Strip Till Builds Better Soil Conditions, Root Strength, and Better Yields

Researches have found that strip till results in an optimal seedbed, “which results in quicker and more even emergence of corn and soybeans”. Too, “As weather extremes impact Midwest agriculture more each year, strip-till offers even greater solutions like improved soil organic matter, better root establishment and growth, and better water holding capacity – not to mention cooler soils in the summer that won’t fry valuable soil microorganisms.” Strip tillage benefits soil conditions in the following ways, according to researchers: 8.6 percent increase in soil organic matter over 5 years, 4 percent reduction in bulk density, and an 18 percent reduction in penetration resistance. This article mentions 3 farmers who are sold on strip tillage: Eric Miller, and Tom and Steve Muller. Tom and Eric then give some input on strip till.

http://cornandsoybeandigest.com/tillage/strip-till-builds-soil-conditions-root-strength-and-better-yields

What I've Learned From No-Tilling: Extended No-Till Rotations, Cover Crops Rack Up Cost Savings

Chuck Zumbrun is a 20-year no-tiller, farming 1,200 acres of corn, soybeans, winter wheat and cereal rye and other cover crops in Indiana, northwest of Fort Wayne. Their family has been farming here in Indiana for 100 years.

They gave no-till a go in 1978, but it didn’t work out for them due to the lack of modern conveniences that we have today in the areas of equipment, herbicides, and hybrids. But in the early 1990s, there was more tools “to help a no-till effort be successful, so we gave it another shot.” Their main incentive was to save on labor and machinery costs. “As the years passed, however, we noticed many other benefits. Our soils weren’t blowing or washing away and they were actually improving.” They live in an area “that is increasingly suburban”. Their water supply has been affected by algae in Lake Erie, but by practicing no-till, they keep their soil and nutrients in place instead of having them go down the creek.

As they were focusing on conservation and soil health parts of no-till, they made changes to their operation. They “installed buffer strips seeded to native grasses along our waterways and field edges bordering wooded acres”. They have filter strips along their waterways to help keep soil and nutrients out of the river.

A major change for them has been cover crops. They had liked the idea of growing their own nitrogen and they “got our feet wet seeding red clover in soybean stubble to produce N for our corn crop the coming year”. The cover crops, they discovered, significantly improved the tilth of their heavy clay soils. Their planters and drills knifed easily into their soils. Since their focus was shifting more to building soil structure and soil health with the cover crops, they switched to cereal rye as their go-to species, and they seed that into corn stalks that will be rotated to soybeans.

Zumbrun has used a variety of methods to seed the cereal rye, from hiring a custom operator with a self propelled sprayer, using aerial applications and drilling or broadcasting the seed onto stubble after harvest.

The cereal rye forms a thick mat, which has been a huge benefit for them because it has eliminated a need for a second herbicide application because the thick mat stops weeds. Also, “the cereal rye helps hold moisture later in the season.”

They were slowly working wheat out of their farm until Chuck attended a National No-Tillage Conference and heard of “the benefits of crop diversity and the importance of lengthening our rotations.” They got serious about wheat again and “reversed course”. Subsequently, their crop rotation was lengthened from “basically 2 years to 4, and now goes winter wheat, soybeans, corn, soybeans and winter wheat or cereal rye grown for seed”. They now plant cover crops on 100% of their ground. They help increase our diversity.

“With this added diversity and lengthened rotation, we’ve found we have practically zero issues with pests or disease. Add in the dense mat from our cereal rye cover crops that hold back weeds, and we don’t have much need for expensive traited or glyphosate-tolerant corn or soybeans. We’ve been able to shift to growing almost exclusively conventional corn and soybeans thanks to a longer rotation and cover crops.”

When Chuck Zumbrun was a young guy, they were thrilled to get 40 bushels/acre from a wheat crop; now, they are consistently hitting a 90-bushel average. “To achieve these higher yields we have to take a few more steps than we usually did in the past. Each crop gets two passes with a fungicide and two passes with N (Nitrogen). We apply the same amount of N each year, but we adjust the rate per pass depending on the crop and conditions. Nitrogen is streamed on with our hagie self-propelled sprayer.” Their first application of nitrogen is in early spring “when the snow is coming off and the ground is freezing and thawing.”

