My attempt at a semi direct maize drill

[matttargett4]

As I have mentioned on here in the past I really can't get on with dd maize with a double disc drill, I'm sure sidewall compaction is the only reason why strip till gives a yield increase, so I decided to try something a little different.

Firstly I wanted to plant with tines, I like the lifting and crumbling action over the smearing compacting action of a disc in wet soil, so I made some tines from 12mm steel with a 75mm wide wing on the bottom, the front runs a half inch or so lower than the rear, I then butchered some old MF Suffolk coulters and welded behind the tine to use as a seed boot. Because I'm cheap and could afford a maize drill to cut up I spent some time experimenting and came up with a design for my own vacuum meter , it's based on a flat gaspardo seed disc I had a set of kicking about, I cut profiles from some scrap galvanised rsjs and bolted them in a sandwich to make a a vacuum space behind the disc, I fashioned gaskets from cork floor tiles.

These seed meters are connected to the boots with a straight steel tube, seed drops vertically down about a foot then hits the ground.

My aim was to try to drill into rye grass stubble after silage harvest, that means super single wheel marks, in my experience nothing grows in super single wheel marks, so I wanted a loosening tine in front, but the seed drop is vertical so I can't use a conventional Clayton type set up or all of the seed will dissapear, I also wanted to band p and k one side of the row and n the other, so my solution was to run a para plow type leg 6inches away from the row on one side and a fert leg six inches the other side of the row, so I get lifted soil but it's also completely us disturbed when it gets to the planting tine, also if there is any deep smearing this isn't in the primary root zone.

I also found I needed a press behind the loosening legs ahead of the planting legs to hold things still.

The depth control for the planting is from wheels after the leg which also provide a small amount of packing.

I'm not sure if I can get my pictures to load but the results are pretty interesting at the moment, unfortunately the weather has been terrible so the silage was still standing on the first of June, the trailers were in 4inches and then the sun came out and the surface has dried really fast, the slots have opened a little , it's clear some kind of horizontal pressure is needed to crumble eh sidewall, also a row cleaner would improve things but for something I made from junk it's a fair stand so far, in the loosened zone I find I can dig down to the depth of the leg with my hands, after 16 days in the ground the roots are already down there, I placed liquid fert in the row on the seed with molasses and biological inoculate, the effect of the fert is incredible, with / without there is easily double the plant with the fert.

I will try to post some pictures and I'm interested to hear opinion as I'm planning the mk2 version for next yr.

 

[matttargett4]

Hopefully some pictures

 

[Badshot]

We'll done, looks to be a good stand there. And after just 16 days in a ploughed and cultivated situation I guess it would be half as advanced.

 

[marcot]

Where did you buy your camouflage paint from?

 

[SilliamWhale]

Looks interesting.

I wouldn't worry too much about keeping the fert away from the seed too radically. It is likely to melt quick enough and unless very high rates you'll hardly get any scorch.

 

[Fuzzy]

A good effort, I bet that took a while to do ! I do like a good workshop project, keeps me from spending too much time on the internet !!!

 

[matttargett4]

Correct, it took bloody ages! If I had known how long before I started I wouldn't have, managed to keep it to evenings and weekends mainly.

The bettinson tank came from a friend of mine from wales who stocks a selection of rusty scrap, it's a grain and fert tank, the rollers aren't too bad but the steel has a job keeping the light out let alone the fert in! I have all of the cassettes if anyone is in need.

The tyre packers are from a semi mounted horsch combi drill off of a terragator, liquid fert is through an electric udder wash pump through a silage additive flow meter.

There are a couple of conventional crops drilled a few days before around, they are quite different.

The limitation on the grass is going to be nutrient availability, it has already supplied enough for 10t/ac of ryegrass, to feed 20t of maize also is a fair ask but it will be interesting to see when it slows down.

 

[Beef farmer]

Any updates to be had @matttargett4

 

[matttargett4]

Nice to know someone is interested enough to dig this back up

Due to a number of things I don't have a substantial area of great maize from the drill, nothing to do with the drill, more my management since planting but there's enough to draw some useful conclusions.

Firstly, it works, no doubt, if anybody ever tells you it's not possible to grow good maize one reduced/ no tillage they are ignorant.

