Relationship of planter to corn head

Dave H (MI)

Well-known Member
How important is it that the corn planter and the corn head have the same number of rows. This has come up a couple of times lately from respected sources and I thought I would ask for opinions. Here is my situation.

I have an 8 row Cyclo planter that I did a lot of work on these past 8-9 months, got all (OK, MOST) of the bugs out of and it did a fine job for me planting the corn this year. Really nice planter and I have the advantage of knowing it inside and out.

Last month I bought the CIH 1660 that most of you are familiar with. PO stated that it wanted a six row head. Eight would work but really slow. So I want to go six row head in the hopes that I can actually, one day, plant a stand of corn that will choke a larger head.

When I look at my rows I can tell you that my tractoring skills were pretty good. Rows 8 and 9 are generally pretty much the same spacing as rows 1-8. But there are places where I overlap or get too close/far. how important is it to have the same row count on planter and head? Do not the snouts "part the way" regardless of other factors? Will I have losses?
 
It can work ok.....and it can be a major pain in the a$$. Best to get the planter matching the cornhead.....

I always wondered if you go faster with a 6 row head, do you actually get done faster than going slower with a 8 row?
 
It all depends on the person running the planter. If it looks that good, it should be OK.

I have a poly snout 1063 on my 1660. The combine has so much capacity, I think it would handle 8 rows fine. But I wouldn't want any more weight on it. And even with the bin ext. giving me 250 bu. capacity, it fills up fast enough.
 
I have a 1660 and I'm thinking the wheels can be set narrow enough for a 4-row. Ever consider that? That being said, I agree with other poster. What's the difference in a 6-row travelling faster or a 8-row going slower? Same amount of corn going into machine.
 
A bit handier,MAYBE.Doesnt matter as long as guess rows are decent.I started with a 4 row planter and a 3 row combine.Ran that outfit for years.Then I bought a 6row planter.Now I am running a 6 row planter,and a 4 row combine.Those snouts can pull pretty far.......
 
Dave it doesn't work bad but you have to do some creative driving on the headlands with your combine to get it all and not knock it down.
 
If the combine is kept full it should be a toss up.

The place you would gain is less turn arounds, meaning less time.
 
Combine doesn't know how many rows wide your header is. All that matters is amount of material coming in. I prefer having a wider header so I can drive slower. Easier on machine and operator.

As far as planting and harvesting a different amount of rows. It is quite possible even if the planting job isn't perfect. However, the taller the corn is, the easier it is as the plant can bend over farther to get in the head.

As for this year it seems you are having a little difficulty locating a good corn head. If you have a grain platform, it is possible to cut corn with one. You only have a few acres and I believe you said that the corn wasn't real big or thick so it shouldn't be too hard. Not ideal but better than "settling" for a corn head you really didn't want. Just a thought
 
I had heard that was possible. That being said, however, I took a walk out in the corn today. There are two areas in the field that are very poor...waist high or shorter corn. The soils in these areas show that water is pooling there and cannot be far below grade. No standing water, but very damp. The rest of the field is 7-8' tall and looking good. Better than I thought. The perspective was that it was poor but apparently a lot of that is an illusion created by roll in the land. I did better than I thought! I have a 963 located...hoping to go see it very soon. Affordable too. Hope it is a good one.
 
I'm thinking this is one of those "on the job" life lessons. I'll have to get out there and THEN I will know what the score is.
 
Bob, the PO was the one who told me to keep it at 6 row. He said he had to go really slow with an 8 row...it would do it, just slow. The machine is rated for 8 rows and slow doesn't bother me. I guess it would come down to cost. The 963 is about as much as I can spend right now. I put more than my budget into the combine to get a reliable one with rear wheel assist due to the aforementioned damp spots. Not gonna be pound foolish but I have to watch costs for the rest of the year now. By the by...PO was doing 200 bushel corn. Not likely I am going to see that anytime soon unless I tile that lower field.
 
I plant 8 and combine 6. A steep side hill, or right turns you can tell the planter drifted, but it"s still doable.
Josh
 
All comes down to the planter operator. It works, but is easy to miss some corn when the guess row spreads too wide. The end snouts don't pull in as much as we hope. Maybe set your markers in 2 inches, keeps the guess row narrow instead of wide. Seems easier to deal with narrow guess row.

Sounds like you need to save some money up for tile in the future. Like they say, you pay for tile every year, whether you have it or not! You can see the results of not your first year....

