Need no till help!!

[UncleBubb*IH]

Due to rising fuel costs and those outlandish fertilizer cost we are thinking of trying no till this year, we havent in the past because my grandpa is old school, and I am a little scepticle because some guys here in southwestern Ohio no tilled last year and do to the drought lost there butts. We have a 900 IH Early riser, cyclo- air, its capable of no till but we dont have the coulters to set it up. I was wondering if anybody has any pictures or ideas of how they set up their own equipment or know of any websites, dont really have much money to throw in it right now. All help would be appreciated, thanks.

Bubb;
Keep the dirt flow'n and the smoke blow'n!

 

[HENRY E NC]

Did no till in SC for three years and gave it up. Better to make several passes with the disc. Much better yield. Some areas with very rich soil can get away with it but we couln't. Henry

 

[Clint Youse MO]

No til guys around here spend a lot of money ion Chemical and more in fertilizer than the guys that till it cost about the same either way

 

[Anonymous-0]

Thats another thing, our farm sits on a hill and all of our fields have slope to them. I chiseled one field last fall and I went down there the other day and the water flowing washed about a four foot swath of top soil away. Its down to the hard pan and you can see exactly where the chisel went through.

 

[CumminsMan]

A good place to start would be your CaseIH dealer. See if they would happen to have some used coulters/brackets that are take-offs or if they have a planter that has them and try buying them off of it. Websites, check out yetter, or type no-till attchments into google. Tons of options. Might also want to consider trash wheel/ no-till coulter combo.

 

[Christos]

Uncle,

Try your local Soil and Water District - I go to school in Dayton but the SWD back home (Licking County) and the OSU/County Ag Extention office might be able to help you pick out the best method for your land.

They also, in the case of Licking County have equipment you can rent at a nominal fee. Just think of getting your tax dollar's worth.

While you're there...pick up a copy of your County's soil map. I got one of mine and it shows my farm and the different types of soil that exist on it - which since you have fields on a slope might be useful to determine which crops to plant this year to combat erosion.

just my two drachmas

Christos

 

[Anonymous-0]

We also have a IH 900. Don't buy coulters, purchase residue managers/trash wheels/trash wippers instead. The floating and fixed types are available, with the fixed being the older type. Expect to spend around $125/row for used ones unless you can find them at an auction. Most around here use Yetter, but Dawn, Martin, Sunco and others are as good and might be better. We are seriously considering removing the OEM closing disks and substituting spiked ones. This would help close the seed trench. Currently we have the closing wheel spring on maximum down pressure which works OK but there seems to be room for improvement. Set the planter units down until they are in the middle or a little deeper of the available "stroke". This gets the springs into the action and will give more available down pressure. Make sure the seed boots are not worn along the bottom edge and will produce a good "V" slot. Use a leading seed opening disk with the bevel to the inside rather than the outside to improve ability to cut thu trash. Don't change the secondary opening disk. We installed Schaffert rebounders which seem to provide some seed spacing benefit.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Call THE Company in Mt. Pleasant....ask for Brian.
He is the man on no-till parts and attatchments!
319-385-3114

 

[rrlund]

I've had limited success with it here in Michigan too and I have a "no-til special" planter. It really depends on the ground. Lighter,well drained soil,works great.Anything else,it's more cost effective to chisel or even modlboard plow. The increased yield more than offsets the added expense. With costs being what they are,I can't afford to grow a bad corn crop.

 

[wdct630]

zone tillage works best for us gives a nice tilled strip set on ur row spaceing found better results then no till and does save money cornell in ny has done tremendous work on studys use a web search and check it out
zone builder

 

[buickanddeere]

Gave up on mouldboard ploughing or heavy chisel ploughing. Bought a V ripper and it breaks up the soil. Now if and when it rains. The water soaks in instead of running off.
The soil is left well disturbed. In the dry summer it lifts chunks and breaks them.
The fields were heavily compacted from both being clay and no-till.
It even works for burying water line and electrical conduit/cable.

 

[thurlow]

Because so much of our land was HEL, we were 'forced' by the guv'mint into no-til in the mid to late 80's.......if we wanted to participate in the various farm programs. Except for breaking out terraces, haven't been hooked to a breaking plow since; there is a 6-bottom and 2 5-bottoms rusting away in a fence row. There're worth scrap iron prices around here and eventually I'll need to do something with them. We were all dry-land, but got 45-48 inches rainfall annually. Would never go back to conventional tillage. When I started no-til, A-C had the planter market sewed up around here, but the dealers are all gone and J D, C IH and Kinze rule.

 

[Keith in NW MO]

Most failure at No-till is from ground to wet.
If it is damp don't go out there. I don't care if everyone around you is running if its wet dont do it. Combining is the same, if you aren't a patient person no-till may not be for you.

 

[TractormanNC]

I started no tilling corn and soybeans way back in 1975. Paid for my no til planter doing custom work. Saves time, fuel, soil, water, plus me and my equipment stays a lot cleaner.

Took me a long time to believe you could grow wheat no til, but some of my best wheat crops were no til.
Heck, I have even planted orchard grass no til!

I understand that some soils are not suited for no til, hardpan, drainage, etc. Check with extension or other local farmers on this.

One last thought, If you start, don't give it up for at least 5 years. It sometimes takes that long to reap the benefits of no til.

Hope this helps

 

[super99]

OK, here's my 2 cents worth. You didn't say what crops you raise, but I'm guessing corn and soybeans. I'm a partimer, 65 acres, usually 1/2 corn and 1/2 beans, all HEL ground in Illinois. I started out with no-till coulters on my White 5100 planter and it worked planting corn into bean stubble, but the stands weren't always the best. For cornstalks, I usually dics 2 times and plant beans. I would recommend planting corn into bean stubble notill, try disking part of your cornstalks for soybeans. Try a few different methods with the equipment you have to see what works best for you. Maybe hire a neighbor to drill some Roundup beans notill? Wait till the ground is dry and warm enough, notill don't work in mud, trust me on that one. Last year I decided I needed row cleaners instead of coulters, Lucked out and got this set at a sale for $50. Worked great, but you need to keep adjusting them for different field conditions. You will need to keep on top of things spraying, don't wait too long or yer screwed. Watch the sales for row cleaners or look for used ones, someone is always coming out with a newer and bettersetup and some guys just have to have them, so there are used ones out there. Good luck, ask questions. Chris