Planting soybeans

With all the rain lately I have time to think ahead to next year. We currently use a JD 7000 planter with radial meters to plant in 30 inch rows. I am thinking about jumping population to where I think 15 inch rows would be better. We had an IH 5100 soybean special years ago and was not very happy with the results on heavier ground (openers draft shallow despite cylinder and calibration with varying seed size). Good used no till drills are out of my price range. Anybody using splitter-type planters out there? Would like to know opinions on White air planters as well as Kinze, Deere, or home made. My 7000 has the 5 x 7 frame so I don't think it is heavy enough to do a splitter.

I am in eastern SD i have seen about everykind of planter set up you can think of we have tryed 6 in spacing with reg drill and press drills 12in and 15in and30in have also tryed no till drills and air seeders most everbody has gone back to using corn planters 30in spaceing and plant pob at 135000 to 160000 yeald as good as any other way and this saves the cost of a bean planter

I agree that after all the experimenting is done the 30 inch rows come up on top.
Having said that I have seen where people added another tube in back and got their 15 inch rows that way using a 7000 planter I used the Kinze bean units and got along with them pretty good.
Still have them and the planter in the shed.

I dont know were in NY you are, but I saw in the Country Folks today a JD8350 soybean special grain drill for $1000. bucks , dont know anything about them thought. Phone # is 315-263-8901 JinNY

The data tends to support the better ground does as well with 30's as more narrow spacing. Not true on less desirable soil which shows an advantage for narrow spacing. Even with good ground one needs to consider how quicker the rows canopy with narrower rows. Might be able to avoid a second spray. But 30's are sure easier to spray without running over the crop. I really like the White planter. Seriously considered getting some type of a split row unit, but decided I didn't like hauling unused weight around when planting corn which occures with many models. This isn't an issue with the machines that have half of the units fold behind and do the split planting. Also a consideration was the total cost. I could get a no-till drill and 30 inch planter for less than 2/3 the price of a splitter and have two machines share the planting wear. I went with the no-till drill and 30 inch planter with dry fertilizer. Might consider trailing a second 7000 behind yours to do the split planting. In the past this was quite common and you can purchase a unit with all the modifications done. A cyclo makes a great bean planter because spacing is not as critical as with corn and you can buy them cheap. Just takes time to marry a couple together to construct a splitter. Many have already done this and occasionally you can find them for sale.