Jeff Herrold grows corn and soybeans across 3,500 acres, 70% of which are irrigated, near Wanatah, Ind., just 25 miles south of Lake Michigan. 

The longtime strip-tiller encourages others to consider their “why” when making big decisions on the farm. 

Herrold’s “why” focuses on profitability, sustainability, the environment and the next generation. The intersection of these “whys” motivated Herrold to cover crop 90% of his acres and implement a strip-till system with a detailed nutrient management plan.

Splitting Up

To maximize efficiency, Herrold applies nutrients at variable rates throughout the growing season, first with his strip-till rig and planter, and later with his sidedress rig.

If it’s dry and no rain is in the forecast, he’ll call an audible to avoid risking nitrogen (N) volatilization.

“Sometimes we’re stopping the sidedress bar and waiting until we get a rain event if it’s really dry and then coming back later with a sprayer and applying other nutrients,” Herrold says.  

Other times, he turns on the irrigation pivots to help work N into the soil and apply nutrients overhead. 

“If we apply N with the pivot, we’ll variable rate it and apply more outside the pivot and less inside the pivot because we know we’re coming back with fertigation,” Herrold says. 

Herrold also uses cover crops to add more N to the soil ahead of both corn and soybeans. He has pushed back terminating the cover crop further each year to gain more N benefits. 

“Now we’ve gone to strip-tilling in the spring, coming back and planting, and then before the corn emerges, spraying that cover crop,” Herrold says. “I’m trying to let that cover crop grow as big as it can before terminating it.”

Herrold’s split N applications throughout the growing season typically include 60 units pre-plant (including cover crop credits), 35 units at planting, 65 units at sidedressing and 40 units through irrigation/Y-drops. Those numbers could fluctuate depending on the conditions and fields, but he averages 200 total pounds of N per acre overall.

In the planter dry box, Herrold includes urea, potash, MES10, calcium, zinc and sulfur with the following analysis: 29-20-36-5S-7CA. He also applies sugar, humates, biologicals and a micronutrient package instead of a popup fertilizer.

“We come back later in the season with a sidedresser and apply about 100-135 units of N,” Herrold says. The sidedress pass also includes ammonia thiosulfate at a 10:1 N to sulfur ratio, K13, boron and more humates as a stabilizer. Herrold buys dry humates and blends them himself to save money.

“We’re doing about 1-2 gallons per acre on every application of liquid,” Herrold says.

In-Season Strategies 

Later in the season, generally along with a fungicide application, Herrold applies more biologicals, N, a product with calcium and boron, sugar and fulvic acid to help the plants absorb the nutrients more easily.

“We’re trying to excite that biology and feed the microbes,” Herrold says. Additionally, the sugar application helps improve the cycling of the plant and the soil, he adds.

Herrold also applies a foliar micronutrient mix with his Roundup and fungicide applications.

He makes two fungicide applications and applies 50 units of potassium (K) through his pivot irrigation system during the growing season.

In the fall, Herrold plants cover crops as a key part of his N management plan after corn and soybean harvest. His mix includes radish, cereal rye, some rapeseed and some oats if it’s early enough to give the oats enough time to get established before winter. 

“In our neck of the woods, we’re fighting winterkill and if we can plant oats or not,” Herrold says. “We try to plant them earlier in the fall, and then once it gets later, then we stop putting oats in.” 

Profitability Over Yield

When it comes to soil health principles, Herrold encourages strip-tillers to look beyond the yield monitor. 

“Some things aren’t always measured in yield, but is it meeting a goal?” Herrold asks. “Is it making the uptake more available? That may not tease out to a yield, but if you understand what it’s going to do and then it makes more sense.” 

That is not to say that soil health principles don’t improve yields, though, Herrold says.

“When we do tests on cover crops, we are seeing a yield increase.”