Corn Planter (No-till)

Hi there,

could some of you from the corn belt give me a few hints on no-till corn planters. I am thinking about a 4 row 25 inch with high fertilization rate - about 800 kg dry her ha, used or new.

Thanks for your help,

Ming

First of all it will be easier to find a 30" 4 row planter than 25".

You may be able to narrow a 30" down some.

I would look for a JD 7000, 4 row 30".

4 row 38" will be cheaper and easier to find still.

Just make sure it has notill coulters and dry fert. and you should be good to go.
Gary

Hello Ming. I'm not from the corn belt, more from wheat country.

The problem that may arise with an answer here is that a 4 row planter is very small in this part of the world, even for no-till planters which require more engine horsepower to pull.

This site might provide you with some information and shows photos. http://www.cedarmeadowfarm.com/OurEquipment/NoTillPlanter.html

Best wishes for many more replies.
This site might give you some basics.

Ming, I only know of one planter that can get down that narrow and that is an Allis Chalmers 77 or 78 unit which can go down to 20inches and each unit drives from it's own press wheel and the units mount on a 3" X 3" heavy steel tube thus the name 333 Allis no till planter front bar has the no till coulters mid bar helps support the fertilizer tank or box and back bar is where you mount the planter units. As far as fertilizer rates I don't have my conversion book with me so you will have to convert hectacres to acres and kg to pounds and is it liquid or dry? There is a big difference in weight. I left the business in the early 80's so I don't know when Allis Chalmers quit making planters. I'm not sure how many are left a lot of them were cut up to go to China for the steel demand go figure. I guess what goes around comes around.

Look for a JD 7000 4RN (That's narrow). as opposed th the 4RW which I own. The 4RW has a 36 inch minimum space.
You'll have to install the heavy duty downsprings, and ante up for no til Vetter coulters. Start hawking the auctions for them now. You DON"T wanna buy those puppies retail!
You will only get down to 30, perhaps 28 inches though. What kind of combine you going to use?

Gordo

One thing you will find is that a 4 row planter is rather light in weight and will require the addition of considerable weight under tough no-till conditions. As the fertilizer boxes empty, the planter gets lighter and will start to slide the drive wheels. Installing a 200 gallon tank for water would allow you to vary the weight, depending on your conditions. If you want to go down to 25 " rows, I would suggest a double frame planter(Deere, White , Kinze and others build them) as you can vary the row width to anything above 15".

Location please.

JoshuaGA

Hi All,

Thanks for your comments and suggestion. Let me clarify my situation here. We are promoting no-till in northeast China where corn and soybean are two major crops. Soils a mollic-like type similar to the soil in the corn belt. We bought a Kinze3000 (4 row) few years ago; it works great in the region. Farmers, as well as the government, are eager to extend notill acreage in the region. However, we have two problems here:

1. Instead of 30 inch of row spacing, corn is seeded on a row spacing of 25.9 inch (65 cm). Changing row spacing is something very difficulty - each household might have only few rows of land.
2. More and more farmers are applying fertilizers (many using slow-release N) once as the starter, so few farmers are side-dressing corn. The application rate is about 800-900 pound per acre of dry granular, which Kinze 3000 can not handle.

Kinze 3000 is good for testing no-till but is not suitable to farmers. We need a planter which can work on heavy corn residues as well as meet about two requests. We know big manufacturers do not produce this kind of planters now in the states. I know that Vence Tudo's planter can narrow the row space down to 25 inch; however, I have no idea how reliable this planter is. All suggestion are welcome. If someone has knowledge and ability to build this kind of planters in China, it would be great to Chinese as well as to the world. There is a great market potential for ag-equipment in the region.

Boy, hate to burst your bubble here... although a yield increase for you would be good for the corn/soy consumers it is bad for the rest of the farmers of the world! You know, supply and demand! The more you make the less mine is worth. I don't want mine to be worth less.
Anyways, I think probably most planters can be narrowed down to 25.9" rows. The only place you may have a problem would be around the carrier/drive wheels. Really, only needing to move in 4" shouldn't be a problem. Would have to adjust some things here and there. So what is the reason for 25.9" rows. How is it harvested? Pictures?

Many plant 20 or 22 inches around beet growing areas. Most planters have clamp on row units and are pretty easy to adjust. The difficulty is getting that much fertilizer on the planter.

What do they use to plant with otherwise? What type of planter? I would think it would be easier to bolt on some no-till equipment onto the exsisting planters in that country. Dawn, Hiniker, Martin, and the other 3rd party notill suppliers would be more likely to build mounting adaptors for Chineese planters, than for a planter manufaturer to build a specialty whole planter.

This assumes you already have corn planters in China, and not doing in manually...

I will agree - China getting better at growing corn & beans does not help us, especially us farmers, here in North America. We are in competition.

--->Paul

Get a hold of Kinze Manufacturing and tell them what you need.

He can build one to get more fertilizer on.

If there is enough demand he will build it.

Gary

ahha, I am forgot that we are in competition. Don't worry, you know the NT is most likely not going to increase corn yiled compared with the conventional tillage, like that in northern part of the corn belt. However, notill sure would help them saving work loading and restoring soil sustainability. People from the world (Austrial, Europe, Islael..) are seeking oppotunities there by orferring them some kind of help.
Your help are greatly appreciated. I am going to talk to no-till planter makers 3rd party notill suppliers about our need. Thanks again!

JeoBob: most harvest are done by hand and harvester is surfacing. see attached photo.

Joshua: jilin, Liaoning and Heilongjiang provinces in northeast China[/img]

In addition to Kinze, contact Great Plains Mfg, Inc. They make some of the largest no-til planters in the world. They trick is going to be in convincing them that there is a large market in your country for this type of machine.