Strip-tilled fields aren’t designed to win beauty contests, and a picturesque plot of land isn’t nearly as valuable as the benefits of a well-structured system.

Brian Ryberg

Buffalo Lake, Minn., farmer Brian Ryberg understands and embraces this philosophy on his 3,000-acre operation. Transitioning from conventional tillage to 22-inch strip-till, nearly two-thirds of Ryberg’s strip-tilled corn, soybean and sugarbeet acres are covered with crop residue.

While he welcomes the microbial soil enhancement to his silty clay loam soils, Ryberg meticulously manages residue distribution and breakdown to consistently produce high-yielding crops.

During a classroom session at the 2017 National Strip-Tillage Conference, Ryberg will discuss his approach to residue management in narrow-row strip-till along with the cost savings, input efficiency and equipment setups he’s utilized in his system.

Registration is now open at www.StripTillConference.com for the 2017 event at $234 per person and $214 for additional farm or family members. The host Embassy Suites Omaha-La Vista Hotel & Conference Center is holding a block of rooms for the conference at a special rate of $129 per night.

You can make reservations by calling (402) 331-7400 and when booking, mention code “NS8” to get the special rate.

Reservations can also be made at the Courtyard Omaha La Vista at a special rate of $109. You can make reservations by calling (402) 339-4900 and when booking, mention code, “NSTC” to get the special rate.

Preliminary plans for the event include 7 general session speakers, 12 classrooms covering a range of strip-till topics — including cover cropping, precision farming practices, fertilizer placement and equipment modifications — along with 26 roundtable discussions.

Stay tuned for more conference updates by visiting www.StripTillConference.com and we’ll see you in Omaha!