|
Redwood Falls, MN | Lots of good explanation of what I have seen strip tilling. You don't need a yield increase to make it more profitable due to the lower input costs. I had a great opportunity to compare strip till with conventional till and a very minimal disturbance system by banding dry fert about 4.5" deep with a Yetter Magnum for 5 years across our 1,000 corn acres. What I learned was that the strip till and low disturbance placement with the Magnums pretty much yielded the same and all but 1 year beat the conventional tillage yield. We can raise the row cleaners and you can hardly tell where we've been with the Magnums so, in my opinion, is as close as you can get to no-till but still placing nutrients in the root zone. Those systems had less expense due to reduced passes and a reduced fertilizer rate due to placement. We now do all our acres with the Yetter Magnums and cover about 32 ac/hr compared to 23 ac/hr with the strip till bar using the same tractor. As also noted, there is a definite shift in level of management and operator ability. I can't just find a steering wheel holder to go chisel plow in our system, as the attention to detail and understanding of technology is pretty high.
The comment about shanks and rocks is real and I do enjoy the Yetter Magnums for that reason. Transitioning your soil from a tillage heavy system to the low disturbance system takes time and strip-till is a happy medium until your soil changes to earn the right to move away from tillage. Cover drops certainly speed up the process and a 3rd crop can help as well.
Overall, according to our crop insurance agent, our yields are toward the top of his customer base and we spend quite a bit less to get them with strip till and even less with our low-disturbance fertilizer placement with the Magnums. That certainly helps with the cash flow on a tight year and we get the soil-health benefits as the icing on top.
Edited by mrtiffany 2/19/2025 08:57
 (Cost of production2 (full).jpg)
 (coulter bar 23 (full).jpg)
 (20231111_102953 (full).jpg)
 (20231111_161821 (full).jpg)
Attachments
----------------
 Cost of production2 (full).jpg (150KB - 11 downloads)
coulter bar 23 (full).jpg (345KB - 14 downloads)
20231111_102953 (full).jpg (189KB - 12 downloads)
20231111_161821 (full).jpg (244KB - 10 downloads)
| |
|
Yield beneft to strip till compared to notill
