Columbus, Ohio
March 13, 2007
No-till farmers looking to plant
corn after corn this growing season have the option of
practicing strip tillage to maintain soil conservation benefits
while reducing production issues associated with no-till
monoculture crop systems.
Randall Reeder, an Ohio State
University Extension agricultural engineer who specializes
in conservation tillage practices, said that the same crops or
like crops planted in the same field year after year creates a
host of issues -- from pest buildup to root growth inhibition to
yield reduction. Continuous corn, under no-till production
systems, can suffer anywhere from a 5 percent to 15 percent
yield reduction compared with no-till corn following soybeans.
“The best production practice is to rotate your crops. But some
no-till farmers are going to want to grow corn after corn, and
they are going to see the production advantages of some kind of
tillage,” said Reeder. “The challenge is how do we encourage
them to do the least amount of tillage as necessary to maintain
soil benefits while not losing anything on the production end?”
One answer is to strip till. Strip tillage is considered a
no-till conservation practice whereby planting and tillage
operations are limited to strips and the area between the rows
is left untilled with crop residue. Conservation tillage
practices offer a variety of benefits, including reduction in
labor, reduction in machinery wear, increased organic matter,
reduced soil erosion, improved soil quality, improved air
quality by storing carbon, increased wildlife habitats and a
better method of maintaining moisture.
“The advantage of strip tillage is that it prepares an ideal
surface condition for corn planting, but still leaves residue
between the strips like in no-till,” said Reeder.
No-till farmers considering strip tillage as an option may want
to keep some of the following suggestions in mind:
- Plant a few inches, say
five, from the old corn row. “Running a depth gauge wheel on
the planter on the old row would give uneven depth and poor
soil to seed contact,” said Reeder. “The goal of a
successful corn crop is to have uniform spacing, uniform
depth and uniform germination.”
- Consider controlled
traffic. “The idea of moving five inches from the old row
can fit into a controlled traffic system,” said Reeder. “But
its accuracy is dependent on RTK auto steer systems.”
- Run shallow strip tillage
in the spring to avoid working wet soil. “Most farmers strip
till in the fall and then let the natural weathering of the
soil settle the soil structure,” said Reeder. “In the
spring, you don’t have the freeze and thaw cycles, and big
clods produced from strip tillage, or any other kind of
tillage, can dry like chunks of concrete. They’re hard to
turn into a good seedbed.”
- Avoid strip tillage uphill
and downhill on slopes greater than 3 percent. “Water will
get into the strip and run right down the row,” said Reeder.
“Strip-tillage on contour is fine.”
- Use a fluffing harrow, or
similar machine, if you don’t have strip tillage equipment.
“These machines till a couple of inches deep, mix a little
soil with crop residue, and help smooth out the surface,”
said Reeder.
Ohio leads the Midwest in no-till
adoption. Currently over 20 percent of the state’s cornfields
are in no-till, and that includes strip tillage. According to
research conducted at Ohio State and Purdue universities, strip
tillage produces comparable yields as fall chisel plowing in
continuous corn production.
Tony Vyn, a Purdue University Extension agronomist, offers
additional considerations when no-tilling continuous corn:
- Be realistic about
costs.
- Pick the best drained
and productive fields.
- Manage for in-row
uniformity for root growth.
- Optimize no-till corn
performance with superior management -- from hybrid
selection to fertilizer use to pest control.
- Invest in research to
compare multiple production systems.
“The bottom line is if farmers
feel they need to till this spring, we encourage them to use the
least amount of tillage that will still provide good yields,”
said Reeder. |
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