Paul
 
If you're looking at a 963 look carefully at the front of the stalk rolls. I know that the 900 series had bronze bushings instead of bearings. Bushings required greasing every 5 hrs. If they are wore out its a pain in the rear to replace them. You have to cut the old ones out with a narrow chisel. On my 944 that I had, the grease lines going to these bushings gave me problems so I did away with them and screwed in a grease fitting directly into the housing.

The 900 series also used an aluminum shaft to bolt the knives to. As they age, the aluminum starts corroding and swelling up. If the knives have a wavy appearance to them this is likely the cause.

Overall the 900 series are excellent heads though. I ran a 944 for 9 yrs on my 1660 and 2366. I was a newbie too when I bought it. Took me a few years to figure out what I was doing but the last year it covered 500 acres and did a lot better job than the brand new 3206 that I bought the next year
 
That's what I want to hear. To be honest, I have no intention of starting from square one with another planter. I like this one and I am in it too deep so gonna do the best I can.
 
Guess row? Sounds to me like most of the time I am going to be fine the way I am going. Some curves and turns I may miss some but the kids can pick that and feed it on the ear to our heavy geese that we raise and use to show when we had a State Fair in this backwards state.

I am seriously thinking about having this one field tiled. It is the wettest field I have and I would be interested in the difference. I am putting a barn up on one end of it and would like to get some water away from that also. Other fields are mostly dry but last winter and the rains this summer (as we all well know) have created some challenging circumstances. It's keeping me honest...better to learn in adversity. It will make the good years so much easier. We still have those from time to time, right?
 
Dave, You will find that tiling will make a day and night difference. When I was a teenager (50+ years ago), we didn't have any fields tiled and I really hated sowing just around the hills. My dad started the tiling and I finished it about 15 years ago. Now I can sow from end to end without ever lifting an implement. It's probably the best investment you could ever make on your farm. Only issue is that you need enough fall so the tiles can drain. Al
 
Hi Al, I would have thought with the proximity to the lake that you would be farming a lot of sand. I am surprised. On my side, I have great soil. Deep topsoil. Sitting on top of a heavy clay base that holds water after a rain in summer. In the right year you will see fields in the county drying badly while everything is lush and growing on our place. We have commented on it a lot at lunch breaks. Fast forward to this year and the picture is a little different. Some of those other fields are looking great and I have areas of corn that, while not standing in water, are certainly not far above it. It is the same with the soy. Patches of yellowing, poor growth...and the soy was planted by the BTO who does the other fields so care is the same. I don't want to mess with what I have in the good years but it is still troubling to deal with the rain in a year like 2014. The field with the corn is the wettest I have. It is a very small field which is why I chose it for the "great corn experiment". But, being small, I can hardly afford to plant it and have 30% lost to poor soil conditions. I think I may have to look into this. Can't be that much to tile a small area like that and I would like to see the results. Do you mind me asking, in general, whereabouts you are? Not looking for an address...just general region of the state. I am betwixt Lansing and Detroit...about midway.
 
For many years when I had my 4400 I planted 6 and harvested 4. It worked fine for the most part. The only time it will challenge you is when the corn is down. Then it's a different story. Downed corn is a challenge for any corn head but if you have a big wind storm and the corn goes down you may have to hold over and only take 4 instead of 6. When you plant you will keep better track of your driving on contours, etc., and also need to get your markers adjusted for proper length, too. All in all you should be ok, but there are periodic compromises you will have to make over having a compatible planter/head combination. Mike
 
Dad was one of the first to tile after the ditch went in in the 1950s. He rain mains to the low spots.

In the 70s he did a little more, making places better, almost a pattern tile in places.

The past 5 years I've done pattern tile in pieces and pockets, one 40 acre field I ran the whole thing pattern tiled. We are going on 80 foot centers.

I would have patches not planted, and many patches of ankle high yellow corn, and many drownouts from this spring.

Instead, I had 10 acres drowned out, and I see 3 small pockets of a tad yellow corn.

Way better than what I consider 'average' for my wet farm, and this was a horrible wet spring.

I have ok topsoil on 120 feet of yellow clay here, rolling hills, potholes every 10 acres.

Tile pays in this soil in this climate. It doesn't dry out the ground, it removes the excess groundwater here.

Paul
 
You must get a lot of migratory waterfowl if you have potholes on the place. Don't know if you find that sort of thing interesting or not. It always makes me curious when I see critter or plant that I don't know. I keep a lot of field guides around and look em up. I'm gonna see how much the local fella will want to tile that field. Looking at the corn in the dryer sections I suspect it would be well worth it.
 

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