‘How much
difference is there
between stripping in
the fall (strip-tillage)
and using equipment
on the planter in
the spring to clear
a row?’
–Bishop Mumford
Griffin, Indiana
Photographs: Mike Boyatt, Mike Hood
Bishop Mumford raises corn, soybeans, and wheat in southern
Indiana. He outfitted his 12-row John
Deere 7200 corn planter with trash
wheels in front of the row units,
Case IH tires on the gauge wheels,
and spiked closing wheels. There is
no fall strip-till in his area, and he is
too far south to apply anhydrous
ammonia in the fall, which is what
many of the strip-tillers do.
Strip-till vs. planter
attachments
Both of these distinctly different approaches to no-till have their place
By Rich Fee
Crops and Soils Editor
any corn growers question
their tillage and planting systems from time to time.
Bishop Mumford, Griffin, Indiana, is
one such grower.
Mumford has no-tilled most of his
corn for the past 15 years. For several
years, he used nothing but coulters and
residue wheels. Now, however, he has
several attachments on his planter.
“It didn’t really come together for
me until I added Case IH gauge wheel
tires, Keeton seed firmers, spiked closing wheels, and chains,” he says.
Although Mumford likes his current
M
setup, he wonders if his soil would
warm up and dry out more quickly
with fall strip-till. That’s why he posted the question at the top of the page
in a talk group at Agriculture Online™,
where it sparked a discussion among
other growers. We’ve included some
of their comments, along with comments from other growers, in this story
comparing fall strip-till to using
attachments on the planter to clear a
strip in which to plant.
There are many approaches to striptill. One of the most common involves
using a smooth coulter, anhydrous
ammonia shank with a mole knife, and
oversize closing disks to place anhydrous ammonia and/or phosphate and
potassium 6 to 8 inches deep. This
setup builds a mound to plant into the
following spring.
Likewise, there are a lot of different
types of planter attachments to clear
residue and lightly till a strip of soil to
plant into. Residue wheels are almost
standard equipment on many no-till
planters. They’re often run in combination with no-till coulters.
More recently, no-tillers who frequently plant into wet soil have added
spiked closing wheels in an attempt to
eliminate sidewall smearing in the fur-
SPECIAL BONUS PAGE SUCCESSFUL FARMING, NOVEMBER 2003
☛
Darrell Dunahee does custom work with this machine in addition to strip-tilling his own fields. He only applies dry fertilizer early in the season. Later, after the soil temperature has dropped, he also applies anhydrous ammonia.
Strip-till
compaction over the row.
☛ rowA and
lot of strip-tillers are converts
from pure no-till who had experienced
poor stands in cold, wet springs.
Others, like Darrell Dunahee, Melvin,
Illinois, previously field-cultivated
bean stubble ahead of planting corn.
“But I saw soil erosion where I ran
the field cultivator,” he says. “Ever
since I was a little boy it’s upset me to
see soil washing away. I thought there
had to be a better solution.”
For Dunahee, the solution was fall
strip-till, which he adopted nine years
ago. “It’s not without problems, but
basically it works well,” he says. “It
looks like it is yielding right with conventional tillage. And the thing most
people around here like is it plants
nicely. The soil is loose and mellow.
Generally, you don’t end up with clods
or smeary soil.”
Two years ago, he bought the striptill rig shown above and started doing
custom work through the Melvin FS
plant in addition to his own fields.
Agro-Connect:
Finding solutions
Agro-Connect is a new series
of stories in which we find
answers to agronomic questions
posed by farmers in the
Agriculture Online™ talk groups.
You can participate by visiting
www.agriculture.com/
agroconnect/.
Darrell Dunahee farms in east central Illinois, where fall strip-till is
gaining ground.
According to plant manager Mike
Moody, FS charges $7.50 for striptillage without fertilizer, $11 for striptillage with either dry fertilizer or
anhydrous ammonia, $13 for striptillage with both forms of fertilizer.
Both strip-till machines and attachments on the planter will enable you to
sidestep residue at planting. With
strip-tillage, however, the soil is also
warmer and drier at planting.
“The effect on soil temperature from
strip-till is dramatic,” says University
of Illinois plant pathologist Wayne
Pedersen. “We’ve created a planting
zone that is 5º to 9º warmer than regular no-till, making it comparable to
conventional mulch-till.”
Moisture and temperature are interrelated. Jim Kinsella has worked with
strip-till for 20 years on his Lexington,
Illinois, farm. He says, “A lot of people think the residue is keeping the
ground cold. But it is really the water
that is keeping it cold. I don’t care how
much sun you’ve got, as long as the
pores are full of water, the ground is
not going to warm up.”
Kinsella says mound height is the
key to getting the strips dried out
enough to plant. “I have seen level
ground that has all the residue
removed, but it stays wet because the
water table is level there. If you can
get a 3-inch mound, I don’t care how
much residue is on it, it is going to be
drier than a flat area.”
