Strip-till has long been lauded by soil and tillage experts for its agronomic prowess in corn and cotton. It marries the benefits of no-till between the rows with conventional-tilled strips that warm and dry quicker in the spring to deliver an ideal seedbed.
But those narrow strips also present challenges. Fortunately, new technology is helping to overcome them and causing farmers to take another look at strip-till.
One common struggle with strip-till is seeing the fall-built strips in the spring. "In my early strip-till days," recounts Spring Valley, Minn., grower Steve Hafner, "I attempted to follow my planter marker to stay on the fall-built strips. But that was always a challenge in midday light when the dry soil caused the strips to almost disappear. And, off-center plants grow slower."
If poor visibility wasn't enough to frustrate the most patient of growers, there also was the issue of matching widths between planter and strip-till bar. That impeded adoption among larger farmers with 24-row planters who could not buy 24-row strip-till bars because they were not yet designed.
SATELLITE SOLUTION. Thanks to the GPS real-time kinematic (RTK) signal and autosteer that guide the tractor accurately to within 1 inch, these grower struggles are gone.
With this accuracy, you can now strip-till and band fertilizer in the fall, then come back in the spring and plant directly on top of the fertilizer in the middle of the strip—all without steering, day or night. And, such accuracy means you can use any width strip-till bar, regardless of planter size.
Hafner, who farms 2,000 acres with one 200-hp tractor, switched to strip-till for corn seven years ago. "In the falI of 2005, my local dealer had me test AutoTrac and the John Deere SF2 guidance signal with plus or minus 4-inch accuracy," he says.
"It worked really well to lay out straight strips, but I had to do a lot of side shifting. The following spring I decided to buy the plus or minus 1-inch accuracy of RTK after talking to other experienced growers."
TOP TECHNOLOGY. Now Hafner is sold on the technology. "I can easily plant right down the center of my strips and watch the planter without worrying about steering," he says. "The automatic terrain compensator works well on sidehills to keep the tractor following the strips. And now I'm helping test some implement guidance technology.
"One of the biggest benefits of not steering is how much less fatigued I am at the end of a long day," Hafner says. "I noticed the very first day with autosteer that the tension in my arms, shoulders and neck—and eye strain—were greatly reduced. And that's huge in my book."
Reducing the fatigue factor also was a welcome benefit when longtime no-till/strip-till advocate Jim Kinsella added AutoFarm RTK autosteer technology four years ago on his Lexington, Ill., farm.
"I'd been laying out strips in the fall with markers and then trying to plant on them without markers since we started strip-tilling in 1983. This autosteer accuracy is a big improvement—and a big reason why strip-tilling is catching on fast, especially here in Illinois."
Last fall, Kinsella says he had more phone calls than ever about strip-till and RTK, so the interest is high. "To me, strip-till is the best agronomic way to handle corn on corn; it gives us our best yields," he says.
Kinsella doesn't see too many places where strip-till won't help. "In really rolling ground, it may not have a fit. And on contoured terraces in uneven fields, it's a challenge too. RTK does work on curves, but it's not quite as accurate when the curves get sharp," he says.
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THE RIGHT EQUIPMENT. As strip-till continues to evolve, proper equipment setup becomes even more important. Tim Renger of Bancroft, Iowa, says it not only has to be set up right but also has to have the right attachments in the right places.
Renger made his strip-tillage machine by welding two Hiniker toolbars together. He installed 12 shanks with 30-inch centers that match up to the row units on his planter. He also added trash whippers to the front of the tillage toolbar to clear a path for the tillage shank through high-residue fields.
In the fall, the shanks cut a 17-inch-deep slot and inject potassium and phosphorus about 10 inches deep. Each shank has dual fertilizer outlets to ensure even distribution even if one outlet gets plugged. Renger pulls the strip-till toolbar setup with a 370-hp Steiger tractor (all-wheel drive).
Except for the headlands, Renger's setup is a hands-free application as he uses RTK autopilot to create perfectly parallel strips. A-B lines are set via GPS to start each field.
In the spring, Renger plants corn directly into the tillage strips. His planter is modified with 15-inch ripple coulters to open any air pockets in the strips. Two trash whippers remove residue from the planting furrow for a clean, consistent seed drop. A MayWes coulter closes the furrow so seed is not overpacked.
At planting, Renger also injects liquid nitrogen (32%) into the strip at about 7 inches deep. Seed depth is 2 to 21/4 inches. "By placing the fertilizer where it's needed, we save on the amount used," he adds.
