Narrow row corn?

[Chris Taylor]

Hi. I have been doing a bit of research on this and it seems that it sounds like a good idea. I have heard the BPA has increased around 11 bushels an acre and chemical prices have dropped $10 and acre. Is this the way to go? I myself can't see switching to it do to you have to buy a new corn head but it sounds feasible. An interesting idea for a display Calmer has done a few studies (mainly to sell their 15'' heads ) on the subject and by just reading about it in the brochure it sounds like a good idea. Im asking you guys to see what your opinions are about the subject. Would you need to put more pounds of nh3 an acre or would you keep it the same? I would love to do a test plot next year just to see if it works as im sure you can harvest with a 30'' head if you absolutely wanted to or if you just put in a small 3-4 acre test plot.

So what do you other farmers think?

[jacoblarson]

22" corn is not uncommon around here. That way a farmer can run one planter for beets and corn. I'm assuming yields are probably slightly lower due to more population. 15" corn might work if you can keep the fungus out from under the crops and if you can get a sprayer that can run on the narrow rows. Same reason beans went from 15" to 30" in most parts of the country. If you are far enough south and have a longer growing season Im sure it would work.

[caseihman94]

A farmer up here does it, but he chops it all.... it seems to work though....

[Chris Colflesh]

nieghbor of mine runs 20 inch rows doesnt seem to be much difference between his yields and mine at 30 inch and i drop about 29500 to 31000 seed per acre and his yields are pretty close to mine not sure of his population the only down fall i see is more parts to service and maintenence on the equipment and also the change over of all the equipment and tires/ tracks to get everything going

[Chris Taylor]

Well what I have read it says that you can harvest with a 30" head (I'm skeptical about that) also you dont have to set tires in or anything (I can believe that as we only have 1 tractor set up for row crop. the rest have 20.8s and we get great yields for our area) also you are supposed to plant at the same pop (roughly 28,000)

www.calmercornheads.com/narrowRows.htm

[Chris Colflesh]

seriously 15 inch rows with a 30 inch header??? sounds like a mess waiting to happen i've done the twin row thing in which is alot less hassle than going to 15 or 20 inch rows and twin rows can be harvested much easier with a 30 inch head thant evenly spaced 15 or 20 inch rows as for the tires with people like my self that have everything set for 30 inch and want to go that way as we post pray with our planting tractor and it has 18.4 tires on in so there for would have to have 2 sets of tires one for spraying and one for planting also there are narrow planters available but the cost in them is still a little pricey and even with the cheap route of setting up an older planter and of course at the same population in narrow rowsyour gonna have a higher yield with more corn in the ground

[mikes]

15" rows? Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen... you'd need a sprayer with tires as wide as bike tires... and you'd almost have to irrigate... sounds like a bigger pain than its worth.

[Chris Taylor]

Well Im not necessarily meaning 15" more like 20" or 22" But I think the twin row would ideal.

[tgolly]

We've done 15" corn for about 8 years now (about 3500 acres/year). Before we switched we did 110 half mile side by side tests over 3 years (dry, wet,avg year). The 15" corn won 109 out of 110 trials, with a 12 bpa advantage. No extra fertilizer, less chemical costs, corn shades the weeds a month earlier. The further north you are in the country the bigger the advantage. The more stressful year the bigger the advantage. No need to change any equipment other than corn head and planter if needed. We spray with a Rogator with 9" tires, you run down some but can't see the tracks after a week or two.

[farmerguy]

The farm I work for switched to all 20" rows last year. Like tgolly said, all of there corn has been canopied for weeks now. The guys on 30" rows still aren't shaded. They spray a pre-emerge herbicide on their corn and thats about it I think. I have read the more plants you put out there and the closer they are together, the better the yield. The whole field catches more sunlight, and you'll get more growing degree days. A lot of farmers around here are upping their pop. for corn to around 34,000, with some going up to 36,000. Right now, me and a friend are working for Iowa State university on some test plots between 20" and 30" rows and in populations ranging from 28,000 to 40,000. I'll let you know what the results are come this fall, Chris!