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On this edition of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Environmental Tillage Systems, we’re headed to Walnut, Ill., to catch up with strip-tiller Tanner Schoff.

Schoff strip-tills corn, no-tills soybeans and uses cover crops. He recently created the Rezidue Reaper tillage attachment tool for combines to manage the heavy residue in his system. 

Schoff explains how the tool works, breaks down how he’s applying both dry and liquid fertilizer in his strips and dives into something unique he’s doing to incorporate cover crops in his systems. 

The Strip-Till Farmer podcast is brought to you by Environmental Tillage Systems.

SoilWarrior® systems help you defend your land and improve soil quality. With a choice of durable models, features and accessories, your SoilWarrior helps you minimize erosion while creating precise, nutrient-rich zones.

Let us help you defend your land and improve soil quality. Check out SoilWarrior systems online or request a demo today at www.soilwarrior.com. 

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Full Transcript

Hello and welcome to another edition of the Strip-Till Farmer Podcast. Great to have you with us. I'm Noah Newman. Hey, today we're on the road headed to Walnut, Illinois to catch up with strip-tiller Tanner Schauff. So he strip-tills corny no-till soybeans, also uses cover crops. And he recently invented this residue reaper tillage attachment tool for combines to manage that heavy residue in his system. So he's going to explain how the tool works and also break down how he's applying both dry and liquid fertilizer in his strips. And he also dives into something pretty unique he's doing to incorporate cover crops in his system. So without further ado, let's jump into the conversation.

Tanner with Sharp Harvest, here today just explaining our new product, the Residue Reaper. Kind of get into how I came up with the idea. I'm a strip-till farmer from Walnut, Illinois. Started with my dad probably 30 years ago when he started getting into farming. He saw the need to make the switch to that, especially in our kind of highly erodible soils around here. So yeah, been doing that for several years. Do a lot of corn on corn strip-till and then no-till soybeans. So it's worked out good for us. But again, when you go to that, then when you're not plowing all the time, then you're left with residue and it's just a real challenge with that strip-till environment. So that's how we came up with this idea, just to be able to manage that residue. And then being able to strip-till into it just makes it a lot easier and just helps that break down a little faster.

Now, do you have an engineering background or did you go to school for... It's pretty impressive you came up with a tool like this.

No, I went to Illinois State, got a degree in ag business, but I've always had a knack for I guess building things. And actually I have another prototype over there. I tried something before but it didn't really pan out. But just trying new things. But I have a family that kind of has an engineering background, so that's definitely helped with the whole process of it. And just always was fighting the old rows in a strip-till scenario and a no-till scenario. So just decided to do something about that and just had an idea one day running a combine. I'm already lined up with the rows and I could be managing all these stocks right here with the corn heads. So that's kind of how the Residue Reaper was kind of born. But we can kind of get into some different features of it here.

So we can start with the blade. This is a 15-inch diameter blade. It's got fins welded on the side that are beveled. So the blade has about a four and a half inch wide footprint. So even if you're not quite centered to the stock when you're combining, that's a wide enough footprint to consistently cut up the root balls and stalks. And then these kinds of act as a gauge wheel as well. They're welded two inches from the bottom of the blade, so the blades are going to go in two inches plus a little more to these fins. So you're getting a consistent depth of about two and a half to three inches. So just keeps that blade at a consistent height. We've noticed these also really help with flowing trash as well. It kind of helps grab the ground, keeps trash flowing within the arm there.

So the whole blade design really does make the product just that whole structure there. And then, it is spring-loaded. You got a poly bushing here, so the blade has about a four to five inch travel up and down that it can go. So if you do hit a rock or go through uneven terrain, that's going to allow that blade to move up and down. Have a height adjustment pin here. So based on your header height, you can set the height of the blade. Every head's different and pitch in the field or house definitely plays a factor in how you want to set the height of the blade, but you got to kind of just fine-tune it to how it works best for you. And then basically just bolt it up here to the frame of the corn head with a top bracket. That's the Residue Reaper right there.

Perfect. How much of a game-changer has this been for your guys' in residue management? How much has it helped? What kind of benefits are you seeing?