Renger relies on veteran tillage and planter consultant Kevin Williams of Ankeny, Iowa. Each spring Williams sets corn meters to improve seed placement and stands. Renger, who's heading into his fourth year of strip-till, reports his approach boosts corn yields by about 15 bushels per acre and reduces fertilizer inputs "by about 50% across the board."
PROTECTS WATERSHED. Last year Mark Hanna, Extension ag engineer at Iowa State University, helped Fred Abels of Holland, Iowa, set up an economical strip-till rig for spring use. His goal was a unit that provided light tillage and precise fertilizer application to protect a watershed.
The 6-row-on-30-inch-centers rig costs $1,000 per row. Abels received a conservation grant from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture and Iowa State University that paid for most of the fabrication.
"We used a Case IH planter bar and mounted Kinze dry fertilizer boxes on the front and a second row of John Deere dry boxes near the rear," explains Abels.
The first row of boxes drops a dry phosphorus and potassium mix about 4 inches beside the row, which is then incorporated by the anhydrous knives. The second set of boxes feeds the same mix into the knives for distribution about 3 inches deep.
Anhydrous ammonia is applied in the same pass, about 4 inches from the row on the opposite side. A hitch attached to the toolbar pulls the tank. Yetter row openers and a system of three coulters prepare the seedbed in the strip.
Abels plants into the same strips about a week or two after tillage is completed, using row markers as guides.
"The primary benefit is a more even stand," Abels says. "That's because we have good black soil in the strip ready for planting. It leaves the soil very nice and doesn't leave a ridge."
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GRAIN CART CHALLENGE. But even with advances in technology, some hurdles with strip-till remain, such as the grain cart.
"I can shell 50% more corn with a grain cart than without one," says Kent "Skip" Klinefelter, who farms near Nokomis, Ill. "That's a huge efficiency to overcome."
To compensate, Klinefelter has his grain cart operator drive on controlled traffic rows to support the weight as much as possible. But the cart cuts over when the combine unloads.
This compromise is hardly ideal, points out Randall Reeder, Extension agricultural engineer at Ohio State University. "The biggest combines harvest so fast that they might be unloading half the time.
"The real solution would be to get an auger with an extension long enough to reach the grain cart and stay in that traffic pattern." But Reeder has yet to see a model that works well.
Although not a controlled traffic solution, another way to reduce compaction would be to place tandem axles on grain carts similar to manure spreaders, says Reeder. But again, this is something grain cart manufacturers have yet to address.
"On most manure spreaders the load per axle is 10 to 12 tons. But on a full grain cart, you're looking at 20 to 40 tons," Reeder says.
And that extra weight per axle can cost you. "A 10% yield reduction due to compaction is not at all unusual for a 20-ton axle load," adds Reeder.
"Take 10% of 150 bushels per acre corn and you lose 15 bushels. At $4 per bushel, that costs $60. But in a controlled traffic system, you could reasonably expect that yield loss would disappear.
"Most deep compaction is caused by driving heavy axle loads on moist to wet soil," Reeder adds. "Controlled traffic eliminates the worry about yield losses. Also, if damaging compaction is avoided and tillage is unnecessary, this paves the way for continuous no-till to be more successful."
Illinois' Klinefelter farms 4,500 acres with a cousin. They strip-till corn and no-till soybeans. They switched to a 12-row corn head, plant with a 24-row unit on tracks and use a 90-foot sprayer to maximize their controlled traffic.
To allow for roots, every year Klinefelter and his cousin move their rows 15 inches in one direction, and the following year they move back to the original location.
Keep custom applicators on the right path
You don't want a custom applicator to ruin your controlled traffic patterns. Here's how to keep them on the right path:
Ask questions. Find out if the custom applicator you work with has equipment available that fits your traffic pattern.
- Remind your applicator. Don't forget when you call and order your custom fertilizer or spray application to specify the wheelbase to be used in your field. Be sure the applicator has your autosteer specs.
- Have a backup. It's a good idea to keep your field data backed up and have a copy of your A-B line/field traffic patterns available with you in the field as a backup for a custom applicator. Keep a printout of your A-B line coordinates in your pickup and a USB flash drive with your field maps on it.
- Hand over your A-B line specs. You should have your field map traffic patterns, or at the very least your A-B line coordinates ready to give to your custom applicator.