It’s that time once again to see how your farm stacks up to others with our 12^th annual Strip-Till Operational Benchmark Study. Since the industry-first survey launched in 2013, your average strip-tilled corn yields have gone up — from 184 to 205 — and so have our questions — from 30 to over 130!

With more data than ever to sift through, a single article just isn’t enough to get the job done anymore. That’s why we decided to encapsulate the results into a 16-page special report, with “color commentary” from strip-tillers, researchers and agronomists sprinkled throughout. Click here to download it for FREE!

Maybe we should push the page count even higher next year because 16 pages weren’t even enough to include all the numbers. Here are some data points that didn’t quite make the cut but still seem important enough to share:

• The average corn plant population was 33,249 in 2024, slightly less than the 2023 average of 33,592. The minimum was 18,000 and the maximum was 40,000.

• The average soybean plant population was 101,493, down significantly from the 2023 average of 108,456 but still much higher than the 2022 average of 94,850. 

• Of the strip-tillers who planted cover crops in 2024, 31.7% used a mix of 4-9 different species.

• Almost 65% of the strip-tillers using cover crops didn’t hire custom work for seeding them in 2024, while 25% hired custom work for seeding covers on 75% or more of their acres.

• Most (88.4%) will plant Roundup Ready corn in 2025. Other popular corn hybrids/traits include CRW (43.2%), LibertyLink (42.1%), ECB (35.8%), Enlist (24.2%) and non-GMO (15.8%). The top soybean varieties/traits are Enlist (78%), Roundup Ready (45.1%), LibertyLink (29.7%) and dicamba-tolerant (19.8%).

• Almost 78% applied foliar fungicides to corn, while 68% applied them to soybeans and 22.2% to winter wheat.

• About 82% used glyphosate in their weed control program for corn and soybeans. Other common herbicides used for corn were atrazine (67%), 2,4-D (24.7%), dicamba (17.5%) and glufosinate (13.4%). Other herbicides used for soybeans were 2,4-D (55.1%), glufosinate (42.7%) and dicamba (9%).

• Of those using chemistries other than glyphosate for corn, 82.8% used a tankmix with glyphosate, while 20.4% rotated with glyphosate sprays. For soybeans, 77.4% used a tankmix with glyphosate and 20.4% rotated with glyphosate sprays.

• Strip-tillers are almost split on biologicals, with 54% planning on using products that claim to increase soil/plant biological activity in 2025.

• About 30% applied cattle manure, 12.6% hog manure and 9.7% poultry manure, while 54% didn’t apply any manure in 2024.   

• More than half (56%) of strip-tillers will use a nitrification inhibitor/N stabilizer for 2025.

• About 23% plan to participate in carbon credit programs during 2025, while 49.5% won’t and 27% are still on the fence.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. If you get a chance to read the report, email me at [email protected] when you’re done breaking down the numbers and let me know what stood out the most. Happy planting season!