A reader from the northern Corn Belt posted the following question in our Strip-Till 101 discussion group:

"I'm new to strip till and have had two good falls for strip-tilling with great weather. What I haven't experienced yet is a wet fall. What will I need to be prepared to do, or do differently, to get my strips in should we get a very wet fall?"

Rock Creek, Minn., strip-tiller Jon Stevens replies with the following advice:

"My concern would be is there a chance that you could have smearing around the shank to cause trench issues in the spring? Depending on the type of corn head you have, whether it's chopping or non-chopping, and the row cleaners you have, fresh wet residue could be a problem.

"Depending on your soil, the discs can fill up with mud and plug...the dirt just keeps piling up on the face of the discs until it can't get through. The same thing happens with a conditioning unit on the back side if it's that wet and sticky, it's just going to turn into a tumbling Tootsie Roll.

"That's where I really enjoy bringing in some of the soil health practices with strip-till. You're building that soil during the season and you can start to reduce some of these issues."

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