When you start talking about ways to incrementally increase corn yields, Rich Schlipf knows there are numerous no-till planter equipment options and add-on technologies to help farmers maximize emergence and uniformity in growth.

Schlipf is a farmer in north-central Indiana and also owner of Schlipf Precision Ag, a Precision Planting equipment dealer in Milford, Ind., that also offers complete planter rebuilds, inspections, field analysis and precision application services.

His goal is to have every corn seed produce a stalk, every stalk to produce an ear and to have every ear be a carbon copy of its neighbor. He also wants every seed to germinate within 24 hours of each other — ear potential of 99% — he says.

Later-emerging plants that are one leaf collar behind result in one half the size of a normal ear. Stalks two leaf collars behind can result in no ears. For those late-emerging plants, “you’ve basically fed the plant all year and you have nothing to show for it, and that’s very costly,” Schlipf told attendees at the 2017 National No-Tillage Conference.

Here are eight of Schlipf’s most important no-till planter recommendations, assuming farmers already have their machines in top mechanical condition. 

1 Floating Row Cleaners 

Schlipf believes in always using row cleaners because they help expose dark soil that will take on warm sunlight. “Our goal is to plant our seed at a consistent depth, so we need even soil moisture and temperature,” he says.

There can be downsides to adding row cleaners…