Yeah, just seeing a different color in the field throughout the winter months can definitely tell that residue breakdown process is happening. And then just going out last spring strip tilling, I think I was able to go a little sooner, the field readiness was a little better. And strip tilling through those stalks was just a lot easier, made a better strip. So yeah, really helps out in our strip till scenario.

And because all that residue is pretty valuable too, to get it to break down. How important is that?

Yeah, we all know that there's a lot of nutrients tied up in those stalks. So again, just a simple mechanical way to break up that residue, to get that decomposition going to release those nutrients. So having done a whole lot of testing on nutrient release, we will have some side-by-side trials this fall to check for yield, which we would think that would be because of that nutrient release. So yeah, excited to see what the fields look like with the combine this year.

And this is available now, and can this go on any model combiner?

Yep, available now just for John Deere's right now. We will be coming out with some bracketing for some of these other brands of corn heads here pretty soon, going to have a couple of demo units running this fall. So once we get through this harvest, we'll bring those to market.

What's some of the initial feedback you've heard from some of your first customers?

Guys they're liking it. They're happy with how it's processing everything from where you cut the stalk down to the ground. And I got some influencers running them and it definitely helps, but then you get a lot of hate too.

Oh yeah, internet could be-

Oh, man.

A mean place.

It is. You got to have thick skin to do something like this and it's probably not going to be for everyone. If a guy is in Nebraska and they get those 50 mile an hour winds, you might see some residue blowing with this. So there's definitely drawbacks to it. But so far the early adopters, I think are happy with the results. And a lot of them are that kind of strip till no till guy, so I think they see a lot more benefit with it.

All right. Let's burn a quick time out. And here's a message about Environmental Tillage Systems, Soil Warriors. Soil Warrior systems help you defend your land and improve soil quality. With a choice of durable models, features and accessories, your Soil Warrior helps you minimize erosion while creating precise nutrient rich zones. Let us help you defend your land and improve soil quality. Check out Soil Warrior systems online or request a demo today @soilwarrior.com, that's soilwarrior.com. Now back to the conversation. What was the motivation behind switching to strip till and how has it kind of improved things for you guys?

Yeah, I think it mainly just started with erosion control around here. Like I said, we farm kind of on a moraine and you'd have a lot of erosion issues, so it really started with that. But then after a while you see more benefits with placing those nutrients in a zone. And then just kind of the tilt of the soil, it just over time strip till just... Once you go to it, you just got to stick with it. And you're going to go through years where you might have some compaction or something like that. But over time it seems like just the tilt has really improved. And we've added cover crops here the last few years and that definitely helps as well. And you look at strip till fields that you've been doing that for 15 years and go dig and see all the earthworms. It's amazing just what that does just for kind of the biology of the soil.

Is your rotation mainly soybean, corn or you said corn on corn? Any other crops?

Yeah, mainly all corn and soybeans, but we do a lot of three year rotation where we do corn, corn, then soybeans. So just strip tilling into that and then no tilling the soybeans in.

And then all your corn strip tilled or do you no-till any corn?

Yeah, 100% of the corn strip tilled.

And no-till soybeans. What kind of strip till or do you guys own your own strip till bar or do you rent one?

Yeah, we run the Deere strip till bars, so got one for dry fertilizer and then one for anhydrous ammonia. So do a little bit of both applying those nutrients.

Is that a shank coulter machine or shank machine coulter machine?

Yeah, it's got a shank on it. So it's good unit and that's kind of how when we started, I guess we got our first one back in 2006 and still running that one today. So it's really held up over the years.

How many rows?

A 12 row.

12 rows?

Yep.

So you have two different ones or are you able to switch off? Yep, so two different-

Basically two identical Deere bars and for dry fertilizer and then one's for anhydrous.

And then do you make strips in the fall?

I do, yeah. Quite a bit of it. Yeah, a little bit sometimes in the spring. Try to get a lot of it done in the fall, but every year is different. So some years you end up doing some in the spring too.

Just kind of based on moisture and all that, weather, timing?

Yeah, definitely.

So if you could kind of take me through your process of making the strips. How do you determine where you're doing dry and where you're doing anhydrous and all that?