Bringing cover crops into their operation also brought more expense. They like to reduce expenses; they are making some efforts to do the same with cover crops. One of their solutions is to grow their own cereal rye seed. They have experimented with a spinner spreader on a sidedress bar to apply covers while sidedressing. They save $20-$30 dollars per acre because of not having to apply a second herbicide pass. They want to cut back on fertilizer, but they may have to wait 10 or 20 years “to see reduced fertilizer costs, but we just have to be patient and wait for those results to come in”.

Chuck knows that they are doing something good. It won’t just benefit them this year, “but every year down the line. That is true of cover crops and of all the other practices we’re implementing, including no-till and lengthened rotations. We’re doing this in the hopes that this farm will continue on for another 100 years and beyond.”

https://www.no-tillfarmer.com/articles/5434-extended-no-till-rotations-cover-crops-rack-up-cost-savings

"What I've Learned From No-Tilling: No-Till, Cover Crops, and Wheat Pull Farm Out of a Yield Rut"

For Chris and Dick Nissen, their farm was just not producing as they would have liked it to in the 1990s. “Yields were flat and we just weren’t making the gains we thought we should be”. So, knowing they needed to try something different from conventional tillage, they tried no-till. And, no-till was indeed the right move for their specific operation.

Like everyone else in their area, they used to heavily work their soils. They chisel plowed and disced in the fall, and then field cultivating and discing again in the spring ahead of the planting.

At the time, they didn’t have much tile drainage and they were relying on their surface drainage to manage the water they received from rains and to allow access to the fields. But they clay loam soils don’t drain very well, and the farming practices they were carrying out didn’t help the situation. By working their soil so heavily, they were creating a seal in their fields, preventing water from getting into their soils and moving off of their fields. They needed to change some things in their operation.

Their fields were “always wet”. Because of this, issues were created at planting and during the growing season which didn’t help their yield drought.

In the late 1990s, almost all of their equipment was needing replacing. So instead “of swapping it out for more conventional equipment, we purchased a Flexi-Coil air seeder and an 8-row Kinze no-till planter. We eliminated the expense of owning and disc and having to operate it, so that was good initial incentive. We were among the first to no-till in our area, so we weren’t sure how it would all turn out.”

Their first year of no-tilling their ground went smoothly. Rains were timely and they were able to get into the field right alongside their conventional till neighbors and their yields were comparable. The next couple of years, however, put them to the test. Wet springs came. Their neighbors could work the soil to dry it out, and they had to wait “an excruciating 3-4 weeks before we could get in the field. Though stressful, our crops those years ended up being even with everyone else’s in yield.”

Because of their no-till practices, their soil structure improved. They found that they could plant into wetter conditions than their neighbors who farmed conventional till. Their soils are strong, and they hold up the planter and tractor better.

In the year 2016, one of the Nissen’s was planting on river bottom ground (no one else could plant due to wet conditions) and he turned a little late and ended up in a field that bordered their field. He left 2-foot deep ruts in the bordering field, but when he came back into their field, “the tractor came right back up and I continued on”. This demonstrates the better soil conditions of the no-till field.

They have actively drain tiled a lot of their hill ground. “Tiling combined with the great soil structure no-till and cover crops provide seems to be working well for us.” In a wet season, they had 7 inches of rain and their tile was running full while conventional fields that were tiled were running about half and water could be seen standing in the rows.

Cover crops are something that the Nissens have worked into their system. They raise winter wheat so that gives them an opportunity to “seed a cover crop and get a lot out of it”. The first time they planted cover crops they had radishes, turnips, and lentils commercially drilled. The corn that was subsequently grown on those acres yielded 5 bushels more per acre “than adjacent fields with the same conditions, minus the cover crops. Since then we were pretty much sold on cover crops.”

They also noticed, that, in addition to yield, their corn stayed more green all summer long than where they hadn’t used a cover crop. “I think it was a combination of scavenging nitrogen (N) and keeping soil microbes fed and happy. Now we try to make sure we plant winter wheat strategically so we can get a cover crop on each acre every 3 years.”

