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Beginning Farmer - No Till Pointers

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smithhunter1975

Active Member
Starting next year, I am going to start farming one of our family farms. It is only about 100 acres of corn/bean rotation and fortunately I am able to use family equipment. Family operation has always been fall disking corn stubble and field cultivator over everything in the spring. I am very interested in switching to no-till largely based on Skip's and others comments on this forum. I have been doing no-till food plots for several years.....but that isn't saying much. We do not have a stalk chopper but do have a batwing mower - do I need to chop the stalks?

I would greatly appreciate any and all pointers you all can give me for no-till farming. I am literally starting with zero knowledge and experience so even basic information is helpful.

Thank you in advance.
 
Boy where to start.
First you mentioned that you can use family equipment.
B very careful trying to use their existing planters/drills.
They more than likely won't work for no till.
Others will certainly chime in.
 
Farm boy said:
Boy where to start.
First you mentioned that you can use family equipment.
B very careful trying to use their existing planters/drills.
They more than likely won't work for no till.
Others will certainly chime in.
Click to expand...
Thanks Farm Boy. The planter is actually no-till ready/capable. Not sure the model but it is a Deere 12 row and has no-tilled beans 2 years into an old pasture that we're now farming to get it eligible for CRP some day.
 
smithhunter1975 said:
Thanks Farm Boy. The planter is actually no-till ready/capable. Not sure the model but it is a Deere 12 row and has no-tilled beans 2 years into an old pasture that we're now farming to get it eligible for CRP some day.
Click to expand...

Row spacing on that Deere planter? I'd prefer to drill beans, but a person can make do.
 
Planter is 30” rows. Have not been back to the farm to get model number but certain it is a no till. My father checked all that last year as he no tilled into about 45 acres of old pasture to start getting some crop history for future crp.
 
Best advice I can think of is get a good plan in place for spraying. Many failures I see are not getting notill acres cleaned up preplanting. No till planting also takes some patience for letting the ground get “right“. This means waiting another day once the guys with a turbo till ahead of the planter get going.
 
hans1 said:
Best advice I can think of is get a good plan in place for spraying. Many failures I see are not getting notill acres cleaned up preplanting. No till planting also takes some patience for letting the ground get “right“. This means waiting another day once the guys with a turbo till ahead of the planter get going.
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I think your advice above is good, but a drawback of sorts for recreational no tillers, like me, is that schedules do not always allow for the optimal soil conditions to be present before using the drill. Sometimes it is just wet to go, yes, but then the next time a weekend warrior like me can get there...you're running late, etc.

Just a thought for others to think. I love having a no-till drill, but I have run into the scenario above a couple of times now. FWIW.
 
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