Matt,

I welcome your reply and agree with much of what you have said above. The 1 lb number is probably in line with what I have heard. There is however approximately 0.7 lb of N in a dry bushel of corn from what I have read. Some of the N used by a corn plant comes from natural sources. You can raise some type of corn crop with no added N at all. I also agree with your statement on "deep placement" of N.

No matter what tillage system you use, you can apply closer to what the plant needs (rather than excess) if you apply it closer to when and where the plant needs it.

As far as strip till vs no till systems: generally I would agree that

IF you can raise consistent and profitable crops with a pure no till system, then that is usually the "best"/lowest cost tillage system.

IF you are in a geographic area where pure no till is not consistent due to wet springs, cool soil temps, residue buildup then strip till is an alternative. I think of strip till as a middle ground between pure no till and full width tillage. Some customers look at our strip as if they are doing comventional tillage on about 1/3 or 1/4 of the field surface as you can see from the above photos.

I have some customers in wetter eastern SD for example who have tried pure no till corn and found it is just not consistent enough to base your family's income on for the year.

On the other hand in much drier western SD pure no tilling of corn is a way of saving moisture. Strip till has little or no benefit over no till in this W SD area. Dr Beck at the Dakota Lakes Research station has been very successful developing no till systems for the C & W SD area. In your climate and soils and rotations of KS maybe the same is true.

Strip till is just another tool in the toolbox as far as I am concerned. There is just no "ONE" tillage system that is "BEST" everywhere. By the way, please keep in mind that there are a number of different practices and systems going under the name "strip till". They do have different characteristics. jmho.

Jim at Dawn

Please keep in mind also