I’m a glass half full kind of guy, so you might notice that most of my farmer feature stories tend to focus on the benefits of strip-till. But it’s also important to recognize that sometimes the path to success isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. There could be some anxious moments along the way that have you questioning whether changing systems was the way to go.
I was perusing the Strip-Till Community Forum on Facebook the other day and came across a post from Christopher Carlson that sparked a deep conversation. It sounds like he’s considering pulling the plug on his strip-till experiment.
“The past 2 years I’ve dabbled with strip-till. I think I’m done,” Carlson says. “Late season ‘standability’ of corn is horrible. It’s always my worst standing corn. July 1, it always looks the best. But by harvest, it’s always lodged worse than no-till, minimum-till or the few farms we do full tillage. One other issue we run into is staying off the soft strip while spraying. Anyone else experiencing these pitfalls?”
Christopher says he made his strips in the fall under dry conditions both years.
Most strip-tillers I know are open books when it comes to sharing their keys to success and helping others solve their problems. So naturally, there were plenty of thoughtful responses to Christopher’s post.
“We’ve strip-tilled for 8 years and our corn stood perfectly fine for the most part in a derecho with 90-100 mph winds,” Keaton Funk said. “I don’t think strip-till is the problem especially if it’s only been 2 years that you’ve done it. Strip-till takes time to change your soil structure. It doesn’t happen automatically.”
“The principles of strip-till apply everywhere, but the practices of strip-till are local…”
“Watch what hybrids you’re planting,” Scott Slepikas said. “We had some this year that goose-necked terribly and different hybrids that stood great. We had some bad winds in July that caused this. Make sure your K levels are 4% or higher in the base saturation point. I always had problems with higher populations on pivots years ago. Started adding more K and problem solved.”
“Don’t give up. Hands down the best practice. I’ve been strip-tilling for 17 years and have been through it all,” Brian Herbek said. “Have you changed your fertility program? By putting it in a band, you’re more efficient. Therefore, I find 90% of strip-tillers are overapplying nutrition. Are you using the correct product? For instance, 11-52-0 has a low pH. If your soil is already low, and now you’re concentrating it, you just made things worse. So many times, guys don’t change their fertility and walk away.”
I’m currently working on a story (coming soon!) about third-generation farmer Luke Koffman, who grew up on a dairy farm in Eden, Wis., and has gone on to launch a successful custom strip-tilling business in central Illinois. I asked Luke about the challenges of making strip-till work for farmers in different conditions and soil types. Is it possible that strip-till just might not be the best option in some scenarios, like it hasn’t been for Christopher yet?
“I’m going to quote Monte Bottens (Cambridge, Ill., farmer) on this,” Koffman says. “He spoke at the National Strip-Tillage Conference a couple years ago and said that the principles of strip-till apply everywhere, but the practices of strip-till are local.
“On tougher ground, to make strip-till work, the farmer needs to know why they’re trying to strip-till. Then they need to commit to making it work. I’m on my 5th configuration of strip-till bars right now. You might not get it right on the first one, but I guarantee there is a bar that will perform very well for every field.”
Luke also stressed the importance of having a mentor — someone who’s been through the ups and downs of strip-till and can shine light on potential landmines to avoid.
What do we think, should Christopher make some adjustments and give strip-till another try before moving on? Have you experienced a similar crossroads in your strip-till journey and how did you approach it? Let me know at NNewman@LessiterMedia.com!
