Why I Purchased a No Till Drill for Our Small Farm

[@kennethbealljr1062]

Great video. I have been looking at those as well. Looking forward to the next video

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

More to come as I plant more this season and calibrate it.

[@jvin248]

I'm on a similar path but haven't bought the big no till drill yet but here's what I do: shallow disk in the fall and broadcast winter rye, rake to cover seed. Set cultivator for width (30in previously, 15in this year) and run rows, old shoe planter follows the cultivator cuts to get seed depth, all this in standing rye. When corn/beans emerge before V1, run cultipacker 'down and back' to flatten rye (a modern crimper could do one pass). Standing rye keeps moisture at the germination layer (from deep soil roots and dew) plus continues to shade the soil so weeds don't start (their trigger is bare soil sunlight). This gives the corn/beans a running start ahead of any potential weed pressure and they shade by the time the rye dissolves into high potassium fertilizer for the corn/beans grain stage. ... Early spring oats can substitute if you miss fall rye timing. ... Btw, look at planting heirloom corn for your pigs, I know a guy that saw his litter sizes jump 20% when he got them off commodity hybrid corn with higher nutrition in the heirlooms. Rieds Yellow Dent, Bloody Butcher, and Blue Hopi are the top protein heirlooms I've found (9-15% vs 3% modern hybrids) - only caution is they don't like being planted too tight more like 9-12in within a row and why I'm going to 15in rows to increase population/acre. ... Look up Rick Clark presentations, he's doing no till no chem two equipment passes plus harvest on 5k acres selling to the food companies so you know he's getting quality grain and consistent production to match contracts.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Lots of great info here. I have grown the bloody butcher and the blue Hopi and both are excellent.

[@boatwrightfarm]

That is going to be nice. Good investment

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

I think so too! It has already been really good. The biggest thing is testing out what works and what doesn't.

[@coltonbentley39]

we used a 70s ih drill with a drigger it worked really well then it wore out after 30 years then we got a marless drill no till it worked pretty good for drilling new hay into grian ground

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

cool.

[@Andrew-sanders]

Sure spent alot to plant a little. I put mine together a old great plains grain drill and a drag Farmall disk. Just remover the openers on the drill mounted the drag disk under and added a few pump jack weights cost maybe 500 and can pull with the pickup or side-by-side

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

I did spend a lot to plant a little, but I hope to plant more over the next couple years as I learn to use it better. I wish I knew enough about planting equipment to make my own. I am familiar with some stuff, and wildly ignorant about others. Where I am planting, we can not get a truck there without creating a heck of a mess and some places will swallow up a truck until it rests on the frame.

[@ANPennsylvania]

Who cares what he spent? He’s sharing his experience with others and you’re using it as an excuse to act like you’re better than your fellow farmer. The time spent fixing a jerry rigged machine versus buying one with support and service, parts etc, is invaluable.

[@tireddad6541]

Hopefully planting the variety of cover crop mixes you will be adding organic matter to the soil and improve water handling.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Oh it does.

[@bog6282]

Hey rob - really good stuff. My wife and I just purchased a timber property near Tuscaloosa, so we are dang near neighbors! I am going through the same internal struggle. For me it is food plot equipment, currently around 10 acres of plots scattered around, and will grow over time. I want to go the no-till route focusing on soil improvement and year round cover. I was blown away with the price on that drill - a couple in the area going for around 6 grand. You feel the drill will take the use and abuse? Love to see a deep dive into operating it. Subscribed and watching closely - Bo

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

It's a great drill, but I would not say that it will handle abuse well. Its a lightweight drill for a reason. It works well in soft ground, but in the summer we don't use it much and usually have to disc the ground to get good germination and take advantage of sporadic rains.

[@Daddyo_farms]

I live in Tifton ga not far from ocilla

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

I know tifton well. Do you know Ernie Baldree from Granddaddy's Farm in Irwinville?

[@Daddyo_farms]

@@DowdleFamilyFarms I don’t know him but I am familiar with his place

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Nice. I know him well. Used to purchase beef and chicken from him.

[@Daddyo_farms]

@@DowdleFamilyFarms I have looked at his stuff several times

[@fairacres6601]

Can you do a video with a detailed review of the drill?

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

I will, but I want to be much more familiar with it first.

[@tomaswilson2792]

Where do you get your seed that you're able to plant for so inexpensive?

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

It depends. We get as much of our seed as possible from local sources but sometimes we order it in which adds freight costs too it.

[@briankubik5041]

That's great it's a business write off? Self employed? I own only 4 acres but only one and a half of it I use for gardening and chickens and about 3/4 acre is just grass and house and other is woods. I thought of getting one but wouldn't favor me at all I grow for my family I just broadcast my seed and hope they take. If I buy more land but it has to be farm land no woods that takes a lot of money to clear that land.

[@cheesedoesgaming6088]

I’ve never had a failed crop with a no till and it had Jerry rigged parts. It’s about 4 big planters where it folds up and out but the maintanence on the cutting disks is a lot with our hard clay

[@cdjhyoung]

Do you live in an area with a Cooperative Extension 2ith an ag university? They may have a no till drill they can loan or rent to you.

[@briankubik5041]

@@cdjhyoung yes I would need a 50 horse tractor to rent. My small of property the make a all in one for a atv people that do food plots for deer hunting that I looked into but that a pretty penny also.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

I prefer write ons to having write off's, Brian! Seriously though, start small and it should work out well for you. It takes a lot of money to clear land and pigs can do some of it. The problem is that if you have heavily forested wood lots, you can raise pigs there and they will help clear it, but its hard to drastically reduce pig feed costs in forested lots unless you buy some feeder pigs in the mid summer and raise them on hardwood mast, if you have hardwoods. Even then, you aren't saving a whole lot, but it helps.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

I bet. We had some failed crops with the ones we rented. It's a long story. It was part my ignorance, part poorly maintained drills, etc. @@cheesedoesgaming6088

[@hickoryridgefarms]

We want a drill for small food plots. Trying to find one that an out nh1720 can pull around is tough. Love the genesis models but I think they might be to heavy 😅

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

The 55inch lmc ag drill should work well for you. Are you 2wd or 4wd?

[@hickoryridgefarms]

@@DowdleFamilyFarms 4wd with a 7308 loader

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

@@hickoryridgefarms that should pull it and lift it fairly easily. Do you live in the southeast part of the US by chance?

[@hickoryridgefarms]

@@DowdleFamilyFarms ste gen county, Missouri.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

They don’t have a dealer I. The area.

[@ronlevin2339]

please do not even think about john deere, it is like an Apple, but for tractors. Every repair have to be done by a dealer, you cannot replace anything by yourself, every part is serialized, even if you replace it with original part, it will not work, unless a special software will be connected and tell the part that it is OK to work. and they are always busy, it usually takes them at least a week to come (usually more).

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

There’s a huge difference in their larger equipment and smaller equipment. I have done several repairs on the 4044m myself and they have tech manuals that work well for it. On the larger equipment, however, it’s a nightmare from what I understand.

[@ronlevin2339]

@@DowdleFamilyFarms maybe it was on old 4044m device. everything new is a nightmare

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

No this is a 2 year old tractor. The compact tractors are nothing like the big machines.

[@ronlevin2339]

@@DowdleFamilyFarms strange, Apple and Tesla are not like John Deere, you are in luck

[@justinzrandomvideoz5475]

My little 1025r has 823 hours and i have not had one problem. And when i bought it i was in and out of the dealer in an hour and a half, tractor loaded, contract signed. Zero percent interest, one page contract. Sale price, tax, total no bs. And the sales guy was a veteran. Also those 823 hours are a lot of hard running.