Corn planters

[hondo1892]

Do any of you guys plant food plots? I've wanted a corn planter for a few years now. Most of the small ones(one&two row planters) go for big bucks. I was checking out ebay last night and seen a two row Burch brand planter for only an arm, I could keep my leg. I know very little about planters. I'm tired of trying to do it by hand it never works out well unless I spend lots of time planting. I don't have lots of time right now. What I'm getting to is what brands of planter's are worth sinking hard earned money into. Easy to work on and find parts for. I see a lot of JD's but they usually go for more than I have to spend on one right now. I would like to find one locally but I live in tobacco country and don't see old small corn planters often. Also will a corn seed plate work for soy bean seed? I don't really have the money to spend on one right now but if I found a good deal I would scrape up the money somewhere. College tuition is sucking our bank account dry.

[rossim92]

come look around in southern md. Still plenty of farms here but slowly dieing. Some people use them for lawn decorations. all painted up and spiffy. quite a few farm implement dealers that buy out equipment and sell retail.

[octagon]

Used farm implements are usually dirt cheap around here. To get a good deal you might have to travel out of tobacco country and trailer something back.

[BigSky56]

what size acreage are you planting is it for food or forage for animals. northerntool.com has a couple adjustable 2 row planters for 6-800$ one is a pull behind the other is a 3pt tractor hitch. your local soils conservation county level might have drills to use or rent or go to the state last is the federal level. danny

[Blaine]

Grandpa used one of these. He'd run stakes and string. If you're doing a game food plot, why do the rows have to be so straight?

[hondo1892]

I plant two fields most years. Both are small but bigger than most gardens so I need a small planter two row at the most. It would be for my deer mostly.
Blain it would take to long for me to use one of those hand held planters. Your right my rows don't need to be straight.
I've tried broadcasting the seed and disking it in but don't have as good of a crop as when I actually make rows and cover the seed. But doing it with a hoe is too time consuming.

[765x53]

When I was a kid, Dad had a wood and cast iron planter similar to this. http://www.ruralking.com/earthway-preci ... 1001b.html

[AJMD429]

In many places you can rent them from some of the 'farm stores', or your County Extension Agent....that way you can get a spreader or drill specifically tailored to what you're planting, without the expense.

[M. M. Wright]

Our Soil Conservation office here in NE OK has a no-till planter they lend out. Your corn plates will probably drop 2 beans at a time. I doubt that will matter to you.
I have an old planter that drops corn and peas in the same row so the pea vines climb up the corn stalks.
See if you can find some "Red Ripper Cowpeas". My deer really love them and I like eating them too. Actually, they go pretty good with venison.

[BenT]

Whitetails unlimited will give you corn to plant for free and give you contacts of people who can plant it for you or acess to a planter to use. i would check with them.

[hondo1892]

Thanks for all the info guys. I'll check some of the sources out and see what I can come up with.

[Blaine]

Our Soil Conservation office here in NE OK has a no-till planter they lend out. Your corn plates will probably drop 2 beans at a time. I doubt that will matter to you.
I have an old planter that drops corn and peas in the same row so the pea vines climb up the corn stalks.
See if you can find some "Red Ripper Cowpeas". My deer really love them and I like eating them too. Actually, they go pretty good with venison.

Grandpa tried corn/beans a couple times....

[plowboy 45]

You need a one row spring tooth cultivater three point hitch, with a covington TP 40 planter and fertilize hopper
8 hole plate for corn
I like a 16 hole plate for peas or soybeans
You should be able to find a used set up reasonable, and it might even come with some extra plates
And you can buy every part for it individually
You'll need 5 shanks, a leed plow ahead of the planter and fertilize dropper, this one will be stiff, then water fer spring shanks with plows, then track plow shanks and plows
It should come with all the shanks
Hope this helps


PLOWBOY

[2571]

"If you're doing a game food plot, why do the rows have to be so straight?"

You'll attract none but slovenly deer with crooked rows. lol I plant my two feed plots with a Jesus-broadcast.

But, tell me, why is it important to have really straight rows with machine harvested corn?

[Blaine]

"If you're doing a game food plot, why do the rows have to be so straight?"