Many strip-tillers realize it’s not
going to pay every year. But they think
the trip is worthwhile because in wet
years it lets them start planting sooner
the first time and after each rain.
Power problems
One of the big drawbacks with striptill is the power it requires. Just how
much you need depends on your soil
and your equipment. Obviously, it
takes more horsepower if you are
applying anhydrous ammonia and dry
fertilizer in addition to strip-tilling.
The rule of thumb is you need 15 to 20
horsepower per row. Dunahee uses a
John Deere 9400 with 425 engine
horsepower to pull his rig, which can
be set for either 12 or 16 rows.
The power requirements, cost of
strip-till equipment, and a shortage of
time in the fall are among the reasons
many no-tillers prefer to make a strip
with attachments on their planter
instead of in a separate trip in the fall.
Ed Winkle, a farmer and crop consultant in Blanchester, Ohio, considers
fall strips an extra pass. “I think we
can strip-till in one no-till pass,” he
SPECIAL BONUS PAGE SUCCESSFUL FARMING, NOVEMBER 2003
☛
Strip-till
Growers share their planting experiences
“The market is not rewarding us
☛ says.
for high input costs, so we had better
learn how to do it in less passes.”
For the past four years, Carl, Mark
and Terry Willhoit, Batavia, Iowa,
have been using a Kinze planter with
the attachments that Ag Spectrum recommends for their Nu-Till system.
They use row cleaners in front of the
double-disk openers and spiked closing wheels and steel chains behind the
openers. They also use Case IH tires
on the gauge wheels.
In prior years, the Willhoits fieldcultivated most of their bean stubble
ahead of corn. Mark says they hoped
to save some money by eliminating
trips and running smaller machinery.
Where compaction is a problem, they
run an inline ripper in the fall and a
rolling harrow in the spring.
A
question posed in the Crop
Scouting discussion group of
Agriculture Online™ yielded comments about fall strip-till and using
planter attachments to prepare a
strip for planting. Here’s a sampling:
“I’ve strip-tilled for 12 years. I’ve
never been hurt by the strip-tillage in
regards to yield. I’ve had check strips
where it made a 25-bushel-per-acre
difference not to strip-till. I always
have used coulter/residue manager
combo (units) on my planter even
after strip-tillage.
“I farm heavy, black clay soils that
stay cold and wet in the spring. I’ve
consistently seen a 4º to 7º soil temperature difference between fall
strips and untilled areas. I’ve had
checks with no strips that even one
week after planting there was 3º to
4º difference between fall strips and
spring strips. That 3º to 4º temperature difference is enough to make
the difference between replanting
and having an excellent stand.”
–Carl Roberts, Belmond, Iowa
“We are finding that with the
Martin setup on our planter we can
plant pretty much as soon as the
ground is fit to drive across with the
tractor and before our conventional
tillage neighbors can start working
ground. We are only about 30 miles
north of the Missouri state border,
and I could see the advantages of
pre-made strips further north.”
–Cliff Neubauer, Fairfield, Iowa ■
Spring support
Jim Bassett is president of Dawn
Equipment Company, which makes
attachments for planters and strip-till
rigs. “The thing no planter attachment
can provide is time,” he says. “The soil
is not going to dry out or warm up in
the seconds it takes to travel the 6
inches or 6 feet between the row cleaners, openers, and closing wheels.
“Yes, we can set up a planter to
work better in wet ground,” says
Bassett. “However, there is still an
advantage to planting into a cleared,
warmed, drier, aerated, and fertilized
strip rather than mud.”
In case you’re not in enough of a
quandary, Bassett thinks spring striptill ahead of the planter is the answer
for many growers. And with both fall
and spring strips, he recommends row
cleaners on the planter. SF
Above: Martin closing wheels loosen
the soil behind the openers.
Right: Martin row cleaners move
residue from in front of the doubledisk openers.
Learn more
For more about no-till options
and other agronomic topics, visit
Agro-Connect online. Sponsored
by Dow AgroSciences, it offers
expert advice, farmer ideas, a
discussion group, and more.
Web: www.agriculture.com/
agroconnect/
SPECIAL BONUS PAGE SUCCESSFUL FARMING, NOVEMBER 2003
Terry Willhoit (left) and
his brother Mark outfitted their 12-row Kinze
planter to clear a path
and apply fertilizer.
They apply 5 gallons
per acre of Ag
Spectrum 8-19-3 liquid
fertilizer through tubes
on Keeton seed firmers. Plus, they apply
about 20 gallons of
32% liquid nitrogen
through coulters about
4 inches to the side of
each row. Later, they
sidedress an additional
70 to 80 pounds of
actual nitrogen as
anhydrous ammonia.