Row Spacing?

The rear tires on my Kubota L4200 are on 53" center and are 70" from outside to outside. I think the biggest problem is that they are R4 tires and are 17.5" wide.

Most of the farmers around here have their rows set at 40" for dryland. They also use Listers to make furrows and build up the row where you plant the seed.

I have a 2 row planter and I don't see how I can use it on 40" rows? I just used a disc and the planter on 32" rows this time and it worked but the rows ended up pretty close to the tires (the inside dimensions on the tires is 36") Using it like this I ended up with uneven rows and the rows ended up pretty close to where the tires had compacted the ground.

The accountant in me says to just set the rows at 26.5" and just space the plants farther apart in the row. The downside to that is that I end up having to do a lot more running back and forth and use more gas.

Any thoughts on what I should do?

--->Paul

What effect with row spacing have on harvest?

A lot of corn in the midwest is planted in rows that are 36", 30", and 24" apart. Varying the spacing between plants gives the same plant population per acre.

A narrower row spacing will often allow plants to form a canopy sooner and shade the space between the rows. This will discourage weeds and conserve moisture.