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For this episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by the Pluribus Lite from Dawn Equipment, we're riding in the combine with Putnam, Ill., strip-tiller Jay Riddell as he completes corn harvest on one of his farms.
Listen in as the fourth-generation farmer shares the nuts and bolts of his 100% strip-till operation.
Riddell talks about the development of management zones, cover crops, planting green, precision technology, and reveals his unique approach to managing inputs.
The Strip-Till Farmer podcast is brought to you by Dawn Equipment.
Dawn Equipment, a family-owned company in Sycamore, Illinois, has a reputation for responsive customer service and American-made quality products that goes back to its origin nearly 3 decades. The company has grown to more than 40 employees and numerous products, earned awards for innovative design plus a growing number of patents, but it has not lost its commitment to U.S. made products. And customers and dealers can still call to speak directly with sales and engineering staff. Dawn has redefined several market segments like strip-till and active hydraulic control of planter and attachments. Dawn was the first company to make a remotely controllable planting product. Dawn continues its commitment to innovation, to customer service, and to active response to the changing needs of America’s farmers. Visit them at www.dawnequipment.com.
Full Transcript
Noah Newman:
Hello and welcome to another edition of the Strip-Till Farmer Podcast, brought to you by the Pluribus Lite from Dawn Equipment. I'm your host, Noah Newman. Special treat this week. We are on the road and inside the combine with Putnam, Illinois, Strip-Tiller Jay Riddell, as he completes corn harvest on one of his farms. We're going to talk about his development of management zones, cover crops, planting green, precision technology, and his unique approach to managing inputs. All right, here we go. Let's hop inside the cab with Jay.
Pretty unique when you do with soybeans.
Jay Riddell:
Well, we're not on a straight 50/50 crop rotation, so some fields are corn, corn/soybeans, and some fields are just a corn, soybean rotation. But we do strip 100% of the acres. We strip ahead of the soybeans and ahead of the corn, which around here anyway, some of the guys who strip-till, just no-till the soybeans.
Noah Newman:
Right. Yeah. What's your timeline usually? When do you plant soybeans and corn?
Jay Riddell:
I like to plant the soybeans ahead of the corn. As soon as things get fit for round here, April 10, April 15, is kind of pushing it. But yeah, we'll try to plant soybeans then, if we can. As soon as conditions get good, then we will switch over to corn. So this year, we didn't plant... We only planted a couple hundred acres of soybeans, and then we planted all the corn, and then we finished up with soybeans.
Noah Newman:
Yeah. How many acres do you farm? I know this one right here is typically not yours, but...
Jay Riddell:
Yeah, we farm about 2500.
Noah Newman:
2500. So where's your other location at?
Jay Riddell:
We are mainly... The home base is 16 miles from here.
Noah Newman:
Got it.
Jay Riddell:
South and west. Then we have about 400 acres, two miles from here, and then we got about 400 acres, about 10 miles back. But the bulk of everything is there near home, near Sparland, about 16 miles from here.
Noah Newman:
Are the different locations pretty similar, or how do they differ?
Jay Riddell:
No, they're vastly different. Here we have sand, and we've got irrigation on the 400 acres that's two miles from here.
Noah Newman:
I think I might... Is that off 29, too? I might have passed that. Or, is that not off 29?
Jay Riddell:
Yeah.
Noah Newman:
Okay. I saw an irrigation thing.
Jay Riddell:
Yeah, if you went right by the grain elevator.
Noah Newman:
Yes.
Jay Riddell:
We farm right behind there, and there's two pivots on that field. That soil varies from... There's actually some good black dirt on it, all the way to blow sand, all in the same field. It's a little more challenging, but works out a little better for... Everything we do is based off management zones. We don't necessarily have the management zones to reduce fertilizer input costs. We just try to reallocate it. We want to spend the most money, or we spend the most inputs where we think we have the greatest return. An area in the field that we think can raise 300, it'll get more fertility. It'll get more seed. Then when we're in the blow sand areas or right along a tree line that we know can only grow 220 bushel, we cut back the fertilizer. We cut back the seed on those areas.
We've actually found that when we did that, we actually increased the production in those poor areas because we were just planting it too thick, and the soil just couldn't produce. Where when we cut back the population to 26,000 or 28,000 on corn for population, then it was actually growing more than when we were trying to plant into 34,000.
Noah Newman:
Oh, wow.
Jay Riddell:
That actually is kind of the low hanging fruit that was easy to grab.
Noah Newman:
The management zone, how does that work? Do you soil sampling? Do you hire someone to do it? How do you...
Jay Riddell:
I have an agronomist that helps me set them up. They were basically... We ran a Veris machine and we've also, we've kind of switched more now to soil optics. We run that over basically every acre, and that helps us determine exactly what soil types are where. Then if we know that this field has been pattern tiled, there's kind of some subjectiveness of us knowing the ground then has changed those management zones over time.
