He Mounted A Grain Drill On Back Of A Corn Planter

He Mounted A Grain Drill On Back Of A Corn Planter DRILLS Curt Forde an inventor and innovative thinking Western Wisconsin organic crop farmer cut apart and modified a Deere grain drill then mounted the two sections on back of his 8-row 20-in CIH 950 Cyclo Planter He uses the setup to seed oats in rows alongside soybeans and corn which helps shade growing weeds controls erosion and provides green manure when it’s covered or cultivated under To configure his seeding rig for the new planting concept Forde removed the seed discs mounting arms springs and seed tubes from the drill but left the seed box meters end drives and seed drive chains in place He cut the 10-ft box in half so he’d have two 5-ft sections over 4 rows on each half of the planter Forde welded two 7-ft long 2 by 4-in steel beams to each half of the main planter frame to carry the drill sections The beams extend above and over the top of the planter row units Forde mounted the drill boxes facing backwards on the beams with the drive wheels extending down When he lowers the planter into the ground its wheels press against the grain drill tires to drive the meters When he raises the planter the drill meters turn off “It works really well ” Forde says adding that “I mounted the drill sections backwards so when the drill tires contact the planter wheels the drill meters are turning in the right direction ” He set the grain drill meters at 1 bu per acre which seeded about 2/3 bu per acre as he planted rows of oats on both sides of 8 20-in rows of corn and soybeans The lower seeding rate was achieved because he didn’t use all the seed tubes on the original drill Forde says “The oats and corn or beans emerge and grow sooner and faster than the weed seedlings so they quickly gain a canopy advantage over small weeds I rotary hoe the corn and beans preferably two times before and two times after emergence with the second post-emergence pass when corn and beans are about 4 in tall ” His first cultivating pass is when the crop is about 5 to 8 in tall A second cultivating pass when the crop is slightly taller covers the oats or knocks it down so it’s utilized as green manure for the corn and beans He says another option is to not cover the oats with the second culivation leaving it to mature and fall down so it creates mulch that conserves soil moisture Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Curt Forde Profit Organics P O Box 141 Viroqua Wis 54665 ph 608 606-0810; cjforde53@hotmail com

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