Planting soybeens with JD 7000

mauricew

New User
I am a new farmer with only haybaling under my belt. I would like to plant soybeans this year do to the alfalfa being 4 years old. I purchased a JD 7000 4 row planter (38") last week from a retired farmer. My question would be since the planter is not no till, how hard do i have to work the ground. I plan on trying to plant 30 acres on a slight hill (maybe c,d grade). Ps, the planter looks like new, still has factory tags on it.
 
My father no-tilled for 14 years with a planter just like yours with only one modification- he mounted four coulters to the frame, one ahead of each planter unit. These were old plow coulters. It planted beautifully in alfalfa sod, although we did not go very fast.

You are planting soy into what kind of ground? Corn stubble? The alfalfa?
 
I would recommend that you get the singulation units made by JD or Kinze, and throw the bean cups away. You'll get a much more accurate stand, no matter which way you plant. You have lots of options regarding no-til equipment to mount.
 
There was no prep, we planted directly into spring killed sod (Round-up, and 2,4 D). We still do this, and is usually some of our best corn.

Now something you need to understand... that alfalfa, if still a good stand, will supply 150-200 lbs of N if killed. That means there is enough N fertilizer there for a crop of corn WITH NO FERTILIZER! Given this, and given that beans will no utilize this free N, why do you wish to plant beans?

I don't know where you live, but corn following alfalfa is probably the most lucrative crop there is, following marajuana and a couple others. Think about it.
 

The best corn crop I've ever grown was planted into red clover in a secondary bottom. Makes me smile just thinking about that corn.
 
As to the planter and planting beans with it, I have a 7000 with Deere cups and my seed spacing is not great but it is nearly as good as a neighbors who has the Kinze units.
 
Wow, if there was any way to go with corn, that would be _the_ crop to follow an old alfalfa crop with - you are getting 150 lbs of free N for the corn, and chemicals to kill off the alfalfa will be much easier. Roundup can do it, but need a lot.

Really kinda throwing money away by going to beans, unless corn just don't work in your area.

Don't mean to try to tell you what to do, but if you are new to crops, you really need to look at your crop rotation choice?

The singulation meters will cut down on your seed costs, better stand. On 30 acres, it probably isn't so critical, but... they are better certainly.

7000 is a bit of a light planter to set up for rugged notill, but for your acres it should work out well, will spend a few bucks per row but stuff is out there. If the ground is hard some have put sand in the insect boxes (chain off of course) to weight the rows down so the depth goes down good enough.

Shoup is a good source for parts for a 7000, cheaper than JD, more friendly than some of the super-big dealers any more, and parts are just as good. They are online, but the printed catalog is easier for me.

--->Paul
 
Biggest advantage to singulation units is not having to compensate/check/adjust for various sizes for seeds per pound. Set the population for the year....done deal, no matter what the seeds per pound are. I don't believe the other posters with 150-200 ppa N credit- I've always seen about 80 lbs in common literature.
 
The 150 to 200 is the accepted number here in WI. PLease feel free to double check that. The 80 lb number would be for alfalfa only allowed one year of growth-the year seeded. A friend of mine has done lots of cover crop work through both public and private sources, and gets 50 to 60 from Red clover following wheat... in only the growing season from July till freeze! And thats been replicated many times.

The newest numbers would indicate 150 lb the 1st year, another 50 the second year following alfalfa sod. Any extra N for corn following alfalfa (70-80% stand) is wasted money.
 
My experience with old stands of alfalfa is 150-175 bu corn, no N added. (Need to keep the P & K up tho, and my started might have added 10 lbs of N!)

Test strips with NH3 added were no higher in yield.

My soils kinda peaks at 175, highly varriable hills/valleys keep me from ever hitting a good year of weather for _all_ the soil types in a round on my fields. Perhaps if you can regularly top 200bu you'll need extra N, but seems in my clays, the old alfalfa fields add enough N for a typical full corn yield.

Plowdowns, where the alfalfa/clover is a year or less old, don't supply so much.

As always, that is 'here'; different soils, climate, goals can lead to very different needs.

--->Paul
 
I'd plant corn for the resons below, BUT, you do know that 38" rows are not the norm any more? Haven't been the norm for over 25 years. Will you be able to find someone with a combine that has a 38" four row corn head?
 
if you fall kill alfalfa the ground will mellow out over the winter making no-till alot easier than spring killed, too late if you are in a northern state, find some Kinze units,they are worth it, you could probably locate some on Craigslist, just make sure the plates are not worn out, four down pressure springs on the parralel links will do alot,originally the 7000's usually had two per row, Shoup has the kits, make sure the openers are 14.5 to 15 inches in diameter
 
Sounds like this is a one time deal.

Use your bean cups. Double plant at the lowest rate. Double plant by offsetting your drawbar and drive in the same tracks the second pass but going the opposite direction. You get 19" rows that way.
 
And will give you a double plant on the inside row of the turn, and a skipped row on the outside.
 
What yield did your alfalfa produce last year? Do you add P&K on it every spring according to soil sample?
My one field is 9 years olad and the other is 6. Both produced 2.6T this summer in the drought.
Neighbor has great producing 140 acre field and it is 10 years old. P and K added annually.
 
Why beans, i,m in sothern iowa and most farmers around so after a stand of alfalfa you should plant beans. they think its better for the ground.
 
Yield on the alfalfa field was around 1.5 ton due to drought. had the ground soil sam pled this past week waiting for results. I was told that after 4 years the alfalfa poisons the ground so you should rotate. Is this not true?
 