The first thing we'll do is if we pick up a field, we will give it a yield goal. For easy figuring, we'll just say that the corn yield goal was 270 bushel. Well, then we will have areas in that field that could be 80% of the yield goal, and areas that would be 120%. We end up with a map with a management zone that adds up to 100%, or comes back to an average of 100%. That's basically then what we tweak on where we're putting how much fertilizer and how much seed and things, too.
Noah Newman:
Got it.
Jay Riddell:
So we start with the yield goal, and then we have our map made. The yield maps don't really play a big factor in our management zones. They're kind of more just the report card, how we did where, and we'll leave checks with the standard practice that goes to the full pass through the field, which will then tell us if our management zones were accurate or not accurate, or improved or if they hurt us. Ultimately, Mother Nature has the trump card, so all we're really trying to do is set ourselves up for success in a normal year.
Our practice then is all the dry fertilizer in the strip, and then the bulk of our nitrogen will be put on with anhydrous inside dress time. We won't make that prescription map until 48 hours before we go to put it on.
Noah Newman:
Oh, that's quick.
Jay Riddell:
We want to know what the weather did. We want to know how good of a stand do we have, and where the best bang for that dollar, or maybe it's to cut back rates, or maybe it's with the corn price being high like it was, and we had a beautiful stand this year, and so we pushed some of those rates a little more. That's the beauty of the in season application. I feel it's better for the environment, but it also allows us to call an audible, and really give the field what we think it needs for the year.
Noah Newman:
When do you usually side dress? Is there an approximate time window, or does it depend on the year?
Jay Riddell:
It depends on the year, but it's going to be somewhere in that June timeframe.
Noah Newman:
Then how do you apply the fertilizer? Do you apply with the strip-till rig?
Jay Riddell:
Yeah, my dry fertilizer then is blown in the strip. I got a 16 row strip-till bar that's got two, six ton compartments on it, and so we take the ingredients separately, and then we make our own blend going across the field. I say we take the products separately, we take our potash as a loan ingredient, and then we do mix map and sulfur together, so it's a blend in the other tank, and then it blends going through the field again. It's variable rate with hydraulic drives. There's four drives per tank, so there's actually eight drives on the bar, so the bar can be putting down a different rate of each ingredient at four rows at a time so it can really be changing.
We also have the capabilities than to pull anhydrous with that strip-till to bar, too, and we variable rate it. We don't apply very much fall anhydrous. We will, on small fields that are really hard to sidedress, but we do a fair amount of custom work, and most of our custom guys want their nitrogen down in the fall, so that's really why we have the nitrogen on the strip bar.
Noah Newman:
Got it. So you build your strips in the fall then, strictly?
Jay Riddell:
Yes, for the most part. We do have some cows that will run on some cornstalks, and so we will strip those fields in spring. We do some custom work in the spring with strip-till bar, too. Again, where some of it's you a lot more Sandy, they want those strips made in the spring, so we do that.
Noah Newman:
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Talking about equipment, you just mentioned the 16 row strip-till bar. What brand is it?
Jay Riddell:
It's a Niffty bar.
Noah Newman:
Niffty bar.
Jay Riddell:
Yeah, so it's Steve Peterson's design, then we pull it with a 520 horse fin tractor. We have John Deere planter, and John Deere combine.
Noah Newman:
Got it. What models? Do you know off the top?
Jay Riddell:
Yeah, the planter's a 1770 and it's got all of the precision toys on it, the hydraulic down force, V sets, just speed tubes, pretty much everything you can put on it. We pull it with a 8345r Deere tractor. Then the combine is a S780, with a 16 row corn head and a 40 foot draper on it. The fence is a 1030.
Noah Newman:
When did you start strip-tilling, and what was the motivation for getting into it?
Jay Riddell:
We started stripping, probably '07 or '08 with just strictly an anhydrous bar from the Co-op that was set up to make strips. Before we had the guidance, it was pretty hard to really stay on the strip and make it work. In '09 then, or actually, '08 for '09, we bought an eight row Orthman bar, and it was just anhydrous for the first couple years. Then we put a Flexi-Coil tank on the front of it to blow in dry fertilizer. We've been blowing in dry for 10 or 12 years.
Noah Newman:
Got it. You're 100% strip-till, right?
Jay Riddell:
Yes. Yeah. Yes, basically. I mean, if we have a field that we [inaudible 00:11:24] or something like that, then we will come in and work it. But no, we're the year in year out plan is 100% strip-till.
Noah Newman:
Are there a lot of strip-tillers in this area? Are you one of the only ones or is it pretty common?
Jay Riddell:
No, it's not very common here. There's getting to be a few more, but probably within 20 miles of here, there's probably only three or four of us.
Noah Newman:
Do you guys share ideas a lot, or talk, or not really?
Jay Riddell:
Some. One of them is my neighbor who bought my eight row bar, so him and I... I know that bar really well, and what works through it, what we've been doing. So yeah, him and I share thoughts.
Noah Newman:
Cool.
Jay Riddell:
Back quite a bit. We'll do... I think so far on the books, we've got maybe 5000 acres to do this fall that I think will grow to probably maybe 6000 or 7000 this fall. Then we'll do a couple thousand in the spring. We get around with our bar.
