Twin row corn

Has anybody out there planted twin row corn? I just bought a Kinze twin line and converted it to twin rows, so I hope it's worth it. Any input would be helpful. Thanks,

I don't intend to be mean but I would put this post on new Agtalk they are a more progressive crowd as a whole .  From what I have heard twin row corn has a yeild advantage over non  since the plants are spaced out better and use the lite more efficiently, twin row is something I would have liked to do myself bit couldn't sell my business partner on it.

We have more progressive farmers on straight 20 inch rows than twin .. much more .. Personnaly i dont try to line Monsantos pockets any more than i have to  as we plant all GMO hybrids .

jmho

We have several in this area with twin rows. To me, the beans seem to do a little better cause they have a better "push" coming up in the spring compared to 15, 30, or drilled.

i planted twin rows 2 years ago, staged off of 30" rows, and harvested with a 30 in corn head, had to really slow ground speed down. my CH not equipted to speed up or slow down with ground travel. i didn't weight it, but could tell by what was entering the grain tank it was yeilding good!

mike- did you buy the planter in coal city? the guy had 2 kinzes?

Clint, Yes that's where it came from.Were you the other guy that wanted the corn planter?

Thats what we need to sart doing in Western Maryland. Plant twin rows, one row for the deer and the other row for the bear. Bill

I will try to put pictures on! I have been thinking about twins for yrs. came up with the idea , to use a 600 frame planter and 8 units 7 inches apart  on 38's  I know plants aren't  off set like some planters can do. but, they are still spaced farther  apart than in a single 38 I dropped 30 K from this one . on twins and 30 K on our single row , all other factors  were the same. the twins yielded 184 bu. the singles 177 bu. and Yes, you can tell by the pics. I am cheap. all corn will be on twins this yr. with fresh paint . Bill tia 

Mike- i bought the other cron planter- you got a pretty sweet deal!

Well said.

Back in the early eighties my buddy came up with the twin row idea. We cut two JD7000 row units apart and then I welded them back together for him. It took a ton of rods and lots of time, but I finally got it done. The trick to his working well was indexing the units so one would drop a seed then the other. Since that's 30 something years ago, some of the things we did are a little fuzzy. Normal population at that time was 23500 to maaayyybee 25000. He planted at 27-28000 total and got a very good response for that time. He went to popcorn after a couple of years and planted with a single row planter, using the twin row for beans only. At the time of twins, he had an F and was married to slow speed picking because of lack of capacity.

Sometimes, it's kinda fun to look back at some of the cobbled up ways the we used to be that "perfect" farmer! Hah!

The uncle that raised me and I took two old IHC plate planters back in the mid sixties and made a twenty inch bean planter, It was a good idea, but we had to solve the cultivator problem too. We didn't use it too many years, because we couldn't keep the weed problem in hand. As I remember all we had available at the time was Amiben and it sure wasn't comparable to modern chemicals.

ILGLEANER wrote:  There is a guy that switched to twin rows here about 4 years ago. Bought a 250,000 dollar planter, upt his population . Planted all his beans and corn with it the first year. The last 2 years he has planted the most of his beans with a 15" kinze. From everything I have read, it makes more, but is not more profitable. It is the bottom line that counts, the YEILD is not your bottom line. Twins help for not buying a different corn head. We plant corn in 30". Beans in 30" 20" and 15" On good ground there is very little difference in yeild on beans. Lighter soil 15" are better. I think the defining factor is John Deere doesnt sell one. I asked the dealer why they dont sell a twin row planter?  He said Mother John Deere said when there is proof that Twin row pays we will sell one.......                                                   IG

 

2 years ago we planted 60 ac. of twin row corn on one of our FFA fields with a Great Plains Twin Row 6 row planter, I HATED IT!!!!! the stuff just plain would not stand up to save its life ans the SAME hydbrid planted 3 feet away stood perfectly and had massive stalks compared to the twin row stuff and what didnt fall over a B***H to combine it didnt want to run through the head and came through the combine in big slugs.  
The planter was a whole nother story, I thought that the whole idea of planter innovation for the last 30-35 years was to go AWAY from plates not back to them but leave it to great plains to go back to 'em. The 6 row was advertised and the dealer told us it will pull just like a six row and sent us a 75hp tractor to pull the planter with B.S!!!!! that thing pulled like a full 12 row we ended up going and getting a neighbors 1586 IH to pull it. 
Plus forget cultivating and if you do any "in-the-row" jobs yourself you need to make sure all your tires are narrower than 18.4 (found that out the hard way trying to spray with the AC 200)

tha'ts just my experience with them and i can say I will NEVER have one for myself, but to each his own, Grandpa had a new AC planter for about 3 days and sent the "P.O.S."(I know this is an AC Board and we are still 90% AC so I don't mean to offend anyone) as he called it, back to the dealer. he claimed it wouldn't plant at an even depth on solid concrete and still won't let one come on the place. yet the neighbor bought one new also and loves it and still uses it to plant all of his 400 ac and lots of people still use them so like i said to each his own. Since you already converted your planter and that you have a good planter in that Kinze I hope you have good luck with it and if I can make a suggestion pick a hybrid with the best stalk strenght you can find!!! Good Luck!


Edited by CBL95 - 03 Mar 2012 at 9:48pm

CBL95 , i have read your post and was curious about some of the details of your twin row corn experience. Where i work we sell Great Plains planters most of which are twin row. We have several of the six row planters out and i know for a fact the one is pulled by a John Deere 6405 which is according to tractor data 85 HP. As for the poor stalk quality what was your population? If the twins were planted at the same pop as the 30" rows you should have had way more space between each plant with the twins, which typically would allow  for healthier bigger stalks. I have seen instances where someone has tried bumping population up alot and had counter effects on yield. For instance I had a customer call wanting to know if he should try planting some corn at 54,000! Personally i dont think the genetics are there to handle that at any row spacing not yet anyway. On end rows or point rows if there is lots of crossing over then yes there will spindly stalks and a decrease in yield, but there again one has essentially doubled their population. As far as plates for the planter, you can still get a new great plains planter with finger pickup. We delivered one last week. Many new planters from all the major manufactures come with plastic plate metering systems, ever seen a White or John Deere vac planter.