Strip tillage.

[Bill(Wis)]

Anyone tried it?

 

[kyplowboy]

There are a few people around here that are doing it with tobacco and they are like'n it.

 

[Anonymous-0]

It had become the primary vehicle to plant corn in Central Illinois. Many are not using RTK GPS to make sure they stay on the strips during planting. Without RTK they still did a pretty good job. Most put anhydrous down when making the strips and a few are more advanced by also putting down P&K (usually dry because it is less expensive) in the strips. Studies show you can use 25% less fertilizer by putting in the strips. I don't have RTK and coupled with not having much to plant (therefore not enough practice) find it somewhat difficult to stay on the strips, but I'm not the greatest row cultivator operator either.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I tried it for several years here in NC Iowa. Soybean yields were about 10 bu per acre less. We seem to have to work the ground a little to get it to warm up. A lot of others have also quit. I really wanted it to work as it is so easy. Just chop the cornstalks and call the custom operator who did the strip tilling in the fall for $8 per acre including fuel. It's probably higher now. Then simply plant in the spring. It was disappointing that it didn't seem to work well.

 

[Eric in IL]

I used to no-till everything. Then started strip-tilling corn five years ago. It seems to have quite an advantage over no-tilled corn. I make the strips in the spring, on the same pass apply 28% nitrogen and some liquid starter fertilizer. Sometimes I follow the strip machine with the planter, some years I wait for the strips to dry out some. It just depends on the moisture conditions when the calander says "plant corn". You don"t have that option with no-till.

I know the yields don"t surpass conventional tillage every year, but some years they do. I also know the runoff water from my fields is virtually clear every year. Alot of my neighbors can"t say that about their fields.

I am not saying it is what everyone should do, only that this is what I am doing. To each their own !

 

[Bill(Wis)]

I agree with you about working the ground in the spring to warm it up. I would plan to strip til in the spring and then plant. That would follow the fall subsoiling. We have a lot of heavy ground to include stubborn red clay knolls.

 

[Bill(Wis)]

I plan on strip tilling with a six row strip tiller and plant with a six row planter. I farm in the hundreds, not thousnds, of acres>)). I might just get RTK and auto-steer due to the problems of keeping on row though. Thanks.

 

[Bill(Wis)]

I have a JD planter w/liquid fert so I'm planning on planting in the strips and applying fert the same as I do now. One quandry though. I've been broadcasting pelleted urea so maybe I can figure out a way of applying that only to/in the strips to save a few $$. Thanx.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Screwed up again, need to improve my editing. It should say many are "GOING" to RTK, rather than not using RTK.