Andrew Reuschel always tells people he has about 50 years’ worth of farming knowledge and experience even though he’s only in his mid-30s. He has his grandpa, Louis, and dad, Jeff, to thank for that. They started no-tilling in the 80s and cover cropping in the 90s.  

“We have three generations of people failing,” Reuschel says. “That’s how we’ve become successful now with our system. Our family has put in the time — trying new things, failing and figuring out what works and why it works.” 

When Reuschel returned to the family’s Golden, Ill., farm after serving in the U.S. Army a few years ago, he followed in his predecessors’ footsteps by trying something new — strip-till. 

“When I returned, I went right back into cover crops and no-till, but I was having a lot of struggles,” the fifth-generation farmer says. “I was giving up yield by having to wait for the right moisture and temperature to plant. With strip-till, I knew I could start planting much earlier and get that corn up and out of the ground 3 weeks sooner.”

Poor Man’s Strip-Till

Like everything else they’ve tried in the past, Reuschel’s dad wanted to make sure strip-till would work for them before going all in.  

“I like to say that we did poor man’s strip-till at first,” Reuschel says. “We’d put down anhydrous in the fall, and then in the spring, we’d plant right on top of it. The concept was working, and we liked it, but we realized there would be years when the strips needed to be freshened in the spring.” 

Around the same time, Reuschel’s dad wanted to move away from liquid fertilizer on the planter. “He just wanted to focus on planting and was never a fan of having liquid on the planter to begin with,” Reuschel recalls. They settled on the perfect compromise.

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SEVEN & SEVEN. Reuschel broadcasts 7 pounds of cereal rye and 7 pounds of annual ryegrass before making his fall strips. He says the spring freshener pass pulverizes any covers that might be growing in the strips. Andrew Reuschel

“We could put the liquid fertilizer on with a strip freshener,” Reuschel says. “We decided to build a strip-till bar that could apply anhydrous with a shank in the fall and then be converted into a strip freshener with a coulter in the spring. I put rolling baskets on it and replumbed the whole thing for liquid.”

Reuschel, who still no-tills his soybeans, says they were able to build the 16-row bar without breaking the bank, and they just sold it in 2024 after using it successfully for 4 years. Now, they’re building a new bar with Yetter Strip Freshener Cab Control (CC) that they’ll debut this spring. 

“We’re building a more resilient, consistent system that will give us better depth control of the strips on every row,” Reuschel says. “Dad wanted to prove the concept and see if it would work before we started investing more money in strip-till. After increasing our corn yields by 20-40 bushels per acre on average the last few years, we decided it’s time to pump more money into this.”

Perfect Marriage

Reuschel says strip-till also works well with cover crops, which have been a go-to in their operation for decades. Seagram’s 7 and 7, as Reuschel calls it, is his cocktail of choice ahead of corn most years — 7 pounds of annual ryegrass and 7 pounds of cereal rye. The cereal rye acts like a big brother to the annual ryegrass, Reuschel says, helping it get through the winter. He broadcasts the mix with 100 pounds of potash as the carrier before making his fall strips about 6 inches deep. 

“The row cleaners push that cover crop off to the side, so in the spring, we have a black strip and a low rate of cover crops in between,” Reuschel says. “Strip-till is kind of like an insurance plan — I don’t have anything growing right next to that baby corn plant. When we run the strip freshener in the spring, if there are a few cereal rye plants that happen to be growing in the strip, they’ll get pulverized.” 


“I’m making decisions in season rather than just having a plan & sticking to it no matter what…”


One of the keys to Reuschel’s cover crop success is his willingness to adjust every year. For example, if he expects it’s going to be unseasonably cold, he won’t bother using annual ryegrass because it hasn’t survived early cold snaps in the past. 

“I try not to throw money out there if I don’t think I’m going to be able to maximize it,” Reuschel says. “But I love annual ryegrass. It’s one of the best cover crops. People say a lot of bad things about it, but they just haven’t found a variety that works well for their management styles. And it’s so stinking cheap.” 

It’s hard to put an exact number on it, but Reuschel estimates he saves at least $30 per acre on herbicide thanks to the weed-suppressing ability of his cover crops. Marestail hasn’t been much of an issue for him. Waterhemp pressure in his soybean fields now arrives much later in the season — around June 1 — than it did before. 

Ugly Strips in the Fall? Not the End of the World

Andrew Reuschel enjoys the best of both worlds with strips in the fall and a strip freshener in the spring. He recently concluded that it’s OK to not have the most “beautiful” strips in the fall. 

“I used to think that building the perfect fall strip meant the world,” he says. “But because we’re applying anhydrous, our window to make strips in the fall is limited. Sometimes, it’s very wet, and we’re not able to make the most beautiful fall strips. Now, I would sacrifice an average strip in the fall and make that spring pass my bread and butter because that’s what I’m actually planting into. I’ve changed from ‘fall is best’ to ‘give it to me in the spring.’”

“We’ve seen more lambsquarters popping up, and that’s a weed Dad and Grandpa have talked about for a long time, dating back to their organic farming days,” Reuschel says. “They used to say that lambsquarters was one of the best weeds to find because it means you have good fertility. When you start to think of weeds as indicators, I’ve seen my weeds change from what they were prior to using covers.” 

In-Game Adjustments 

Reuschel goes into every growing season with a gameplan, but like any great coach, he’s always changing it on the fly. “Call me back in 4 years, and my whole system might be different,” he says. These days, it’s strip (freshen), plant, spray in the spring, but the plant-spray part of the order is subject to change depending on soil and weather conditions. He usually terminates his cover crops with glyphosate after planting strip-tilled corn in 30-inch rows with his John Deere 16-row planter. 

Reuschel takes the same “adapt or die” mentality with his nutrient management plan. He takes tissue samples and runs Haney soil tests to determine if he needs to spoon-feed corn in season.

“I’m giving myself the option to make decisions in season rather than just having a plan and sticking to it no matter what,” Reuschel says. “Sometimes the corn plant might say, ‘Hey, I can use a little something extra here to finish out,’ and we’ll come in with the highboy Y-Drops. But if the environment and the economics don’t really play, then we won’t apply anything.”

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UPGRADE. Reuschel sold his original strip-till bar and is currently building this new bar with Yetter Strip Freshener Cab Control for improved depth control. He plans on using it for the first time this spring. Andrew Reuschel

Reuschel runs his spring strip freshener about 1.5 inches deep while applying a liquid nutrient mix that changes every year, but usually includes some combination of UAN 32 or 28, AMS, liquid K, boron, zinc and different forms of humics and sugars. Rates vary depending on the yield potential of the field, but his program averages about 175-185 pounds of N per acre.  

“We’re also playing a bit with ‘bugs in a jug,’” Reuschel says. “We’re selecting microbes and biology that activate phosphorous because I know that phosphorous is easily manipulated by biology.

“Strip-till allows us to have a more comprehensive nutrient plan,” he adds. “That’s another thing I really like about it. I’m able to do things with the liquid fertilizer that I couldn’t do when it was on the planter. I can apply more products per acre, and I can apply them in different spots. I don’t have to worry about seedling issues or getting that mix too hot or too close to the planter. Then come planting time, I can just focus on planting.” 

Like his grandpa and dad before him, Reuschel is always looking to improve his system and doesn’t shy away from a challenge. As the old cliche goes, he learns more from his failures than successes.

“I know what the general plan is, and we just go and tackle the job,” he says. “The beauty of farming is we’re always growing and trying something new. We’re constantly tweaking things and adjusting as we go. And we don’t need to have 6 different pieces of equipment laying around. We can do it all with 2 or 3.”