You'll attract none but slovenly deer with crooked rows. lol I plant my two feed plots with a Jesus-broadcast.

But, tell me, why is it important to have really straight rows with machine harvested corn?

To get farm machinery down the rows for different things.....A farmer should be along shortly to expound on that.

[M. M. Wright]

Ok Blaine, I'm here but I haven't planted beans or milo for probably 20 years other than feed plots. I have only 18 acres of arable land so I farmed with an A John Deere and the implements that went with it. I plowed, disced and then planted in 1 meter rows which allowed me to put the cultivators on the JD and plow out the weeds from between the rows. The A will do three middles at a time. There even plows behind the tires to plow out your tracks. Now days you spray with fertilizer and weed/grass control and plant "no till" and your beans look cleaner than what I used to do.
The old way was labor and fuel intensive but I enjoyed it. Now I'm lucky to get in 4 or 5 acres of peas for the deer which they quickly eat off to the ground so they get very few peas, just vines.
I like to plant some late season turnips which the deer really like. If I get some hogs in my area they will no doubt like the turnips too.
There was a time when we planted corn in "check rows" which let you cultivate in both ways thus getting almost all the weeds out of the corn. It required a knotted wire stretched across the field to trip the 4 or 5 kernels at exactly the right time so the rows crossed in straight lines. That way you got a "hill" of corn that you could hoe by hand after cultivating both directions. This was horse drawn technology though.

[2571]

"If you're doing a game food plot, why do the rows have to be so straight?"

You'll attract none but slovenly deer with crooked rows. lol I plant my two feed plots with a Jesus-broadcast.

But, tell me, why is it important to have really straight rows with machine harvested corn?

To get farm machinery down the rows for different things.....A farmer should be along shortly to expound on that.

I'm referring to 12" +/- deviation.

You are , of course, correct about wide broadcast planting.

[RKrodle]

You need a one row spring tooth cultivater three point hitch, with a covington TP 40 planter and fertilize hopper
8 hole plate for corn
I like a 16 hole plate for peas or soybeans
You should be able to find a used set up reasonable, and it might even come with some extra plates
And you can buy every part for it individually
You'll need 5 shanks, a leed plow ahead of the planter and fertilize dropper, this one will be stiff, then water fer spring shanks with plows, then track plow shanks and plows
It should come with all the shanks
Hope this helps


PLOWBOY

I just picked up a Covington planter with cultivator for $700.00, used one time. The fellow bought it for his Father-in-law, the FIL had a very small garden and decided it was more trouble than it was worth. I also have an older Cole ( nonflex) that I don't care for, it has a knife opener instead of disc openers and doesn't work well in our soil. A lot of the food plotters are buying up the old JD 71 flex planters, very reliable and they work. The 71's have gotten hard to find and when you do they are expensive. Most of the 71's were used for corn and soybeans but other plates are still available. There are several older brands of planters that should work just as well but it may be harder to find plates for anything other than corn. The food plots I have done in the past I just disced with a tractor, then broadcast the seed( usually a combo of rye/wheat, turnips, clovers and such), broadcast fertilizer, then dragged a chain harrow over it. A cultipacker would also benefit the seed but by the time I was finished I had drove over the field with my UTV enough times that it did the same thing. I always tried to time all this right before a good rain. The going price around here for planters in usually $800 to a $1000 per row for used.

[crs]

" If you're doing a game food plot, why do the rows have to be so straight?"

The food plots that I have been involved with did not include corn and the Texas Game Wardens suggest a mix of browse seed. We just mowed, disked, pulled a seed spreader, and either disked again or pulled a drag harrow over to cover the seeds. This has worked well for me.

RKrodle did some of the work on our Hunt County lease and the planting took hold and was good for 2-3 years.

[RKrodle]

Not sure of the durability or how will they work but how about something like this.

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/ ... oCDufw_wcB

[geobru]

http://www.agrisupply.com/product.aspx? ... zmap=32511

I use one of these, but I'm only planting eight 70 foot rows. Once you get the ground tilled and ready, it takes about 15 minutes or so.They come with different seed discs, which adds to the versatility.
I never saw the scale of your planting in the posts to see if this option is viable for you, but I might've overlooked it.... It is late and I'm getting tired.