Every field's kind of different how we got it set up. We've concentrated some farms on all dry every year, and that's pretty new to us getting into the dry fertilizer. So we're still kind of experimenting with that. But anything that's corn on corn, definitely put anhydrous with that just to help with nitrogen there.

And I know you said you're new to it, but what's usually in your dry mix or do you know off the top of your head rates or how much you apply or?

Yeah. Right now we're doing a lot of just two year prescriptions, so we're just running just a single product and doing a two-year prescription on that particular product, whether it's tap or potash. So some fields we've done a little blending too, but mainly we're doing VR on a single product.

And then what kind of planter do you have?

A John Deere, yep. Center fill, 24-row.

Starter fertilizer, do you usually plan?

We were doing quite a bit of that, kind of backed off on the starter here lately just with prices and everything and not seeing a big return on investment there. But yeah, definitely we have the capability to do that.

And then what's your nitrogen management plan? What are you applying, how much and then when?

Yeah, so the strip-till in the fall doing a 100 units and then coming back with a side dress bar doing another 80 to 100 units, just depending on whether it was corn or beans following that crop. But yeah, splitting it up 50 50 basically from fall strip till to the spring side dress.

I guess, no-till wise, did your dad ever tell stories about what it was like when he first switched to no-till? Was he one of the first ones in the area? What kind of challenges he went through or anything you could share on that regard?

Yeah, he definitely wasn't the first one in the area doing it, but I don't know. We've always felt, even when I've got into the bean planter, just the old stock and row, and that's just a huge problem in a no-till environment planning through those old stocks. Especially now stocks today are just very vigorous and hard to break down, but you find that the gauge wheels on the planter kind of ride up over those stocks, so then you get less seed to soil contact when you get into those old stock rows. And that's kind of where the Residue Reaper fits in just to help that whole process of the farming, just from planting to residue management, all that. It just really helps in a few different ways.

So cover crops, you mentioned that, cereal rye or what species are you guys are using?

Quite a bit of cereal rye or that's really mainly what we're using now. But another thing we are going to try is we're going to plant some permanent legume cover crop and we're going to try strip tilling in the same row consistently. And in hopes of maybe saving a sprayer pass, being able to just have about a 25-inch band of clover or alfalfa and then kind of plant into the same strip year after year.

So basically terminating the cover crops by making strips through them?

Yeah, we wouldn't even terminate them. We would just try to keep them growing all year long and then just plant into the same row.

I gotcha.

But that's-

Oh, so the cover crops wouldn't be in the actual strip, right?

Right.

I see what you're saying, that area without the cover crops and the cover crops-

You basically have a dirt strip of five to six inches and then in between is going to be that clover alfalfa mix. So we're going to try it out, see if it works. And you might get some nutrient value there too with kind of legume nodulation, and you kind of mow that stuff off and you kind of get the biomass release too. So I guess that's just one trial we're going to try here in the next few years.

How do you plant the cover crops? Do you drill them in or cast them?

We do have a cover crop seeder on our strip till bar, so that's-

Oh, cool.

Yeah, kind saving us a pass there. We do it all kind in one shot, strip till and then broadcast the seed. So that's kind how we're doing it now.

That's pretty unique to do the cover crops while you're making strips.

Yep. Yeah, that was kind of shop build as well, rigged it up. And similar to this, we built this out of our shop and that system works pretty well. We kind of spread the cover crop seed ahead of the shanks and the coulters, and then that kind of helps get a little dirt mixed in with that seed.

So it's all the same pass, it's doing cover crops, strip till, applying nutrients all in one pass.

Yep.

Yeah, it seems like that's a theme for you is you guys like to maximize that one pass, whether it's with the combine or a strip till bar.

Yeah.

Maximize efficiency.

Right. I think in today's farming environment, that's kind of what you got to shoot for that, because we're not saving money anywhere else. We got to kind of get more efficient with all the passes we're already doing. So that's kind of our approach, I guess.

And that'll wrap things up for this edition of the Strip-Till Farmer Podcast. Appreciate Tanner taking some time out of his busy day to let us stop by and talk with him. Also, big thanks to our sponsor Environmental Tillage Systems for making this podcast series possible. Until next time, for all things strip till head to striptillfarmer.com. See you next time. Have a great day.