Efficiency is the name of the game for Shawn Olsen, who farms 4,500 acres with his dad, David, brother, Kelly and son, Carter, and runs a custom strip-till business that covers up to 25,000 acres in east central South Dakota. Olsen first saw the benefits of strip-till in 1998 when he noticed a 20-bushel corn yield bump on one of his test plots. He’s been strip-tilling all his corn acres ever since. 

“Strip-till helps minimize erosion over the winter, warms the soil earlier in the spring and allows us to band nutrients right under the row,” Olsen says. “We’ve seen consistent yield increases with strip-till and I would attribute that to nutrient placement the most.” 

Late Summer Strip-Till 

The strip-till calendar starts relatively early on Olsen’s Hayti, S.D., farm. If the weather cooperates, he’s running his Lynx Ag 24-row strip-till bar as soon as soybean harvest wraps up in late September.  

“The ground temperature might still be in the 60s when we start strip-tilling,” Olsen says. “I have to start that early because of the number of custom acres we cover in the fall.” 

The 41-year-old makes the most of his late-September strip-till pass, applying urea, MAP 11-52-0, potash and AMS along with Corteva’s Instinct nitrogen (N) stabilizer.

“We apply about 50% of our total N for the crop with the fall strip-till pass,” Olsen says. “We’re applying nutrients on the early side, but we haven’t found the corn to be short of N later in the growing season. That helps with our decision to keep applying early so we can cover as many custom acres as we can when growers are ready to start.” 


“The ground temperature might still be in the 60s when we start strip-tilling…”


Olsen shoots for about 0.8 pounds of N per bushel of corn, and he applies approximately 15-20% higher than the recommended South Dakota State University broadcast rates for phosphorous (P) and potassium (K) so his corn has enough to get through the summer and there’s some left over for soybeans the following spring. Getting more done in the fall makes for a less stressful spring, when he has about 6,000 more custom acres to worry about.  

“The only thing we need to apply in the spring is the other half of our N, and we do it really early in the season with an above ground treatment called AGROTAIN (N stabilizer).” Olsen says. “We broadcast the N with a spreader when the corn is around V3-V4. In our area, the chances of rain are higher earlier in the season. If we wait to apply N later in the season, it’s risky with a dry product because we can go up to 6 weeks without any rain. Now, if you’re using a coulter with liquid 28%, then you could probably wait a little longer than we do to apply N.” 

6-8 inches is the sweet spot for fertilizer placement in Olsen’s strip-till system. He learned the hard way that anything deeper could open the door for nutrient leaching, especially if it’s a cool, wet summer.   

“On one of our 80-acre fields, we mistakenly didn’t get our cylinder stops put back in the strip-till rig, and our strips were about 12-13 inches deep,” Olsen says. “With the excessive rain we had after planting, the corn plants couldn’t keep up with the N leaching. We ended up having to apply more N later in the season.” 

Doing More with Less 

Olsen and his crew — his uncle, Danny Olsen and Jerry Waldner — work long hours during the height of custom strip-till season. A typical fall day starts at 7 a.m. and ends around 10 p.m. And if Mother Nature throws some knuckle curveballs, they could be making strips as late as mid-December. 

“With custom strip-till, the only job that I guarantee will get done is the first one we do,” Olsen says sarcastically. “We have to wait for soybean harvest to end and then soil sampling and fertilizer recommendations from agronomists. Then mix in the weather — we don’t know when it’s going to rain or snow.” 

With so many variables at play and such a narrow window to cover thousands of acres, Olsen must find ways to maximize his efficiency. He did just that 3 years ago when he traded in his 3 Case IH/DMI bars and bought 2 brand-new Lynx Ag units — a 24-row bar and a 16-row bar. 

Cool-night-strips.jpg

SEPTEMBER STRIPS. As soon as Olsen finishes soybean harvest on his farm, he’s in the field with his strip-till rig. He applies most of his nutrients during a late-September strip-till pass and then spends the rest of the fall focusing on his custom strip-till operation. Shawn olsen

“We’re covering, at minimum, the same number of acres with 2 bars now instead of 3,” Olsen says. “We recently covered about 10% more acres than ever before. The Lynx machines are built well and can handle numerous conditions, whether it’s soybean stubble, wheat stubble, alfalfa or corn-on-corn. Maintenance on them is 95% less than what we were doing with our previous machines. Loading time is about 90% more efficient and the fertilizer delivery and capacity is about 30% more than what we had before.” 

The new toolbars weren’t cheap, however, which is a big reason why Olsen waited so long to buy them. There was some “sticker shock,” Olsen says, but it didn’t take long to see a return on investment because his costs per acre have gone down significantly with the Lynx bars. Consider it a lesson learned — regardless of what brand you’re buying or how much you’re spending, investing in the right equipment will ultimately pay off, Olsen says. 

“Any type of iron is a huge cost, and we as farmers are all trying to minimize costs without giving something up,” he says. “Becoming more efficient by eliminating passes and machinery and cutting down on labor is huge. With strip-till, when our combine leaves the field and we’re done making strips in the fall, the next time we’re out there is with the corn planter.” 

Future of Strip-Till

Olsen believes his custom strip-till business will continue to grow as the reduced tillage practice becomes increasingly popular in the region.

“People quickly find out it’s cheaper for us to strip-till at $34 per acre than it is for them to do 2 tillage passes and a broadcast fertilizer application,” Olsen says. “It seems like conventional farming costs around $55 per acre in our area.”

Olsen also has data from on-farm trials to support the advantage of strip-till over conventional tillage, especially in weather extremes.


“It’s cheaper for us to strip-till at $34 per acre than it is for them to do 2 tillage passes…”


“During a cool, wet year, our strip-till plot was 7 bushels higher than the conventional plot and the corn was 1% drier,” Olsen says. “And during a drought year, the strip-till plot was 40 bushels higher than the conventional plot. On average, strip-till gives us about a 15-20-bushel advantage.” 

Improved soil structure and the ability to plant earlier are two more factors that will drive strip-till adoption, Olsen says. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows though, as certain conditions could cause some headaches for first-time strip-tillers. 

“If there’s a first-time strip-tiller that has very tight, poorly drained soil, and they end up with a cold, wet spring, they’re not going to be happy because they could be out there doing some light tillage, trying to dry out the ground in the spring as strip-tilled fields retain more moisture,” Olsen says. “I’ve seen it happen, but that’s not something we can control. You go right across the fence line, where they’re doing full tillage in the fall, and that field is going to be just as wet as the strip-tilled field. If you put strip-till in a spot that has a high risk of failure, you can’t expect much more than what you’re giving it to start.”