Second, liquid fert, biologicals and sugar in the row works, I will be doing some side by side with 2x2 placement but I'm very confident.

Third, banding n for maize works but needs careful consideration, you need to be careful on the forms, I don't think straight an is really ideal.

Fourth, if you get conditions right, precise planting depth and perfect seed spacing really isn't as important as people make out.

I have three plots I have drilled, one direct to grass, one to knocked down cover crop residue and one to chiselled and power harrowed ground, conventional tillage is a foot taller than the other two plots with are very similar, at depth rooting is no different between the plots, I went down about 3 feet with a 3cx, I could find the layers from previous ploughing and tillage but none of these restricted root growth, maybe because the loosening tine opened them up, in the top 3 inches conventional had more roots, my conclusion from this is that actually if you are going to commit to some tillage then probably the top 3 inches is the place for it.

I'm perusing the idea of vertical strip tillage, I'm really unsure how I'm going to time it but I think it has a chance of working if I can get it right, I wasn't able to plant early enough this yr because it needs to be dry for my system, if I can time my strip making so the first few dry days in May I can be planting that will be a benefit, I also have chance to mix fert into a zone rather than band it, this give the opportunity to use ams to aid soil warm up etc, drill will still be tines with parallel linkage, Deere seed meters and keetons seed firmers running liquid npk and trace elements.

If you want to know anything specific or see pics just ask.

Ps. My only cobs with 18 kernels around this yr are behind this drill!

Matt

 

[Beef farmer]

Ps. My only cobs with 18 kernels around this yr are behind this drill!

As this is what we grow maize for then that's a result, we grow maize under plastic, but under a min-till/non plough system,

Now long till you harvest?

 

[matttargett4]

Do you manage 18 round under plastic? I'd be interested to talk varieties and nutrition with you if you do?

Matt

 

[Beef farmer]

Truth be told, never counted, and it's all in the clamp sheeted and "making" for a few months, will get an analysis done soon, but a pleasing yield, although I do believe we ran out of moisture which restricted our performance, we also drilled it later than wanted, as we can't manipulate the weather. So would hope next year to go a few weeks earlier. All land destined for maize is now in kale to be grazed with lambs. It will then get 50t acre of fym, all worked into the top 4 inches. with out looking I'm unsure on variety we grew, but being an early farm, Nd under plastic we went for a very late variety.

 

[matttargett4]

I have always been sceptical about grazing cover crops thinking the animals are taking things away but I have seen some excellent results locally this yr, I guess it has to do with making the nutrition the crop sucks up more available, but I'm trying it this year.

With varieties the thing I have found is interesting, we plant earlies, we always grow wheat behind so theory is earlier varieties help us out, however we always observe that the early varieties don't make any difference to harvest date, on heat units my earlies should have been ready to harvest a month ago, but they aren't ready yet, but also as I push them harder with npk,s,mg etc etc I am finding they don't react well, I think they have their yield target and will achieve that as long as conditions are reasonable but if you make conditions excellent they go to pieces, I have plants trying to grow 7 cobs at worst, but I don't have any single cob maize, I would love to find some varieties like they have in the us which you can push as hard as you like and just grow one larger ear, also will get taller than ten feet if they wish too.

Matt

 

[Baling Hay]

I have always been sceptical about grazing cover crops thinking the animals are taking things away but I have seen some excellent results locally this yr, I guess it has to do with making the nutrition the crop sucks up more available, but I'm trying it this year.

With varieties the thing I have found is interesting, we plant earlies, we always grow wheat behind so theory is earlier varieties help us out, however we always observe that the early varieties don't make any difference to harvest date, on heat units my earlies should have been ready to harvest a month ago, but they aren't ready yet, but also as I push them harder with npk,s,mg etc etc I am finding they don't react well, I think they have their yield target and will achieve that as long as conditions are reasonable but if you make conditions excellent they go to pieces, I have plants trying to grow 7 cobs at worst, but I don't have any single cob maize, I would love to find some varieties like they have in the us which you can push as hard as you like and just grow one larger ear, also will get taller than ten feet if they wish too.

Matt

Photos please??