Planters Flex 71 No-Till

[BrianR]

Well....I decided to get off my butt and add a 16" 13 wave Yetter No-Till coulter to my 1-row Flex 71 planter. Just have to finish the mounting brackets at the toolbar and it should be ready to roll in the spring.

Last month, I chisel plowed and both gardens and then disced them smooth. Then I broadcast white winter wheat seed and disced again. In the spring I will spray with Glyphosate (Round-up) to kill of the wheat and then no-till my sweat corn, peas and green beans with the planter.

Next I will build a spiked closing wheel assembly to bolt in place of the rear drag chain.

 

[BrianR]

Well....took the planter out into the recently harvested corn field and tested with the no-till coulter. Works great! Added 80 lbs of weight to the toolbar and the coulter is cutting about 4 inches deep, so I have plenty of adjustment as far of depth.

Seed openers are making a nice seed trench too. All I need now is the proper closing wheel for the planter. Needs to have a ridge in the middle of the wheel to firm up the seed trench.

 

[Grateful11]

You've got my curiosity up. My wife's operation has a 2 row 71 with the big fertilize box attachment on the front and herbicide applicator boxes on the rear of the planter. The fertilize attachment is never used. Her plan next season is to utilize the fertilize attachment to save some money on fertilize by not having it spread then start spraying instead of cultivating like in the past. There's so many invasive weeds around here now I told her she's wasting her time and money on a corn crop, she lost the entire crop last season due to weeds, early excessive heat and dry conditions. So her plan this coming season was to break and prep the ground as usual and plant her corn and then wait for the weeds to pop and hit them with glyphosate. Now that we've seen your setup it's got her thinking. She's already planted 40 acres of Oats and needs to plant close to 10 acres of corn, she'll bale 30+ acres of Oats for hay for her 50+ head of cattle and will Combine about 10 acres of Oats to grind with ear corn for feed. The operation can't swing a small no till corn planter. She did purchase a new JD BD1108 Box Grain Drill this year to replace a nearly 40 year old Drill. She also plants millet for hay.

Keep us informed on how well this setup works.

 

[BrianR]

Grateful11,

Sorry, I have been so busy with work, scouts, daughter in college and garden/yard work that I totally forgot about some of my posts on here.

As for how well the Flex71 planter works in a no-till capacity, I will say that I like it so far. I have used it like this for 9 years now and no problems yet. I did recently switch to roundup ready Seminis Performance series sweet corn, so now I can no-till plant my sweet corn, and burn down the weeds with roundup within a few days of planting. I still try to work up the gardens whenever mother nature allows me to, but if we get a wet, busy year where I am not able to work the ground.......I no-till it!

BrianR