Has anyone switched from 30 in rows and roughly 32,000 population to 20 in and higher population?

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Went from 30 to 15" 2 years ago,  population from 34 now average 37k. Seems like that gave me the best roi.  40k just didnt pay but always try a strips of population and I would say small increase would be best if not just try the same pop.  Noticed a 7-15 bu bump between last 2 years,  we spray no pops spray,  lay down a food pre and canopies so fast it's amazing.  My future problems I think will be the application of splitting my N source into a 2 pass system,  I do use tram lines in fields where i know I will spray fungicide.  So guessing in future just plant all fields with trams incase i want to apply urea.

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Emery, back in summer of 2016, FBN analyzed 1.36 million acre events to develop a Network Trends report on row spacing. 
Here is the link to that report: https://info.farmersbusinessnetwork.com/hubfs/Network_Trends__Row_Spacing.pdf

If you have unlocked FBN Seed Finder, you can also compare historical seed yields by various row spacing and populations. Here is a youtube training video: https://youtu.be/ytHDxVkUqCQ?t=221

I've also attached some charts from previous analysis from our Data Science team.

As always, your unique conditions and operational constraints should be considered when making any changes on farm but we hope this is helpful!

- Dan

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I went from 22"s back to 30"s  mainly for strip till.  To costly to make strips in 22" rather than 30"s  and I farm in ND

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I’ve had experience with row spacing from 30 inch to 15 inch to 20 inch, and I am presently back to 30 inch.  I don’t believe that any of our decisions on Row spacing were a mistake. The potential for yield increase on road spacing is a combination of cropping practices, rotation, residue management, and capital available to have expensive planter upgrades like delta force and electric meters.  Narrow row spacing require more intensive management and can also affect stand ability. My advice on population is to go easy on increases. 1000 or 2000 seeds per acre is a good average. Hybrid flex is more important.

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I went from 30s to 20s ten years ago. It is hard to drive a sprayer between the rows, but we do it successfully. Weeds are less trouble, as it canopies faster. Spacing between plants is more even, because you don't have to cram them into fewer rows. Your planter's job of seed spacing within the row becomes less important. Your use of fertilizer becomes more efficient in broadcasting and side dressing. And I side dress with my sprayer full 100' width on standard 20" nozzle spacing with stream jet nozzles.

One comment is correct, combining around corners is harder, BUT it is easy to combine perpendicular to the rows and not lose much! You don't need to stress your planter by planting sharp corners, anyway.

There are many advantages, but like another comment said, you buy more row units and header rows to wear out.

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Hey, thanks everyone for the good feedback. A lot of things to consider besides just b/a.

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I haven't personally but have considered it. The consensus on AgTalk forums regarding this was that it does boost yield but you better be ready to babysit the crop more intensely than you do 30s. Also better have the drying infrastructure in place as it will always harvest at higher moisture.  Best success comes at planting 1000-1500 seeds per acre more than what you would put in on the top end for a 30in row spacing.   Also it's harder to combine around corners with 20s with a row crop head

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Has anyone switched from 30 in rows and roughly 32,000 population to 20 in and higher population?

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