Planting corn question

A guy in our neighborhood does that.  Bought a new planter, went from 12 row to an 8 without fert attachments.  Plants about 1/3 more acres in a day with the 8 row than he did with the 12 due to time savings from not filling fertilizer too.  I suppose you still have to figure the time you'd spend broad casting it or paying to have it done.  I think he said he puts half on in the fall then finishes the last half of his fert application in the spring.  I don't know about changes in yield?  I'm going to experiment and try 30 acres by that method this spring (2011). 

At one time, you used to see a lot of guys having liquid fert applied with the planter. Today I rarely see that. I think most spread it in the fall in front of the chisel plow. I don't know about no-tillers.

From a no-tiller's perspective: I put down starter fertilizer in the furrow and 28-0-0 in between the rows all in one pass with the planter. Only pass I make, except for spraying and combining. Darrel

Most guys here in Iowa put on Anhydrous Ammonia in the fall or the spring ahead of the planter and broadcast the rest dry either fall or spring depending on the weather. I still put starter on with my planter cause Im to chicken to mess with the gas.

I do a few test plots every year.  It really depends on the year.  Last 2 years, there was absolutely no difference in yeild.  I use to put 6 gal per acre on in furrow in no-till.  I also apply 11-52-0 at 100 lbs plus some added stuff.  About 5 years ago when I first started soil testing and using starter, I felt the corn needed the boost due to lower nutrients in the ground.  I went to a different planter this year and don't have the liquid starter stuff on it.  I feel I'm better off with dry than the in furrow system.  With that said, last year I swore that there was going to be a 20 bushel less yeild difference with the check strip.  You could see the difference from the next hill over.  But the weight wagon proved me wrong.  2 years ago there was no difference in yeild but the moisture was about 1.5 points dryer.

I had very good results with very efficient us of N in 2007. I had 100 pounds of MAP spread giving 10 pounds of N. I put down about 60 pounds of N as 32% 2-1/4 inches off the row with the planter. I applied about a pound of N as AMS with two passes of glyphosate and I side dressed 40 pounds of N as 32% when the corn was about 3 feet tall just dribbled it every other row. I did 173.2 bushels of corn on 111 total units of N (after poor beans). Putting it down with the planter and side dressing were part of that super N efficiency. The other thing was choosing the corn number to tolerate being short sheeted on N. That was no till.

My strip tilling tenant hasn't beat that yield yet but he's trying.

Gerald J.