During one of the strip-till classroom sessions at the National No-Tillage Conference in St. Louis 2 weeks ago, a question came up about placing fertilizer.

One strip-tiller asked, “Does it make sense to band or to broadcast?”

While this question was peripheral to the classroom presentation, it’s one well worth exploring. In fact, it’s something we plan to examine in a story for the Spring issue of Conservation Tillage Guide.

If you’re a strip-tiller, let me know how and why you band or broadcast fertilizer for corn, soybeans and other crops. And if you’re an agronomist, university researcher or on staff at an ag equipment or fertilizer company, let me which fertilizer placement method you recommend, and why.

In the lead story of this week’s issue of Strip-Till Strategies, you can read how New York strip-tiller Donn Branton determined the best depth for banding fertilizer. Branton was one of the three farmers honored at NNTC 2012 in the Responsible Nutrient Management Practitioners Program, which is co-sponsored by Agro-Culture Liquid Fertilizers and No-Till Farmer.