I guy across the road combines 38" rows. I was told that you can slide the units over to make it a 30", is that right?
 
How we did soybeans with a JD 4 x 38 planter. Was we did get the radial bean meters. They will pay for themselves in just a few times of being used. You can usually find four used ones on line or your local dealer may have some. Put a want ad on Graigslist.

Then the extra weight in the insecticide box should be all you need if you are only going to be no-tilling this one time. If you plant to keep doing it then buy a Shoup kit with the heavy down pressure springs. They are adjustable too.

As for row spacing. We would double plant the field. we tried splitting the rows the first year and found it was a real PIA an you ended up running on an entire row at times and making it germinate unevenly. I even made a hitch that was offset. It made turning the one way a real pain. So what we did after that was to just plant the field once like you would corn. Then just cross the rows the second time at an angle. Usually my fields are never square. So plant from one side the first time and chose a different side that makes the rows cross to follow the second time.

The checked planting has worked out well. It had some unexpected benefits.
1) It helps to keep the field from eroding. The water hits a row every 38 inches in any direction.
2) The beans feed into the grain head more evenly then in straight rows. The whole sickle bar is cutting not just the few over the row. The beans don't seem to pile up in the one spot as bad.

I sold my wide row planter to a friend five years ago. I now have a split row 15 inch planter. I like it and we are planting more beans so double planting them would be a pain. The friend still just double plants his beans. He averaged 61 bushels this year. So it does work fairly well.
 
I checked up on the rotation and found that the field was in corn 5yrs ago and it went to alfalfa in 09. do you still think i should go back to corn?
 
a 4rw 7000 has the wheel brackets welded on so if you are going to try to make it a 30" unit some cutting and welding is involved, the jd bean cups are ok if you take time to set it for seeds per feet by trying it on a hard surface but if you wsitch varieties with a differen't seed count you need to re-set it or risk using too little or too much seed, I plant 150,000 in 30" rows, I was one of the later converts to 30" corn in this area, though we had been planting drilled and 19" beans before and quite honestly I had some pretty good 36" corn and never thought there was a night and day difference between 36 and 30 on corn but the 30's canopy quicker and most fertilizer applicators and sprayers are set up for 30", narrow beans help us but the 30's are as good as anything, some areas in Iowa still have a fair amount of wide row beans, as others said corn alf. would be best but if you are goin to put in beans on 30 acres it will work ok, might lose a few bushels but then sometimes it also costs alot "doing it buy the book!" and a few bushels lost might be offset by more machinery or custom hire expense
 
We use a 7200 to plant our beans.Our planter is not notill but we bought 4 coulters and brackets and mounted them on the fertlizer opener bar.We use a wavy coulter(3/4 inch I think).We did add the Shoup heavier down pressure springs which gives two springs on each side of the row.We use the bean cups but I want to switch to meters.We split our rows to give us 19 inch rows which is not hard as you run the center or your hood down the row.For a marker we have a pipe on the front of the tractor with chains that hang down and drag in the outside of the last row,ours can be moved in and out for different row width(Allis Chalmers made the first no-till planters and used this system for a marker).We have seen no emergence issues from driving on the rows.We plant with a narrow front Deere 3020. Last year in late beans we added weight to the fertlizer boxes to help get the coulters in the ground.We planted 70 acers last year,it is slow but it gets the job done with good results.
 
Absolutely not true. I know of another stand that is 12 years old and producing over 4T in an average year. Again, hit heavy with p&k every year. What happens in an old stand is clover and grasse begin to invade. If you are feeding it yourself that shouldn't be a problem.
Alfalfa "poisoning itself" occurs if you try to reseed into an existing stand. It is called autotoxic, and also occurs if you were to try to plant new alfalfa on a previous afalfa crop. So when you do burn it down you follow with corn.
We had a couple days in the high 60's a week ago and there is new green growth at the bottom of the plants. The deer are pounding it. I wonder if that will damage it.
 
An alfalfa plant over 1/2 or 1 year old will be putting toxins in the soil that usually kill any new alfalfa seed trying to sprout that is within 18-24 inches of the old plant.

So you cannot plant new alfalfa seed into a field that has old alfalfa plants growing in it.

After 3 moths of good growing weather and _no_ living alfalfa plants, those toxins go away. But most folks feel better waiting a full year of some other crop befroe replanting alfalfa - it is difficult to kill off every old alfalfa plant quickly.

Both alfalfa and soybeans are legume plants, in the same family. So you use some of the same herbicides, and they are subject to a few of the same diseases/ insects. Both beans and alfalfa use up P and somewhat K, and produce excess N, so they are the same, not complementary on fertilizer use.

If corn is a good crop in your area, like I said below, it would be grass crop, easier to control weeds, insects, and diseases, uses the build up N you have in the ground, and in most places, it pays off better than beans - tho yes it does take more money to get it growing.

Don't know where you are located so don't know which crop is right for you, but in most situations corn is a much better crop behind 4 year old alfalfa than beans would be.

--->Paul
 
Gordo.The tonnage is still there but I bet the alfalfa stems look like soybean stalks. I bet the TDN is way down with a stand that old.

For beef hay that is fine. Dairy guys want high TDN. Just depends on your needs.
 
If It was me, and planting into alfalfa or clover, I'd go with corn the first year, follow with winter wheat at harvest, and double crop short season beans at wheat harvest. If you can't follow corn with wheat, do the full season beans the following year. A set of frame mounted notil coulters or unit coulters will definately help. With the BFO's going to larger planters, there should be plenty of these units available on the used market for about $100 each.
 

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