EQUIPMENT SETUPS FOR A DIVERSE NO-TILL ROTATION

Leo Vojta, Mobridge, SD

The following presentation will look at the equipment side of the multiple year diverse cropping system being used on our North central South Dakota farm. Because a successful no-till program is a system, and not an in and out one year a time deal, we will review how the previous years operations can determine the success of the following years crops.

The primary crops grown on our farm include spring wheat, winter wheat, corn, soybean, and sunflower. Other crops that have been grown are chickpea and field pea.

The first crop to begin the rotation is spring wheat, which is planted into soybean or sunflower stubble using a John Deere 750 no-till drill. The drill is a plain box (no dry fertilizer attachment) for additional seed capacity. The drill has been modified to apply liquid starter fertilizer, usually 10-34-0, directly into the seed furrow at about 8.5 gallons per acre. We us a ground driven piston pump with a manifold system to meter the product to each individual row. It is important that the single disc opener and the seed boot be replaced as needed on the 750 drill to assure good residue cutting ability and seed placement or poor small grain stands may be a result.

One of the most important operations in making the no-till system work comes during the harvesting of the small grain crop. Spreading the straw and chaff evenly behind the full width of that combine header is the one thing that has been stressed for years, yet you can looked around the country and see many fields where 30 and 36 ft. wide headers have been used and the residue is spread maybe 20 to 25ft. This residue mat can severely reduce the plant stands of the corn crop to follow, and will surely cause-delayed emergence in these high trash areas, resulting in lower yields. This is especially true in a low disturbance, no-till system like ours. To ensure that we do an adequate job of residue distribution we have made some modifications to our Case-IH combine. First, it is important to maintain good belts on the straw spreaders, and have them set at aggressive enough angle to obtain the desired spread width. We replaced the standard speed drive pulley on the straw spreaders and replaced it with the high speed one. This will make a noticeable difference, especially with soybean straw. Finally, we added a hydraulic driven chaff spreader with a flow control valve. This allows us to adjust its speed to varying crop conditions. Three years ago we decided to take a little different approach to managing our small grain residue and purchased a Shelbourne Renolds stripper head. The idea is that the stripper head is in effect your residue manager. Since the straw is not being taken into the combine it does not have to be redistributed over the field. Results have been favorable, and the additional snow catch is a plus.

Following the spring wheat crop we will either plant winter wheat or corn depending on weed pressure and moisture conditions. We use a Kinze model 2700 planter with 20 inch row spacing modified to no-till into any kind of standing crop residue. We like the 20 inch row spacing because the corn crop canopies the ground very quickly which aids with weed control and moisture evaporation. The main change to the planter was the addition of Dawn combination coulter/trash wheel, which is mounted on each individual row unit on the planter. These units have worked well with no maintenance problems and are very easy to adjust. The one shortcoming of having a coulter in front of the row cleaner is in very wet or high clay soils which tend to stick and roll on to the soil surface . This in turn can mud up the seed opener and cause plugging problems. In these conditions we remove the coulter and just run the row cleaner by itself. In 2004 we will try a new back swept tooth trash wheel design by Dawn, and run two of them without the coulter. The backswept tooth on the wheel is supposed to aid in trash flow between the 20 inch row units. The one real positive aspect of the coulter comes when seeding directly back into corn stalks. The slicing action of the coulter ahead of the row cleaner allows it to move the residue aside more easily and thoroughly resulting in better seed to soil contact.

Our planter is also equipped with a liquid fertilizer system which allows us to place starter fertilizer directly with the seed. The delivery system on the planter is the same as it is on our drill with one exception. The fertilizer tube is piggybacked onto a nylon seed firmer similar called a Rebounder. This runs directly between the double disc seed openers and ensures that the seed is kept a the bottom of the seed trench before the closing wheel firm the soil around the seed. The Rebounders work well and tend to not roll or drag the seed in the seed trench like some seed firmers can.

After the corn crop we will come back and plant corn, soybean or sunflower. We use our Kinze planter and plant directly in between the old rows. Planting our sunflowers and soybeans in rows rather than solid seeding them with a no-till drill or air seeder has resulted in better more uniform stands. This is because we are moving the residue out of the way instead of trying to cut it and plant at the same time. An added benefit is seed cost savings since less seed must be sown to achieve the same plant stands.

During the soybean seeding operation the liquid fertilizer system on the planter is used as the vehicle to place our inoculant in furrow. The inoculant is mixed with non-chlorinated water and applied at about 10 gallons per acre. This method of application allows us to get more inoculum over a wider area of the soil, which is important on first time soybean plantings.

This basically covers the planting equipment we use on our farm. We try to keep things very basic and simple. Sometimes less is more. Try different things on your farm and use what works for you.