With many strip-till rigs starting to run this spring there are agronomic goals to keep in mind. Orthman Mfg. agronomist Randy Haarberg offers 3 Principles of Strip Till that he feels need to be addressed on every acre of strip tillage:

Many producers could benefit by using starter fertilizer when planting corn. Starter fertilizer is simply the placement of some fertilizer, usually nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), near the seed - which "jump starts" growth in the spring.

The keys to maximizing the economic returns from phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) fertilizer applications are a comprehensive soil testing program and maintaining P and K soil test levels above their respective critical levels.

DuPont Pioneer experts suggest growers continue to look for ways to make the application of nutrients — particularly nitrogen — as efficient as possible.

Agronomists from Ohio State University's College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences have updated a fertility recommendation calculator designed to provide major field crop growers with guidance on fertilizer application rates and costs.

Strip-tillers take a lot of pride in the planning and preparation that comes with the farming practice. More and more, strip-tillers I talk with are paying closer attention to managing seed populations, variable-rate fertilizer application and soil health. Precision technology is certainly assisting them with improved accuracy and regulating input costs.

Implement guidance and grid sampling helps Bonde Farms improve strip-tilled soybean emergence on sidehills and fine-tune fertilizer application.

In the spirit of continuous improvement, we recently asked strip-tillers if they could provide us with some of the beneficial modifications they've made to their strip-till rigs. Whether it's a new manufactured strip-till bar or even an older homemade version, the relative "newness"? of this management technique means many strip-tillers are looking for ways to improve berm building, fertilizer application or precision performance.

Yetter Manufacturing features its 30-foot (3830) and 41-foot (3840) toolbars that can be used for sidedressing, strip-till or fertilizer application.

Mahdi Al-Kaisi, Department of Agronomy at Iowa State University, penned this article to help farmers understand the concept of strip-till and how it works.