I just got back from the Kinze Product Innovation Day at Kinze headquarters in Williamsburg, Iowa. The invitation-only event was designed to provide farmers with deeper access to Kinze equipment, engineers and experts. There was also a factory tour (which some of you may have experienced during our National Strip-Tillage Conference pre-conference event back in 2022).

The 150-plus in attendance, including yours truly, didn’t expect strip-till to be the premier topic of conversation. But that expectation changed after walking into the Innovation Center and seeing the new Kinze/Yetter Falcon SF700 strip-till system on display. Both companies did an impressive job keeping this under wraps since they started working on it only a few months ago, as this was our first time hearing of (and of course, seeing) it.

“What’s great about this is people didn’t come here today expecting to be talking about strip-till equipment,” says Andy Thompson, strip-till product director for Yetter. “Strip-till is everywhere, as we always talk about. But we’re introducing this new machine to people who showed up here not expecting to be looking at strip-till equipment. Strip-till is growing and now we’re bringing it to places outside of the traditional strip-till market.” 

During the event, attendees rotated through three 45-minute sessions, one of which focused 100% on strip-till and the new Falcon SF700, with a presentation from Thompson and Todd Kniffen, senior vice president of engineering for Kinze. 

For many attendees, this was their introduction to the practice. On top of showcasing the features of the Falcon SF700, Thompson spent a good chunk of the day explaining what strip-till is, what it isn’t and sharing his following definition of the practice:

Strip-till is a farming system that manages residue and provides controlled seedbed preparation to create the ideal seed growing environment in specific zones within a field.

“We’ve had a lot of great questions about this new machine and how it can fit into their operations,” Thompson says. “One of the things we’ve been talking about is stepping into strip-till one step at a time and marrying the planter to the strip-till bar. We’re starting from the planter and working backwards and that can work for anybody that’s in conventional tillage, minimum-till or no-till. They don’t already have to be in a strip-till system for this to be able to resonate with them.” 

The Falcon SF700 is built around the Kinze 5700 toolbar platform and integrated with Yetter 2984 Strip Freshener CC row unit technology. Kinze and Yetter dealers can start taking orders for the new product on Monday (July 29). 

Time will tell how many in attendance end up giving strip-till a try. But judging from a lunchtime conversation I had with a longtime no-tiller from Indiana, it’s at least now on their radar. 

“Would you ever consider strip-till?” I asked him.   

“Oh yeah, it’s definitely something I’ll take a look at,” he said.