Here’s a look at some of the latest action in the Strip-Till Farmer Email Discussion Group. Click here to join in on the conversation!

Damian Gradowski: I’d like to switch to strip-till, but I have a large amount of manure from dairy cows with straw and use it in the spring and fall when growing corn in monoculture. How would you solve this with strip-till?

Roger Engstrom (Ames, Iowa): Get a SoilWarrior. It will handle huge quantities of reasidue and manure and make a great seedbed. Or if you have a no-till planter, put fluted turbo coulters in place of the wave coulters.

Jon Stevens (Rock Creek, Minn.): If I was back into dairy, strip-till with a liquid tank would be a dream for me! We kind of had it back in the 1980s — chisel plow shank with 2-inch hose but didn’t have closing disks.

Russell Cauwels (Milroy, Minn.): I’m strip-tilling into cornstalks, driving on the old rows and it’s chewing up my tires. 18.4-42s aren’t cheap. Cornstalks are extra dry and breaking off just above ground level. Any ideas?

Alex Ruebush (Colchester, Ill.): (Get a) Devastator

Brian Ryberg (Buffalo Lake, Minn.): Stompers are better. We have both and this will be my last year using the Devastator. Lots of problems and build up with mud if it’s wet.

Bryan Biegler (Lake Wilson, Minn.): Fastest and easiest way is finding a roller. Otherwise, get stompers to mount on the front of the tractor.

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James Hepp (Rockwell City, Iowa): Roller the same width as your strip-till going same direction you plan on going would be easy. Or if you’re handy, offset your hitch maybe so you can stay in between the rows? 

Jeremy Bedford (Spencer, Iowa): I offset 8” off the old corn rows, keeps all my planter tires off stalks.

Noah Newman (Brookfield, Wis.): Are you done with harvest? How did your yields turn out and what kind of challenges did you encounter?

Russell Cauwels (Milroy, Minn.): It’s snowing here. We’re done with harvest and strip-tilling. Yields were disappointing, excessive moisture early. Strips for corn-on-corn didn’t turn out as black as we wanted, just could not move residue. We put in 200 acres of rye cover crop. Hoping to put in some tile. Happy farming!

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