Their cover crop mix “is now radishes, turnips, lentils, and forage peas. We also use this mix to help speed up recovery from installing tile.” They have some acres that are classified as wetlands and “cover crops have made a huge difference in managing water on those acres.”

Winter wheat, for the Dissen’s, has been a good commodity. They have “observed that we get significant jumps in our yields following wheat as opposed to just a corn-soybean rotation”.  They used to sell straw from the wheat crop, since the commodity prices were low so they wanted to help offset that. In addition to selling straw, they lease the cover crop acres to a neighbor who grazes his cattle on the acres.

“Even with tile drainage, no-till and cover crops, we often end up planting into some fairly wet conditions due to the level of rain we receive”. Since they plant in wet conditions often, they have outfitted their planters accordingly. They have floating Martin row cleaners and MudSmith gauge wheels. The gauge wheels have centers that have large holes cut in them to prevent mud buildup.

The Nissen’s are happy with no-till. “Thanks to no-till, cover crops, and our diverse rotation, our farm is definitely out of its yield rut.”

https://www.no-tillfarmer.com/articles/6203-what-ive-learned-from-no-tilling-no-till-cover-crops-and-wheat-pull-farm-out-of-a-yield-rut

Four Keys to Successfully No-Tilling Tough, Wet Soils

Ross Bishop is a farmer in Wisconsin. He has 21 years of experience with the practice of no-tilling, and he sums it up in four words: challenges, adaptations, changes, and modifications.

Ross has wet soil conditions where he farms, and also has to deal with “multiple tricky soil types”. Some of his soil lacks topsoil over the bedrock. If tillage occurs in these soils, rock can break off and “lead to stone-filled fields”. As if that is not enough, Bishop also had to deal with water pollution concerns - 22,000 gallons of fuel were pumped into soil of his. Ross started farming in 1982. He originally had 300 acres that he tilled conventionally.

    When he was a conventional tiller, he would “plow a 10-acre field, work it twice with tillage and then three of us would spend a full day picking up rocks before being able to plant corn”. Also due to his tillage practice, much valuable soil was eroding off the farm when “huge gully washes occurred”. At this point, Ross decided that he needed some changes in his tilllage practices.

    In 1997, Biship was fully no-till after attending a No-Tillage conference in 1994 and successfully no-tilling 8 acres that year. No-till has worked well for his conditions and “by using no-tillage to save time, labor, fuel, equipment, soil and dollars, he’s saved enough money to buy more ground and expand to his current 700 acres while finishing 80 steers each year.”

    The majority of area farmers maintain that their heavy clay soils have to be tilled since they take so long to warm up in the spring. But for Bishop, working with the same soils as the other growers, no-till “has made his soils mellower, more workable and higher yielding.” With conventional till, you could wreck your plow going through the bedrock and end up with “thousands of rocks to pick”. With his old conventional system, he had 3-foot drop terraces that were eroding and “‘washing away valuable soil and nutrients”. Sometimes he couldn’t get the plow to go deeper than 3 or 4 inches.  But he doesn’t have those issues anymore with no-till.

    Ross Bishop regularly soil tests for both primary and secondary nutrients. He is getting more aggressive when it comes to applying phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, zinc and boron. Ross applies 9-18-9 as starter in the furrow, with zinc and ammonium thiosulfate. “When corn is knee to hip high, he sidedresses 28% nitrogen (N) with an inhibitor, which is mixed with post-emergence herbicides”.

    Bishop had applied 4-5 gallons/acre of starter fertilizer, but bumped that rate up to 10 gallons after noticing that corn yield contest winners applied up to 12 gallons. In addition to starter, he applies ¾ “of a gallon of zinc and a gallon of molasses per acre”. ““The sugar in the molasses wakes up the bugs in the soil and seems to have the same effect as one of us enjoying a sugar-filled soda or candy bar””. Bishop has checked, and the corn with molasses applied on it actually comes up 12 to 24 hours sooner than untreated ground. Zinc “helps the roots grow quicker”.

    For Ross Bishop, adding a small amount of liquid potash boosted yields by 18 bushels per acre where potash was limited. He said, “On our farm, we need potash just as bad as N. Where we are deficient in potash, we’ve losing a huge amount of corn.”

