As a niche farming practice, strip-till requires an intimate understanding of how different parts of the system correlate to an overall objective, whether it’s increasing yields, improving soil health, targeting fertilizer application — or all three.
Striking the right balance between equipment and inputs, to maximize the benefits of strip-till, is a constant work in progress. With so many moving parts (literally and figuratively), having a local resource who is knowledgeable on setting up and maintaining a strip-till system can be a luxury for farmers.
Set Up for Success
Unlike other implements, strip-till rigs often require a more detailed understanding of a farmer’s operation and goals to ensure proper performance and results.
After researching different strip-till rigs at a field day in Illinois, North Vernon, Ind., farmer Bob Kent purchased a 16-row Kuhn-Krause Gladiator unit, the first one sold by his local equipment dealership, to strip-till corn on his 1,500-acre operation. While he relies heavily on his manufacturer representative for support, Kent has worked with his equipment dealer on some maintenance and modifications.
When he purchased the unit, one of Kent’s first objectives was to add a liquid fertilizer box. He bought a 1,000-gallon liquid tank that the dealership mounted on the unit to apply phosphorus and potassium with ground-driven pumps. Kent also pulls an anhydrous tank behind the strip-till unit and worked with his dealer to connect and route the hoses to the row units.
“With strip-till, it’s important that my dealer has a good relationship with their supplier,” Kent says. “When we bought our unit, a company representative, my salesperson from the dealership and a service technician all came out to set up the machine, which showed me collaboration and commitment.”
Maintenance Musts to Extend the Life of Your Strip-Till Rig
Illinois strip-tiller Mike Bland admits that he’s always been a stickler when it comes to equipment maintenance. The last thing he wants when heading into the fields to build fall strips is wasting time diagnosing and fixing a problem that could have been prevented.
Since he began strip-tilling nearly a decade ago, Bland prides himself on making sure his two strip-till rigs — a 12-row Blu-Jet and a 12-row Redball — are ready to roll after harvest.
“I’m a big advocate of making sure mechanical systems are working properly before I start building my strips and applying fertilizer,” he says. “Summer is always a good time to check the equipment and make sure it runs.”
This includes changing out worn anhydrous knives and taking preventative measures like spraying down rigs in the off-season to ward off rust caused by corrosive dry fertilizer. Bland strip-tills about 1,200 acres of corn near Bethany, Ill., and primarily no-tills 800 acres of soybeans, although he has tried strip-tilling them in the past.
In his first year strip-tilling, Bland learned a valuable lesson about maintaining his rig’s coulter blades.
“The first year we used a 16-row toolbar that we worked pretty hard, so we got the torch out and did some bending of the blades,” he says. “The next year, we got some big humps. And when they’re 8 inches high, they don’t settle down.
“We had a real dry spring and the planter wouldn’t stay on top. It would get on top of the strip, then slide off to one side because it was too tall and hard.”
Bland narrowed the coulters so they wouldn’t build as big of a berm, which has proven easier to plant into every year since. Today, checking the coulter width is a routine part of the maintenance of his strip-till units.
But Bland points out that inspection and upkeep of strip-till machinery is only part of equation to maintaining a successful operation. While replacement time differs for each strip-tiller, preventative measures can be taken to extend the life of parts.
Bland used to spray his older Redball unit with diesel fuel, or a diesel fuel/hydraulic-fluid mix to prevent rust caused by dry fertilizer residue. While the method was effective, he recently switched to spraying the rig with a lanolin-based corrosion protection product called Fluid Film.
“It does a nice job keeping the rust at bay and it’s something I wish I’d started using a few years ago,” Bland says. “Five gallons cost about $140, and will last me about 2 years, so it’s a pretty affordable solution.”
But not every maintenance effort has been successful. To combat mud buildup, Bland removed the closing blades on his Redball row units and sandblasted them to remove rust, and also cleaned the scrapers on the inside blades to prevent mud buildup.
But the sandblasting fix was temporary and Bland ended up taking the scrapers off. He ultimately drilled holes in the disc sealers on his bar to reduce mud build up, which has worked well.
Despite his strip-till rigs being upwards of a decade old, Bland says he’s not seen significant drop off in performance of either machine. “We’re still able to do what we want, getting fertilizer under the row and making decent strips,” he says.
Even if dealers aren’t strip-till equipment experts, they should at least understand the basics, says Plainview, Texas, strip-tiller Steve Olson. This includes sizing a strip-till rig to match a farmer’s operation, making sure row units are level and set to the desired depth and being able to sell and service GPS systems (especially RTK-level correction), which many strip-tillers view as a necessity.
With a masters degree in engineering, Olson does most of his own equipment modifications on his 12-row Orthman 1tRIPr unit, and suggests that farmers can be less reliant on dealers for strip-till equipment expertise, than with other pieces of machinery.
“If my dealer delivers a new combine to my farm and I can’t figure out how to run it and call the manufacturer, that dealer would be in big trouble,” Olson says. “But if I don’t know how to run my strip-till rig, there’s not always the same pressure on the dealer because chances are, I’ll figure it out.”
Embracing the Concept
While equipment knowledge is one part of strip-till, it’s not the only one. Farmers are also looking for support and understanding of strip-till as a system.
Dealers who simply sell a strip-till rig and then ask the manufacturer to tell them what settings they should run, how deep it should go and where to place what pin are likely going to have farm customers experience middling results, says Andy Thompson, Niota, Ill., strip-tiller and territory manager for Yetter Mfg.
“When a farmer goes into an equipment dealer and asks about strip-till equipment, nutrient placement equipment, reduced tillage equipment, etc., they are now needing someone to help teach them how to connect with the farmer on these subjects,” Thompson says. “Therein lies the problem. The successful dealers selling strip-till equipment are the ones who are selling the concept and helping educate the farmer, not only on the equipment, but also on the practice.”
Olson says dealers who are serious about selling strip-till equipment should expect to make at least a 3 year commitment with the customer before seeing measurable benefits such as improved soil health and higher yields.
He purchased his first strip-till rig in 2006 from an equipment dealer in the Oklahoma Panhandle after finding little support or knowledge from local retailers about how to implement the system on his 2,500 corn and cotton operation.
“I was basically told point blank that strip-till wasn’t going to work in our area because of the dry, hard clay soils we have in northern Texas,” he says. “But gradually, the practice started getting more attention because it helps retain moisture, which is a precious commodity in our area, while also increasing yields.”
In 2009, he purchased his current strip-till rig from his local farm equipment dealership. At the time, it was one of the first strip-till unit the dealership had sold, but Olson says the retailer has been an ally in developing his system.
As part of the purchase, the dealership helped coordinate a brief meeting with agronomist and plant root expert Mike Petersen, who Olson credits with connecting the dots between fertility, soil health and equipment setup in his strip-till system.
“The biggest issue for a lot of dealers, as well as farmers, is that they don’t understand that soil structure and soil health are absolutely everything when it comes to having a successful crop,” Olson says. “That’s a key part of being profitable with strip-till, and the producer who can produce the most with lowest cost per bushel is going to succeed.”
Reinforcing the benefits of strip-till can be a natural sales tool for dealers, says Kent, who has increased corn yields by 10% per acre and trimmed his fertilizer application by 40% per acre since adopting the practice.
“It doesn’t take long for the equipment to pay for itself when you get that kind of return,” he says. “If a dealer in the strip-till business hasn’t sold a unit, I advise them to partner with a representative farmer who can show the value.”
