Nutrient management, reverse osmosis and pesticide reduction contribute to Iowa strip-tiller Keith Schlapkohl’s quest for consistently increasing corn-on-corn yields.

USDA plant physiologist Jerry Hatfield explains how results of recent tillage comparisons reveal strip-till may be the best practice to address future environmental conditions.

West Brooklyn, Ill., farmer Dave Delhotal will be the first to say that implement steering is immensely helpful on a strip-till farm with hilly terrain and contours, but the benefits don’t stop there.

Riverdale, Calif., dairy farmer, Stephan Brown was a bit hesitant to try strip-till at first. He’d initially come across the practice at a University of California extension field day he attended over a decade ago and wasn’t impressed.

Indiana farmer Doug Davenport has spent more than a decade experimenting with slight changes in fertilizer application, cover crops and equipment set-ups to get the most from his strip-tillage.

From depth, timing and rate to season, product and method, strip-tillers always seem to be on the hunt for new strategies to improve their fertilizer and nutrient application programs. Strip-tillage already offers advantageous placement in the root zone, but there are still many decisions for a farmer to make when he takes to the field.

Gary Wolf likes to look for cues in the environment to help guide his farming practices. He knew it was time to start thinking seriously about water conservation practices when armadillos started showing up for the first time ever on his 500-acre farm near Verona, Mo.

Harbeson, Del., farmer Brad Ritter, converted from no-till to strip-till on his 1,000-acre family farm. He’d long thought that no-till was the most logical method of farming his sandy soil, but he lamented the idea that a portion of his broadcasted fertilizer probably ran off to the Delaware Bay, rather than into the root zone of his crops.

Lance Petersen and his father Chuck have only been strip-tilling on their 750 acre farm in Rush City, Minn., since 2011, but they’ve already seen the practice weather the best and worst conditions they can imagine.