Mike Bland, Bethany, Illinois, strip-tiller, talks about the sidedress rig he modified into a strip-till rig. In the summer of 2013, he added a Montag dry box on an Elk Creek Caddie to make it a pull-type rig. He plans on running the rig in the field in the fall of 2013.

Mike Bland wasn't expecting higher corn yields when he switched to strip-till 6 years ago. Having used conventional tillage and dabbling in ridge-till and no-till, the Bethany, Ill., farmer wanted a more economical approach to manage fertilizer application and improve efficiency overall on his 2,000-acre farm.