    When he was starting out in no-till, he planted corn in 20-inch rows at 36,000 seeds per acre, but after weak stalks were blown over by strong winds and thence the yield was affected, he has planted 34,000 plants per acre since.

    Bishop also uses cover crops. 2016 was the ninth year for Ross that he has seeded cover crops after his wheat crop. He has found that cover crops boost his no-till corn and bean yields. Due to the fact that his cows don’t produce enough manure to apply 8 tons per acre, he uses cover crops to “add low-cost nutrients and improve organic matter. He also sees cover crops helping overcome major nitrate concerns in area water wells.” Typically, his cover crop mixes include annual ryegrass, radishes, hairy vetch and cowpeas. He has no tilled sorghum sudangrass to use it for cattle feed. Too, Ross has tried sunflowers, rapeseed, turnips and Austrian winter peas in cover crop mixes.

    For him, the biggest thing is that cover crops create more soil organic matter. His annual ryegrass in Wisconsin will grow underneath the snow during the winter and creates a carpet on the ground that allows no-tilling into wetter soils much earlier. His radishes create better soil tilth and increase aeration and infiltration for Bishop.

    An important thing in the practice of no-till is getting the seed placed accurately. In ‘97, Ross rebuilt a pair of Case 1200 planters into a single planter to plant corn in 20-inch rows. He added coulters, row cleaners, closing wheels and seed firmers. The purpose of these additions were to work more effectively with his variable soil and wet conditions.

    When he no-tills wet ground in early spring, he says “the spider closing wheels help warm up the ground and avoid sidewall compaction. Adequate down pressure leads to a more accurate planting depth and drag chains help cover the seed trench with soil.”

    Bishop plants soybeans 2 inches deep. His corn gets planted 2 ¼ to 2 ½ inches deep. He thinks that going deeper is better than planting corn shallow when no-tilling.

    Ross Bishop is a farmer in Wisconsin that has found and had success with the tillage practice of no-till. He is convinced that, because of the soil conditions he works with, no-till is the best option for him.

https://www.no-tillfarmer.com/articles/6210-four-keys-to-successfully-no-tilling-tough-wet-soils

No-till Beats Tight Clay Soils

Roger Wenning, a farmer in Indiana, is all no-till in this article. He thinks it is the best practice for the particular soil that he deals with in Indiana. His winning formula is to pattern tile to take excess water away, get your ph right (which is about 6.5), grid sample for optimum nutrient application, begin using cover crop mixes, and no-till, or strip till for a few years, and then no-till. He bought a tile plow and put tile every 45 to 60 feet spacings, as opposed to the 100 feet spacings that had been there. He did this to improve the ground’s water digestion. He also put cover crops on all of his acres by 2002, and the cover crops have really helped Roger Wenning with his operation. Annual Ryegrass has been a go-to for Wenning, as their roots go down 4 to 5 feet. He included crimson clover in his lineup to add some more nitrogen to the soils. He also used rape because it grows through the winter. He thinks that growing the soil was profitable for his operation because he wasn’t able to grow his acres. He is opposed to tillage for the soil that he farms with, as it increases compaction.

http://cornandsoybeandigest.com/soil-health/no-till-beats-tight-clay-soils

Strip Tillage

Before starting out in strip tillage:

- Understand the system and know what to do

- Have the right equipment, including RTK GPS, a tractor with sufficient power, and access to or ownership of a strip tillage tool

- Make decisions on how you will utilize the system - will you strip till in the fall or spring? Will you apply fertilizer when you put in your strips?

The Case for Strip Till: Healthy Soil, Less Tile, Better Root Growth

In this article, Dennis Smith, an Iowa farmer, is a strip-tiller. He loves the system and nobody would “ever get me to go back to full width tillage. There’s so much flexibility with this system, I wouldn’t farm any other way.” He was a conventional till farmer, with a heavy disk and a field cultivator, but erosion was a terrible problem. Too, he wanted a better way to apply fertilizer to his crops. A neighboring farmer, Mike Hermanson, had built a strip till rig and Smith went to check it out. He liked what he saw, and began running his operation as a strip-tillage one. With strip till, the bumped up earthworm and soil microbe populations were getting rid of the crop residue faster. He doesn’t need pattern tile, as the system works a lot better with water absorption. His organic matter also has went up with strip tillage. He was suprised how good his strip till machine worked in wet ground conditions. He has ran the rig through standing water, and every piece of corn grew. With this system, Smith has better corn root growth because of well-placed fertilizer.

