Paul,

I have had that third year corn discussion several times recently. One solution, or move towards a solution in very high yielding corn is to no till or strip till an angle to the old rows. We have a SD customer no tilling 20" continuous corn at an angle using rtk, row unit shutoffs and our new Gfx floating row cleaner in some high yielding corn. I was with him at planting time and it really looked different/good.

The Gfx makes no-tilling corn on corn at an angle to the old rows more feasible because it allows you to dial in exactly the row cleaner down pressure you need to do the job and since it is frame mounted (rather than unit mounted) the planter row unit does not have to work like a tillage tool. It follows lightly behind doing what it is supposed to do. I have spoken with this innovative SD customer several times over the summer and fall and he is very excited about the results. I'd sure like to see that corn at harvest. This C SD no till customer really got the planting at an angle ball rolling!

Last week I was in NE helping to start up a new strip till unit in some very high yielding corn (photos elsewhere here on crop talk) and they too want to try to go at an angle in continuous corn.

Strip till with row cleaning ahead of the planter and now strip tilling at an angle may overcome much of that 3rd year corn "squeamish". Many of our most successful strip till customers have moved from the no-till end of the tillage spepctrum toward strip till as a way to add a bit more consistency to yields in some areas/climates especially.

Thanks for the great pictures on your site.

Jim at Dawn