Cultivating Corn - John Deere 4020 

There WAS one about custom harvesters (guys hired to combine crops, travelling across the country from south to north and back again) but it was only like 6 episodes and then disappeared... shame, because it was interesting! Thing is with all these "reality" shows anymore, if there's not enough "drama" in it for the goofball Hollyweird producers, they start doing a lot of BS stuff to "make it more dramatic" instead of just showing life "how it is"... I used to watch "Ax Men" until it go to the point it was just a nonsense melodramatic screaming match in the woods between a bunch of guys... Guess it's not even on anymore. There was a reality show filmed on the same road my wife's Aunt lives on in southern Indiana, "Porter Ridge"; they LOVE to find some people willing to act like nuts on TV for their "fifteen minutes of fame" and when it gets old or the ratings drop, they're off like a shot looking for the next group they think they can make some money off of. My daughter and I BOTH used to REALLY enjoy "Swamp Loggers" following those guys out in North Carolina logging out really waterlogged, swampy ground nobody else could get to because their equipment would sink, and they had a nice show, but I noticed the producers seemed to really be pushing the 'drama' angle and then suddenly they were canceled at the height of their popularity. I'd bet that the producers started pushing them to do a bunch of nonsense "antics" to increase the drama and they told them "no", so they just canceled it. Same sort of stuff has gone on with MOST of those "reality shows", from Ice Road Truckers to Deadliest Catch-- always gotta have some arguments or people trying to screw each other over to create "drama" to keep those Hollyweird people happy-- they don't realize that people watch those shows to see HOW IT IS DONE and the typical day/lifestyle of folks with those jobs, NOT to see a bad remake of "Dallas" with a bunch of arguments, intrigue, and drama crap... Later! OL J R :)

Bdog 30 inches.

End rows... It was an education for me when I started helping on my BIL's farm in Indiana. We always planted on raised beds, and left about a 15-20 foot or so "turning row" on each end of the field, with the rows strictly running back and forth across the field. Usually we have a bar ditch cut across each end of the field where the middles can drain excess rainwater into it, which then runs to the county ditch to keep the fields from flooding, which we cut and maintain with a 3 point blade like their Rhino blade they grade their driveways with. Anyway, "up north" they flat plant-- no beds. Doing it that way, it just makes more sense to plant a couple passes across each end of the field, and then plant the rest of the field between those "end rows" back and forth (like it was on beds, but flat ground). Then you just turn over the end rows when you spray or sidedress fertilizer or cultivate or whatever. Sure you kill a few plants, but the rest still go on to produce crop, so the loss is minimal/ inconsequential... My BIL thought that all these wide unplanted turning rows down here in the South are a HUGE waste of good farmland... and to an extent he's right. That's why a lot of guys would hip or plow up beds across the end of the field to plant "end rows", or just flat plant those end rows (though flat planted stuff doesn't do as well down here.) That way you minimized the amount of ground left "out of production" for the ditch and turning row, and got some crop off those end rows, without having to jump rows (beds) to turn at each end of the field like you would if you bedded it all up right up to the bar ditch at the end of the field (which can get TERRIBLY rough, like going cross-ways across chisel plowed ground!) Later! OL J R :)

32% nitrogen liquid fertilizer... OL J R :)

He'd knock down too much corn with a 12 row... particularly on all those curvy strips they have... If it was all straight back and forth, then yeah... Later! OL J R :)

Once, but if you want better yields, typically some farmers will follow up with sidedressing like we are here.

How Farms Work what is sidedressing?

John Haas how many times do you need to fertilize?

it depends also on the soil your planting in..... and what the plant needs, and so on. if you use TO MUCH fertilizer its just wasted money, + you risk killing the life in local rivers-ponds

samkom33 how are you going to know when to fertilize?

Kevin Zeh run over it....because its impossible to missed them

Kevin Zeh that's what the headland are there for.

The fertilizer is being dribbled by drag hoses right next to the planted row, by the front sweeps of the cultivator. Soil thrown by the middle row of sweeps and the rear sweep helps cover it up and mix it with soil. This practice is also done by some folks without the cultivation-- it's called "Y-drops" because it uses a sprayer (usually) with an inverted "T" shaped fitting with a pair of drag hoses that split the fertilizer and route it over to drag hoses running on either side of the planted row, applying it on top of the soil right next to the stalks (and hence next to the roots). It then relies on irrigation or rainfall to wash the fertilizer down into the root zone. I agree with you that it's best to actually put the fertilizer into the soil, since it protects it from the sun and elements, and water runoff in heavy rains. The fertilizer must be down in the root zone to actually get taken up by the plants anyway. But, for guys practicing "no-till" farming, it's a viable way of fertilizing. We always knifed in our fertilizer about 6-8 inches off the row when we sidedressed using a side-dress applicator... Later! OL J R :)

I`m just saying he does the outside row twice. So more fertilizer on those rows? I don`t know just wondering.

Could be half rate nozzles on the outsides.

No, it's like KJ said above... the outside middle (ground between the planted rows) is worked twice, because the outside gangs of the cultivator only have sweeps (and a fertilizer drop hose) next to the row going under the toolbar... Look at it this way-- there are 6 rows of corn going UNDER the cultivator with each pass... each row has a drop hose on both sides of it, for 12 total drop hoses. SO the row of corn plants are getting fertilizer dribbled on BOTH sides of the row as it's cultivated. The outside middles get worked twice by the sweeps, true, BUT, there is only a fertilizer drop hose on the side next to the row going UNDER the cultivator bar, NOT on the other side in the adjacent row, which got fertilized in the pass before... SO, each row is getting equal amounts of fertilizer, regardless of whether it's an "inside row" or an "outside row" next to the middle that was worked by the outside gang on the last pass... Later! OL J R :)