Cover Crop Interseeder “Almost Perfect”

Cover Crop Interseeder “Almost Perfect” PLANTERS Jeff Toussaint mounted a Gandy air seeder and Hiniker interseeder units on a 6-row toolbar and it is almost but not quite perfect The upstate New York farmer and his son Matt have used the unit for 2 years but plan to revamp it this winter “We run a 16-row planter with RTK guidance so I figured by using RTK I could match up my 6-row interseeder without a problem ” says Toussaint “However even an inch or two off creates problems We plan to add a couple of wings to the toolbar this winter to make it 8 rows to better match up with the planter ” Toussaint credits interseeding corn at V5 to V6 with higher yields in 2017 a wet year and again in 2018 a dry year “The 2016 crop year was similar to 2018 but without cover crops interseeded into the corn the yields that year were horrible ” says Tousssaint “In 2018 the fields with cover crops held the moisture better the soil temperature was lower and the corn showed less moisture stress It ended up yielding 14 bushels more per acre than fields without cover crops ” Toussaint tried interseeding with a straight air seeder blowing the seed to the ground He says the benefit of seed-to-soil contact with the interseeding planter units was noticeable “Without the row units we had inconsistent germination ” says Toussaint “With them we had consistent germination field-wide on the knolls and in the valleys ” Toussaint farm employee Ed Johnson added the Hiniker row units to a 15-ft toolbar repurposed from a 6-row cultivator Two row units were ganged to lay down seed between each set of corn rows They plumbed the Gandy air hoses through the row units “There are a several nice interseeders available from different manufacturers but they are pricey ” says Toussaint “I didn’t want to spend the money on something that might not work It’s worked out well and wings will make it even better ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Toussaint Farms 3704 Culvert Rd Medina N Y 14103 ph 585 798-5636; Toussaintfarms@gmail com

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