He Seeds Cover Crops While He Combines

He Seeds Cover Crops While He Combines COMBINES Accessories Cover crops save the soil crowd out winter weeds and feed and protect the coming crop says dedicated conservationist and no-tiller Ray McCormick With his combine header-mounted Gandy Orbit-Air applicator he has eliminated the need to make a second trip to plant the cover crop “In the past we seeded winter peas with an 1890 Deere CCS air drill in a separate pass ” says McCormick “Last year we didn’t get the Gandy unit put together until the third week of October so we had fields seeded both ways We got as good a stand with the Gandy as with the air drill We will probably do 75 to 80 percent air seeding with the header this coming year ” McCormick had done plots using a hand seeder ahead of the straw spreader They convinced him air seeding would work However the seed had to be placed under the residue for good emergence That meant hanging it on the combine and the only available place was on the header Mounting it was relatively simple McCormick made a support frame on the backside of the rail header rail using 1 1/2-in steel tubing A piece of U-channel iron welded to the Gandy frame let him attach it to the rail with set screws “We ran the hoses behind the header and underneath the corn head’s snapping rollers ” says McCormick “I tied the Gandy unit into excess ports on the quick connect unit for electric and hydraulic connections When I pull the lever to disconnect the header I disconnect the Gandy as well ” This year McCormick will be trying out a prototype low profile Gandy applicator It will allow him to mount it to the grain platform and reverse the hoses to come out the back It will also make it possible to open the top without interference from the grain reel McCormick notes that even if there was room for the Gandy unit to be mounted to the combine it would require disconnecting up to 12 hoses from the header each time the header was changed The Gandy could be switched to another header simply by removing the set screws However McCormick figures his cost savings and the benefits of cover crops will more than justify a second Gandy unit “It will pay for itself in a year in time and energy ” says McCormick He notes that using the Gandy does mean he has to use small seeded cover crops Last year he seeded only annual rye with the Gandy This coming year he will plant annual rye crimson clover and oilseed radishes on fields going into corn Annual ryegrass and rapeseed will be seeded to corn fields going into soybeans in 2013 Plus with the small seeds he gets a lot more acres per hopper fill Large seeded or small McCormick knows what a cover crop is worth “Our state agronomist estimated cover crops saved about 50 bu per acre during our drought and extreme heat ” he says “With our peas and grass cover crop this year we made nitrogen at the rate of about a pound a day ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Ray McCormick 6751 S McCormick Rd Vincennes Ind 47591 ph 812 881-7321; mccfarms@myechowireless com

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