South Central Lower Michigan | swne - 5/3/2024 08:04
Strip till is very popular around here. I hire some done occasionally. I still no till or VT most of my irrigated acres. Dryland is all no till.
The concerns I have with strip till are
(1) the expense of the equipment required to do it.
(2) keeping the planter on the strip. Pull type planters mice around especially on slopes.
(3) here, most strip till is done in the spring. If it’s dry enough it works good until it stays dry then you have a dry seedbed to deal with. If it is wet, I don’t like seeing tillage done when it’s wet.
(4) if you have slopes and you receive a big rain like we see occasionally, I’ll see washouts down to the depths of the shank then tillage is needed to close that up plus the fertilizer is probably washed down the hill. That becomes a real mess.
So, my view is strip till is a good concept but it may not work for everyone. I’m trying to stay out of it for the reasons I mentioned.
We strip in the spring with a shank. It can be a real pain regarding the dry/cloudy seedbed issue. Works great to get a light rain in between the strip pass and the planter to settle things. More often than not that doesn’t happen. Have used a land roller to pack strips before planting, works good. Corn is 95% full conventional till in this area so the expense of a strip and roller pass doesn’t bother me compared to conventional tillage. Wish no till corn “worked” here and we have done it but the results are typically substandard.
We use 1” shifts to keep the planter on the strip.
Edited by Dan Michigan 5/3/2024 11:42
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Real world opinions on strip till