http://cornandsoybeandigest.com/tillage/case-strip-till-healthy-soil-less-tile-better-root-growth

Strip Till Can Be a Spring Routine

In this article, Iowa farmer Collin Jensen is a strip tiller. But his operation is a little different than many others. He does not put the strips in with his machine in the fall, but rather in the spring. Not only does he save fuel by not doing it in the fall AND spring, but he also applies fertilizer and plants, along with strip tilling, in one pass. In this way, he “saves fuel, reduces soil erosion, improves soil quality and lessens compaction by farming this way”. It does sound like a very cost effective operational system that is efficient. Jensen farms about 1,800 acres in Iowa. He doesn’t touch his stalks in the fall, but waits until the spring and uses his “Yetter Sharktooth trash whippers mounted on the front of his planter to prepare the soil for the seed. He has a 24-row planter, and plants rows 20 inches apart placing the seed at a 1¼- to 2-inch depth.”

http://farmprogress.com/library.aspx/strip-till-spring-routine-1/4/243

Strip Till Encourages Mellow Growing Conditions and Higher Yields for Farmer

Gary Wolf, a farmer in southwestern Missouri, was a no-till farmer for a long time. In his area, “He has a red, shallow, compaction-prone, clay-based soil. “It can be sticky when it’s wet, and hard as a rock when it’s dry,” explains Wolf. “Whenever it gets hard and dry, the rain will run off.”” He was having problems with rain running off of his fields into his neighbor's fields after he would apply ¾ of an inch of water by irrigation. Zero-till just wasn’t working out for Wolf. He heard about strip till up north, and decided to give it a try and bought a Maverick strip-till unit with rolling baskets. The unit was set up for 30 inch rows, and was a six row. He went strip till in 2007, and he could now irrigate without any runoff. The strip that was tilled took the water, and the water flowed into the strips well. Later, Wolf also put a fertilizer system on his strip tillage machine, and applied liquid fertilizer on the same pass as when he put in the strips. He did some strip tillage for a neighbor who practiced no-till, and the strip tilled corn yields were twice that of the no-tilled corn yields. Strip till was amazing for Gary Wolf.

http://www.agriculture.com/crops/tillage/strip-till/striptill-encourages-mellow-growing_189-ar45151

The article above demonstrates some of the successes that the practice of strip tillage can give to farmers. Good water utilization is a benefit of strip till.

Another benefit of strip till is saved time and money for field passes. With this system, field cultivators, disks, and chisel plows are eliminated and don't have to be maintained or ran out in the field, saving fuel and time.

Tillage Practices

In the area of agriculture, the profession of farming, and the success of farming, tillage (or the lack thereof in the case of no-till) plays a big part. The advent of high-yielding seed genetics that bring with it more crop residue makes the case for tillage to control the high levels of trash and stalk residue produced by the high yielding plant.

Too, with the level of potential of the modern genetics to produce huge yield makes the case for bigger equipment to handle the grain. Grain carts, which help increase efficiency, create compaction along with the combine. Ground that gets driven on will be compacted to some extent. Thus, the case for tillage, which can break up the soil and reduce compaction, can be made.

These two factors are two big reasons behind why farmer's will use full-width tillage (conventional till) on their farm. Many farmers use this system of tillage. For some, it works. For others, maybe their ground is not suited to conduct tillage on the full field. This is where practices like strip tillage and no till can be useful for farmers and their specific operations.

With conventional tillage, several things may be used. First, in the fall, in preparation for the next year's crop, a chisel plow and/or a disk or vertical tillage tool may be used, and in the spring, a soil finisher or cultivator and/or a disk or vertical tillage may be used in preparation for the planting of the crop.

Introduction

Dear Reader,

This blog is intended to be an informational center about three different tillage practices: that of strip-till, conventional till, and no-till. Info about each of these three topics is intended to be posted here. 

Blog Administrator