Planter Attachment Advice From Veteran No-Tiller

Planter Attachment Advice From Veteran No-Tiller NO-TILL EQUIPMENT No-Till Equipment 18-3-39 Illinois farmer Terry Schneider has been 100 percent no-till farming for 11 years on his 2,200 acre corn and bean farm near Shirley. He recently visited with Dave Ernst, managing editor of "No-Till Farmer" about new planter attachments. He says one of the most common mistakes new no-tillers make is using too much equipment, especially when planting corn into soybean stubble. "There's usually no need for residue removers when planting corn into soybeans," says Schneider, adding that an 8 to 13-wave no-till coulter is all that's needed under most conditions. But he notes that there's no one coulter that works the same under all conditions. Last year, Schneider ran his planter with 8, 12, 13 and 24-wave coulters. Each coulter type performed better than the others in different parts of the field. He has also looked at Yetter's new 25-wave coulter. He feels it has possiblities but thinks it's too thin - at 3/4 in. wide - because it doesn't fracture much soil outside of the 3/4-in. track. The only coulter Schneider doesn't recommend under any conditions as a single no-till coulter is the bubble type. "If you're going to use a bubble coulter all by itself, you're better off not using anything at all," he says. "it's an excellent coulter for minimum tillage because it's designed to firm soil that's been worked up. For that reason, it also works in front of the double disk opener as part of a 3-coulter zone-till attachment similar to Ray Rawson's. But forget it as an opening coulter." In most soils, Schneider says no-till coulters should run 1/4 to 3/8-in. shallower than planting depth. That prevents air pockets from forming in the seed zone. He adds that no matter what kind of coulters or other attachments you have on the plainer, it's critical that the planter be set uniformly parallel with the ground. If it's running on its nose or heel, proper adjustment of planter attachments is difficult. No-tilling into cornstalks is a different ball game. Schneider has some ground that's been in continuous corn for 17 years. Every year he moves over half a row and plants between the old rows. He runs starter fertilizer coulters on either side of the row about 5 in. apart followed by a row-clearing trash clearer and coulter combination. He says you should only try to clear away residue, not work up the soil. "Some literature may tell you running coulters 3 to 4 in. deep creates a nice seedbed, but it also creates a nice irrigation canal," he notes. (No-Till Farmer)

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