Thinking about a field...

Soybeans. This would be another first for me. I scored a good working flex head this past summer at auction. I have all the equipment, near as I can tell. Been reading various extension articles on the subject. Michigan State pretty much tells me what inputs to use based on my soil tests. The elevator guy always has recommendations as to what is working for farmers in my area. Looks like the issue in most articles is row spacing...wide or narrow. I can most easily plant 30" rows. I guess there are half row units you can add to some planters to take spacing to 15". Don't know how feasible this is with either the JD 7000 or the Cyclo 800 planters I have here. The Cyclo has two options for drums...one with single holes, the other with double holes. The latter drops two seeds where the former plants only one. When the tenant on the place planted beans he used a drill and they were some bit closer than 15". He seemed to spray a lot and I was never impressed with the result. Interested in any advice anyone might have. Just a smallish field this first year to see how it goes.

Well most tests show you can get just as good yield with 30" as drilled or narrow. So if that's what planter you have, go with it. Plus if weeds get ahead of you, you can always come in with cultivator and at least clean up the spaces.

30, 18, 15, 7 inch, it all works for beans. Select a type of bean that works with the spacing, a branching bean will fill a 30 inch better. Yields will depend on the weather in September, you can't do much about that. Just try to get the best plants you can to September, and see what happens......

Drilled beans will canopy quicker and may have less weeds -if- you get every weed killed early on. But they might get more white mold, which forms in warm damp soil that doesn't get any air movement in mid to late season.

30 inch row spacing rarely has white mold, you likely will have a later flush of weeds but it is rare to get by with one spraying any which way anyhow these days so what's the difference.

If you want 15 inch rows, move your tractor hitch over 7-8 inches, and double back on your same tracks when planting. Set your seed rate to 1/2. Shoup and others sell special sprockets for that if needed. Works great on a few acres.

15 inch (or 18 for folks on wide row planter) is a nice compromise and might be about the best average, but really if you pick an appropriate bean any of those row spacings can win the yield contest any year.

Years ago we had 38 inch rows, I wasn't so happy with that, it could work, but any problems lowering plant density was noticeable right away. Found a 15 inch bean planter cheap, I really liked that, it is a plate planter.

Then I got a 7000 30 inch planter, and my old 15 inch plate planter was really wore. It will cost some to rebuild 15 units so I've put that off....

Anyhow I've gone to planting beans with the 30 inch 7000 with Kinze seed meters. This reduces my seed bill of expensive beans with the metered seed placement as the meters are much more accurate than the old plate planter or the JD bean cups.

And I've had some of the best yields I've ever gotten with beans the last 3 years with the 30 inch rows. (I attribute this to better fertility, finding better seed for my high ph soils, and generally good fall weather. I don't think row spacing is a major factor either way.)

I have the bean planter in the shed and toy with the idea of fixing it up, I suppose 15 inch done right might offer a better potential some years. But really, the 30 has worked very very well.

I've watched my neighbors follow the different fads of bean spacing, 15 years ago you were a poor horses rear of a farmer if you didnt have a bean drill! Now about 85% are back to planting in 30 inch rows, the other 15% are some version of twin row or 15 inch or a very few drilled. But that is 'here' and we do deal with white mold in the area.....

I have heard an IHC cyclo makes a really good bean planter and can do 15 inch conversion really well. People here hated them for corn planting, but a lot got recycled into a bean machine. I have no real experience with a cyclo.....

The 7000 does not easily convert into a 15 inch row unit, the boxes are too big to fit that close and wheel axles often are in the way. Often some version of a modified 7100 is mounted onto the rear of a 7000 to make a split unit JD bean planter.....

The best conversion for a JD 7000 is to buy Kinze or JD bean meters instead of those spilling seed cups, and just plant beans. If you want 15 inch rows on a small scale doubling back is a good experiment on which way you prefer.

In the past we planted beans real heavy, especially drilled to make up for the poor job a drill does, 220,000 seeds an acre was common with bin run before all the saving restrictions, plant enough to be sure and if they crowded it chocked weeds earlier was the thought. Now a days a good planter with good meters you can plant 140,000 an acre and have better yields, with the perfect seed placement and we do better job on weeds in other ways. Cuts way down on the high price of seed!

I don't know much, and haven't tried much, and every neighborhood has different weather or soils so take this for what you paid for it.

Paul

Had this discussion with a respected agronomist a couple years back. We had two rigs, 30 and 10 inch spacing. His recommendation was to run both rigs with the appropriate varieties and get the seed in the ground as fast as possible.

He probably had a newer drill that was on 10" row spacing. Older drills had 6-7-8" spacings.

I used to drill beans. I know it is nominal, but I was always bothered by the amount that I mashed when spraying and foliar feeding micros. I could get stuck in a heartbeat with a 36 foot 455 drill full of beans. I think that big drill was harder on the 4440 than anything else I have ever done to it. It was nice to throw wheat in the ground that wide, but I needed to go no till so I traded it on a 750.

I bought a 1750 12 row a couple of years ago and have never looked back. I can get in without damaging plants right up until full canopy. I cut at a slight angle to the rows so the header feeds well and wears evenly.

I know it is solely opinion, but for me and my farm I am convinced planted beans do better and get a good yield in a more stressed year. I tend to think in my area they lodge easier on drilled rows.

I used my JD 7000 to plant my beans this year. It's set on 36 inch rows. I made one pass over the field north and South. Then a second pass east and west. Planted early 29 April, and got lucky, had spring rains and a couple in June. Was the first guy in the count to combine and got 48 bpa.

If you have a cultivator and want to cultivate them to control the later emerging weeds plant 30" rows. If you want the beans to canopy and help control the late emerging weeds do what Paul says on setting your planter to plant in between. I've done it no-til with a 8 row wide on a 20 acre field, takes awhile and it doesn't look like the best planting right away, you'll have all different row widths but by July it's canopied and nobody is the wizer.

I would stay with 30" rows and the right bean for that spacing and also because you have options then, to cultivate either for weeds or better yet right before a rain which we always found was a great help. Ya just have more options that way.

I would not go wider than 30", the 7000's are hard to meter with small beans, do not know about the cyclo.

Thanks for all the good info! I think 30" rows make the most sense for me. Guess I better keep reading and see how this is going to fit into everything else I have to do in the Spring.

I use to plant my beans with a 7000 4 row wide just plant half rate and do two passes. I did one straight and the other at an angle. Made a cool looking field!. Switched to a 750 drill on 7.5 and now a Kenzie on 15s.