There is then a Co-op, oh maybe 30 miles from here, then who they run a couple gladiators. There is some strip-tilling done in the area.
Noah Newman:
Cover crops. Do you plant those at all?
Jay Riddell:
So ahead of our soybeans, we're basically 100% cover crop, just with rye. That's really the only operation that we don't do ourselves. As of right now, we're not applying our fungicide on the corn. We're having that done aerially. I've got a guy who comes in right behind us, on the field going to soybeans, and he'll drill that rye in with the goal being that it germinates, and then we come through and run the strip-till bar and actually fill it out then in our strips.
Noah Newman:
Okay.
Jay Riddell:
Then in the spring, you won't be able to see my strips from the road, you'll just see all the green rye. But the planter with the guidance, easily finds those strips. I think it's part of why we've been pretty successful with the cover crops is because of the strip-till. We're not trying to no-till into it. We actually have a nice seed bed there. The planter's just got to go find it.
Noah Newman:
Got it. About approximately, what are the rates of cereal rye? Does it vary, field to field, like how many pallets per acre?
Jay Riddell:
No. We keep it probably a little more on the light side. We try to be 30 to 35 pounds.
Noah Newman:
Biggest benefit to the cereal rye? What would you say?
Jay Riddell:
Probably building organic matter. That's really why we did it, is for erosion control and building organic matter. The side benefit to it has become that what was an expensive first chemical pass has now become a cheaper chemical pass, because it doesn't nothing but a burn down, and that rye does a really good job of suppressing all of our early weeds. We can actually basically save enough on that first chemical pass to pay for seed and rye, and so then everything else is just kind of a bonus from there.
Noah Newman:
How do you terminate it?
Jay Riddell:
We terminate it with the sprayer.
Noah Newman:
With the sprayer? Okay.
Jay Riddell:
We will plant it green. I'm real big on wanting to plant it green because I don't want to mat on the ground there to have trouble planting into. Shortly after the planter pulls out of the field, maybe 48 hours to give that any rye that we ding with the planter, to give it a chance to be in a position where the chemical will kill it. Then yeah, we just roll in with Roundup and smoke it.
Noah Newman:
Do you have your own sprayer?
Jay Riddell:
Yeah. Yeah. We've got a self-propelled Deere 4930 with 120 foot boom. Part of the reason for the 16 row corn head, and the 40 foot draper, and 120 foot sprayer, 16 row side dress bar, 16 row strip-till is to be controlled traffic. Everything runs in kind of the same wheel tracks, where we're side dressing with the anhydrous and pulling a tank.
With the Deere, the sprayer is a Deere sprayer. It's got the Raven Hawkeye system on it, which is the pulsating nozzles, so zero overlap, just a real nice efficient machine for spraying around waterways, and all the points and stuff that we tend to have.
Noah Newman:
For this particular region where you're at, are there any unique challenges that you face, and how does strip-till help you overcome some of those challenges? If there are any you can think of off the top of your head. I don't know.
Jay Riddell:
Yeah, so we get into some rolling ground. This strip-till bar does not have any rolling basket on the rear. It's a shank style machine. I like that it leaves the strips a lot rougher, but in the fall, I don't feel that that's a problem because they'll melt down over winter. We just don't have near the erosion problems that we did with the Orthman, with the rolling baskets. Just the rolling baskets or the gladiators that are in the area of the custom, they make such a beautiful seed bed that you don't really need in the fall. Around here, erosion can be a big problem, and a lot of times it'll just erode right down the strip to the bottom of the strip. We usually try to go about nine inches deep, and drop our fertilizer about seven.
Noah Newman:
How long has your family been farming for?
Jay Riddell:
Yeah, I'm fourth generation. My boys, one's in college at Iowa State and the other one's in high school, they're the fifth generation. So yeah, we've been... The home ground was actually bought in the early 1900s, so we're a centennial farm.
Noah Newman:
Oh, wow. Your sons want to be heavily involved in operation?
Jay Riddell:
Yeah, I believe so. We'll see. My son at Iowa State is studying business, with... I think he's talking about a minor in agronomy.
Noah Newman:
Oh, wow.
Jay Riddell:
So with plans, coming back.
Noah Newman:
So with cover crops, and strip-till, and all the practices you implement, what would you say is the main goal or motivation behind it all?
Jay Riddell:
We want to be good stewards of the land, and leave it better than we got it. By the same token, we've got to be profitable, and so everything we've done is also watching the bottom line.
Noah Newman:
That'll wrap things up for this week's edition of the Strip-till Farmer podcast. Thanks once again to Jay Riddell, for welcoming us along for the ride. He's a busy guy, so thanks to Jay for taking time out of his day to give us some insight into his operation. As always, we really appreciate you guys listening out there. Thanks to our sponsor, the Pluribus Lite from Dawn Equipment. To learn more, head to dawnequipment.com. For all things strip-till, head to striptillfarmer.com. Until next time, I'm Noah Newman. Have a great day.
