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Driftless SW Wisconsin | Sprout,
I am going to try to answer your questions and respond to a few others raised in this thread.
MANURE - As far as manure goes, we have experience doing exactly what you describe - manure knifed in the fall and follow up in the SPRING with our Dawn strip till row units to build a berm and straighten up the rows to match the number of rows on your planter. I haven't yet seen a 12, 16 or 24 row manure applicator. Our Pluribus fills in the open slot left in places by the manure applicator., freshens up the strip and lines them up with the planter. We will be working on/testing adaptations to our Pluribus units to apply lower rates of liquid manure resulting from application to a P analysis as requested by several customers.
Many states are requiring manure be applied to a P analysis rather than an N analysis. This spring pass is then a time to put down additional N either as 28 or 32% along the edge of the strip or urea mixed in.
AIR CARTS - yes air carts are expensive. Strip till is taking hold in areas where many customers already have air carts from their small grain air seeders. However as strip till moves into areas where most customers do NOT already own an air cart you do need to look at the economics of a cart. For customers with large acreage's to cover I think the economics will work out well. There are several intermediate options however.
Liquid is much less expensive to set up initially, however Potassium K tends to want to be a dry fertilizer. Some starting strip till just have a coop or other custom applicator come in with a floater and spread perhaps multiple years of K as has been done for years. Then use liquid 28% for your N and maybe liquid 10-34-0 for your P, both generally readily available and easy to setup and apply with a strip till system.
I am very impressed by one of our customers who set up a simple Gandy box right on his strip till bar and applies his P (DAP) and K (0-0-60) at reduced rates as dry with a bit of N in the DAP. One can then put down the rest of your N as 28% either during the strip till operation, or on the planter, or sprayed over the top or as a side dress. There are a number of options depending on your local conditions and operation.
EROSION OF FALL STRIPS - I remember doing some early strip till work in Central Ill near the Tremont area in the early 1990's with our on a DMI nh3 bar on some flattest most beautiful corn ground in the world. We added row cleaners to a standard DMI bar including their standard disc closers. The customer wanted a "black strip" so he could find it in the spring in this heavy bean stubble. It was amazing to see the next spring the amount of washing/erosion which had occurred due to the knife slot and a slight notch left by the standard DMI disc sealers.
I posted some pictures last winter titled MN SNIRT which showed wind erosion on many supposedly "min tilled" fields. The only ones that really showed little visible soil loss were the few fields which had absolutely NO tillage done after harvest.
However we obviously need to balance the erosion potential with the need to warm up some soil in northern heavy soil areas especially in corn on corn.
Let's face it there can be an enormous amount of erosion in ANY type of fall worked fields. In strip till with any manufacturers units run in the fall you are creating mellow, cleared strips in an otherwise residue covered and harder field. It is not rocket science to see that in a heavy rain storm after the soil is saturated or perhaps frozen, the excess water will run down even a slight slope using the path of least resistance - the strip!
Our units as well as about every other strip till concept I have seen will OCCASIONALLY leave a bit of a cut edge on one or both sides of the strip, depending on soil conditions, forward speeds and especially crabbing of the units on side slopes. It is IMPOSSIBLE to totally eliminate this and create a 100% uniform beautiful uniform strip everywhere and in all conditions with any type of unit. We use a fill disc in some soils which helps, but usually it involves learning the cause and addressing it with knowledge.
In spring strip till however, this is rarely an issue since the planter follows with row cleaners and gage wheels which redistribute the mound and leave a beautiful planted strip. However there is always a difference between a worked strip and the surrounding residue covered ground. As your soil texture and infiltration rates improve the residue should capture and hold moisture and keep between row soil temps down.
PLUGGING IN CORN ON CORN - I have to get off the computer but will briefly try to address this topic brought up by Chad. In corn on corn strip till you MUST keep the strip till unit centered between the old rows. This is less of an issue if the row units are staggered as they are on our Dawn Vision bars. However Chad had his unit in a line on an older toolbar as do most of our Pluribus customers. The old stalks should be left standing and as intact as possible. This is the exact opposite of what most knife rolls etc leave in the field. I like the oldest cast iron rolls you have run as high as possible with the combine tires spaced to run on the just harvested rows. Unfortunately this is not what we get in many fields.
Chad as some rolling contours and side slopes. RTK may not even help there (Autofarm is coming out with a unit with the position sensor on the toolbar which may help). In this case it may be impossible to keep the strip till unit between the old rows consistently. Or we may have to say chop stalks or run a SuperCoulter in the fall unit the old and new rows get straightened out. This alignment, along with in ability to keep row unit alignment on and older 60 ft toolbar was also a problem at Brian's in the field we were in when I was there. IT WILL TAKE A FULL YEAR OR MORE TO FULLY IMPLEMENT A SUCCESSFUL STRIP TILL SYSTEM IN CORN ON CORN. In the meantime you may need to get out a SuperCoulter or rent a shredder to get started.....
I have to go. I appreciate your business Chad and Brian. As I have said however strip till is not for everyone, every location nor every operation.
On the vertical tillage topic, without getting into a detailed discussion personally I would NEVER run one of those pieces of equipment (SuperCoulter, etc) in the spring ahead of the planter. In my opinion they are a FALL tool only. I know lots of folks were driving back and forth with them this past spring trying to "dry it out" but that comes at a price in some cases. They may have a place in fall tillage systems in corn on corn . Especially where you have unskilled part time help running equipment. They as most things, are not as simple as they may seem.
As we have discussed here previously, it will be interesting to see which system survives in wide spread use of a period of years. I believe some of the various forms of strip tillage have agronomic, economic and time & fuel saving possibilities which will keep them around for a long time. As always, jmho.
Jim at Dawn
I don't have time to post some supporting photos here, and maybe this is not the time for them. I do appreciate this discussion. | |
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vertical tillage and equipment
