planted.
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If you have the ability to plant corn and soybeans at the same time, that’s great. But, if you can’t plant corn and soybeans at the same time, “don’t waste good corn planting conditions” trying to get beans planted.
My corn’s growing point was unaffected as the corn growing point remains below ground till the V6 stage so soil insulates and protects early growing corn
