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Aberdeen MS | It sure makes for interesting times.
This spring "here" was just that. Wet enough, with enough residue (long wheat stubble with tremendous regrowth last fall), that it was no till the beans in or get set back another week to 10 days on the 25th of May. Just too wet with more residue still anchored in the ground than the strip till unit could handle.
In baling up the straw last year, there were two big squares that could not be picked up. Due the death of my step dad (I had to hire the wheat harvest out) it rained before I had a chance to rebale those 2 bales. After if finally got dry enough, I just lit them instead of messing with them. In combining the beans this fall, those 2 areas had a very positive effect on the bean growth and yield.
Fast forward another 5 days and I was faced with spending 2 days strip tilling the rest of the acreage to plant or just no tilling them (chopped corn stalks in the fall). The remaining fields have been in strip till now for 3 yrs previous. The thought in the back of my mind WAS there a benefit to stripping when conditions were favorable to planting no till.
Throughout the year, physical plant progress gives a positive benefit to the strip tilled beans. The differences are still visible from the road today. This isn't just a short little plot. It involves 2 fields....one an 80 the other a 40. Alternating 8 row "strips". 8 no tilled.... 8 strip tilled... full length across the whole field. There will be 2 yield checks done. One will be a weigh wagon on one pass for each treatment. The other will be a semi load of each giving each treatment fair representation of varying field conditions so both treatments will have a "fair" revue.
It will be interesting to see the results. | |
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No-till corn vs. Fall Rip and Spring Field Cultivate
