Headed back to Iowa now for our Video of the Week. Zack Smith fills us in on his latest experiment with his custom-built twin-row planter. 

“For those of you who’ve followed me for a while, you know I have this twin row planter that I’ve done different experiments with over the last couple years. Last year I did something called the quintuple biopass where I had twin row 60s and then I came in and put a single row 30 in between, so I had five rows in about a 68-inch footprint. I planted oats in between in a 15-foot lane essentially. And that worked really well compared to static 30-inch corn, there was about a 70-bushel advantage for this system.”

“Instead of doing it with oats, this year I decided I’m going to do the same thing, but I’m going to put two rows of beans in between so I have a crop that’s easier to harvest. I’ll harvest the corn first, and then I’ll come back and pick the beans off that are in between. The idea is it’s essentially three 30-inch rows with five rows and it’ll make more sense when you see the other planter. And then two rows of soybeans in between and then five rows on three strips over there.”  

Be sure to follow Zack on social media to keep up with his #FarmWeird plots. 

Watch the full Video of this episode of Conservation Ag Update.