I saw a great article on strip tilling and how to avoid the most common mistakes when using this conservation tilling method. In speaking with farmers, particularly guys working corn, I’d heard some horror stories – bad yields, new weed growth, soil compaction, all kinds of things. But I also heard from a lot of farmers that strip tilling was really working well for them, so I was wondering what the difference was.  Strip tilling is like any higher-management farming technique – if you do it right, it works great. Less than optimum implementation, and there’s a less than optimum result. Strip-till does require a fair amount of planning ahead, the use of the right equipment, and an understanding of your soil and your land. The linked article, from Corn & Soybean Digest, will steer you right. Here are some of the high points.  

Do It in the Right Place 

The most common error farmers make is to try strip-till on the wrong field! Strip-till works best on drier soil, and on flatter fields. It’s pretty tricky to lay down a strip on a field where you have to make curving rows. The experts recommend that you strip-till on flat land with a regular geography and dry soil, especially when you’re learning the method.   

Use the Right Equipment 

Strip-till takes less horsepower than a full-width till, but it’s easy to overestimate the reduction, especially if you’re fertilizing at the same time. Also, older equipment tends to have higher margins of error – something that doesn’t a difference when you’re doing a full till but that turns critical when your strip is just 6” wide. Newer gear tends to perform better. And unless you’re the king of precision tractor driving, you will need a real-time kinetic (RTK) autosteer unit – otherwise it’s just too hard to stay on the row.  

Do it at the Right Time – Which Varies! 

Some experienced farmers recommend building the strips in the fall. Not only are schedules looser, but the soil tends to be drier and leaves fewer clods. In addition, planning to lay strips in the fall gives you a backup – if you plan to do it in the spring and get bad weather, you are out of luck. But other farmers report better results with spring tillage – for one thing, nitrogen management is easier and the strips tend to be blacker, leading to better soil heating. The right time for your tillage is likely to vary depending on the nature of your schedule and the particular crops you’re planting.  

Watch the Weeds 

Farmers who have problems with weed recurrence are often those who switch to strip-till but who keep the same herbicide regimen. The reduction in tillage leaves a big door open for a lot of weeds that you might not be used to seeing – so flexibility in timing your herbicide application is a must.   

Making the switch to strip-till isn’t a trivial job, is it? However, it does pay dividends – a well-managed strip till does boost yield, especially in dry years. Farmers report jumps of up to 12 bushels an acre in corn yield – and that’s not peanuts.