No till corn?

Its not as easy as it used to be with herbicide resistant weeds. Lots of marestail problems this year, once they are up you cant kill them. I like to till to start clean. Only way i would no till is into a cereal rye cover crop. Then you have the problems of not drying out in the spring enough to plant. Plus i have had many guys tell me the fall chisel plow gives a 20 bushel boost to corn.

Everyone tills here, no till just isnt consistant enough.

I plan to experiment with rye in the future.

I also have been eyeing a versatile 850 and a 30ft cultivator. Large equipment has gotten pretty cheap.

Edited by Dmpaul89 - 06 Jul 2017 at 11:52am

Ill keep you in mind. If you happen to come this way let me know. May take some

It has been tried in my area but now most of the farmers at least go in with a disc to break the top up. Beyond that it depends on what was planted the year before.

After about a decade of full tillage I built a three point sprayer and modified my planter for notill and notilled for about a decade.





By not having used glyphosate for its first decade I didn't develop any glyphosate resistant weeds. The plow coulters on the planter holding the thin ammonia knives are borrowed from my AC 2000 plow. The planter has Dawn Trash Whippers on each row unit to move bean straw or corn stover out of the way. These pictures show the rig as used notill. I applied 32% with the sprayer as the pump down the ammonia knives and side dressed later in the year.

The corn may have suffered a little the first year or two of notill but it recovered after that.

In 2007 I did an experiment where I shopped hard for a corn number that produced well with minimal nutrition, I think it was Crows 4221T. I spread 100 pounds of MAP giving 11 pounds of N, then I put down 60 pounds of N 2-1/4 inches from each row with the pictured planter and sprayer combination. I applied another 40 pounds of N by dribbling 32% every other row when the corn was about 4 feet tall. I had three varieties of seed in the field because the planter dropped an extra seed every 15 feet and I had to go to back up supplies. An Ottlie number seemed to get along with the treatment, but a Dyna-Gro number tipped back half the ear. It clearly didn't like the low N and high population (34,000 seeds per acre). The yield over the scale at the elevator was 173.2 bushels per acre. Not bad for 111 pounds of N.

The corn stover left from that crop made planting beans difficult in 2008, the ground didn't warm up or dry until mid June. I had used glyphosate for a weed burndown in mid May and had CPS apply Prowl H2O a week later. The weeds were all still brown mid June. Mid July I found fresh lambs quarter about 4" tall, so I got out the sprayer and found some patches had drowned out or I had gone around them being wet so I ordered so 0.9 maturity bean seed from Albert Lea Seed House and filled in the blank spots. Figured the least I would get was ground cover. At harvest the field was clean everywhere, but when I hand picked the beans from those planted in mid July, the beans were hard but the size of BBs so probably didn't contribute to the crop delivered to the elevator.

In 2009 I rented the place to a mostly corn on corn strip tiller and he has turned me a good profit every year. Our lease is 50/50 crop share. The strips warm up and dry and he hasn't had to plant very late because of cold wet ground. He did plant a little late this year wanting to avoid the corn getting bit by a late frost. Last I looked the field looked decent but not tall. I might to take a look this evening.

Gerald J.

I do some no-till corn into bean stubble. I have the local co-op spray a burndown a couple weeks before planting to keep weeds down. The ground has to be pretty smooth and I slow down to 4mph or so whereas I may run 5 planting corn in a worked field.

It depends on what soil type you have. Ive seen most types no tilled, vevy heavy clays and gimbo type soils are best to be worked. Most 1980 and newer planters shoild no till fine, just depends on their weight per row. It takes longer for ground being no tilled to warm up wich can be a set back, but in a dry year it helps. One big key is how to manage the weed resistance. Most around here burn downn a few weeks tp a week before planting, then come back with a second pass when its emerged.

We've been no-tilling for 20+ years here in NW Ohio an I think the yields r better,, you don't have the compaction like we use to when we would work it twice an then plant.. compaction kills you in r clay!!

Sandknob wrote: It's a deere 7000 eight row.

You have the right planter atleast.

We hire a guy with a 8000 series white 16 row no-till planter, and it does a great job.

We mudded the first 50 acres in and it doesnt look fantastic, but no matter the brand of planter you will regret mudding in corn.

The wheat got hailed out, and he pulled right into still green standing wheat and planted corn, the chemical outfit came and hit the wheat with roundup the next day after planting to finish it and whatever growing weeds off. The stand looks awesome, and I am pretty happy with how things are looking on that field. Time will tell in the next 2 weeks, as we are not scheduled to get much if any rain.

IMO planting and spraying are not that fun, and there are alot of guys with big equipment happy to do a little custom work. IMO I would focus on harvest, that is where the fun is at.


IMO either get a nice 12 row 6000 or 8000 series white or case IH 800 series or newer (preferably 1200 series and newer) and DIY, or hire it out. The white meter is awesome, and the row unit is very good, and the CIH meter is good and the row unit is awesome.

Essentially the two best planters on the market in stock form are Red, especially for no-till. only the extremely Deere loyal run green planters out here, lots of CIH planters sold in our immediate area, many to farms that are otherwise green. Saw a 8370R pulling a 24 row central fill CIH planter just a few weeks ago putting in sunflowers.

I'll second the white planter. Very accurate and seed size doesn't affect them. I run a 6-30 6100 and wouldn't trade it for anything. There are a lot of kinze and Deere around here but still quite a few whites.

The so called wide wavy front coulter for no till is a bad idea. If the soil is a bit damp and with clay it can turn into a stomping packing wheel filled with soil and not benefit the soil or the planting process at all. The flat coulter I used made a good slot for 32% when planting corn and cut the stover whether planting corn or beans so the Trash Whippers were good and moving stover away from the opener disks and the combination prevented hairpinning of the stover by the opening disks. A combination suggested by Jim at Dawn at more than one farm show.

Gerald J.

The first owner of my 7000 (then 4 row wide) added a row of spring tooth harrow on the front of the frame. The up thrust lifted the planter enough the drive tire slid so the dealer added a drive chain to the other side. The tires still tended to slip and to plant irregularly and thinner than set. When I bought (from the second owner) at a consignment auction the spring tooth assembly was with it but not mounted. I left it and it got sold the next consignment auction for a few bucks. I converted it to 30" rows, added the Trash Whippers and the flat coulters and it planted no till fine for me. I took off one of the drive chains to save work on moving the drive wheels.

Gerald J.

Nobody tills in my part of the country. Corn, soybeans or cotton!!!


Edited by Eddie - 07 Jul 2017 at 9:07pm

Gerald J. wrote: The first owner of my 7000 (then 4 row wide) added a row of spring tooth harrow on the front of the frame. The up thrust lifted the planter enough the drive tire slid so the dealer added a drive chain to the other side. The tires still tended to slip and to plant irregularly and thinner than set. When I bought (from the second owner) at a consignment auction the spring tooth assembly was with it but not mounted. I left it and it got sold the next consignment auction for a few bucks. I converted it to 30" rows, added the Trash Whippers and the flat coulters and it planted no till fine for me. I took off one of the drive chains to save work on moving the drive wheels. Gerald J.

That's a valid point about field corners.  4 rows I usually turned the corner, 8 rows I do not.  Guy just has to make a judgment call there.  But I have lots of fields with a "curvy" end that you'd not practically plant in a straight line.