He Plants Corn And Beans At The Same Time

He Plants Corn And Beans At The Same Time CROPS New Techniques 8-2-9 An Ohio dairy farmer plants his soybean crop right on top of his corn crop to get high-protein silage that also saves time and labor feeding his 700 head of Holsteins. Bud Meyers, Zanesville, mounted seed boxes from an old Deere 1240 plateless planter between the seedboxes on his Deere Max-Emerge 7000 planter. The 1240 seed boxes drop soybean seed into tubes that deposit seed directly between the Max-Emerge V-openers, several inches behind the corn seed tube. This lets a small amount of dirt fall into the trench before each soy-bean seed is planted so it's at a slightly shallower depth. He plants corn at a rate of 32,000 plants per acre and uses about a bushel of soybeans per acre. Meyers has double-planted for three years. "In 1981 I planted 20 acres of corn and then went right back over it with soybeans. That worked so well I decided to build a planter that would do the job in one trip." The add-on planter units are chain-driven off sprockets Meyers mounted on the Max-Emerge hex shaft. Seed drops out of the seed box into a small square box Meyers fabricated out of a short length of metal box beam. He rounded-up the corners of the inside of the box with gussets and drilled a hole in the bottom. A 45? elbow, inserted in the hole, angles a length of 3/4 -in. plastic seed tube over to the V-openers on the Max-Emerge row units. Meyers designed brackets to support all the cornponents of the add-on planter units. The Max-Emerge was not modified in any way and Meyers still applies insecticides with the planter. When he wants to plant corn alone, he simply unhooks the add-on planter's drive chains. "Cows really like corn-soy silage. There's lots of whole beans in it and, if you harvest it early, there's a good protein in the foliage. It adds about two ton per acre to the amount of forage harvested," Meyers told FARM SHOW. He says his corn crop doesn't suffer at all in the doubled-up fields but that the beans are somewhat smaller due to the lack of sun in the 30-in. rows. He plans to try a "viney" soybean that'll climb up the corn stalks to get more light. To harvest the crop, Meyers uses a Deere self-propelled chopper with a 4-row stalkhead which gets low enough to pick up the soybeans. He has not yet run extensive tests on his corn-soy silage but says that he no longer has to add protein meal to his corn. He also plans to run tests to see if planting soybeans in with corn cuts his fertilizer needs. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Charles "Bud" Meyers, Zanesville, Ohio 43701 (ph 614 674-4366).

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