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| We're all no-till in northwest Iowa on our corn-soybean rotation and we use a 15" planter splitting the old 30" corn rows to plant our beans in the spring. We typically utilize the growing season more so than neighbors, in effect we have later maturity soybeans and corn for the area. We typically plant 32,000 to 36,000 plants per acre for corn. I utilize late season hybrids, because I think we get more yield out of them and we also have a dryer and IntelliAir systems to handle them.
Our biggest problem no-tilling is that we can't get the ground to warm up or dry down in the spring for planting. We try and leave the corn stalk standing as high as possible, but we've had to contend with down corn the past few years. We also don't have any livestock, so we don't bale cornstalks or have cows on them.
My question is whether a chopping corn head will pay for itself by mulching the corn stalk into small pieces and maybe breaking down faster (keep in mind that we have later season hybrids and can't get at them until later into the fall).
Or is it better to try and leave the old corn rows standing, bearing in mind that the when they are knocked over in the rows from the tires, there is more susceptibility to hair pinning with the planter the following spring? I think with a chopping corn head, the 50 wave ripple coulter that I have, will go through the profile without hair pinning as much, due to the small pieces. Also, tires are very expensive these days, and I'm not sure if it's worth fighting chopped corn stalks, even with stompers.
And these problems happen amidst two dry years for us, in which we haven't had the best of yields. I can't imagine what kind of problems we are going to have in ten years when we have over 300 bushel corn. The population is going to be probably 40,000-50,000 and the tonnage of biomass behind corn is going to be staggering for a no-till operation.
I don't think any product specifically breaks down corn stalks. I think liquid nitrogen or AMS may stimulate the microorganisms in the soil to feed more, but in that case, you have to have soil on the trash, moisture, and be above 50 degrees. I've heard of biologicals, such as Accomplish, or AgriGro, that claim to help, but who knows.
If your answer is vertical tillage, I'm just a young farmer, so I can't afford a turbo-till machine. And I think half of the "vertical till" machines out there, aren't truly vertical at all. I'm not even sure if they'll be able to go in the ground when we have 300+ bushel corn.
I am looking at using cereal rye in the corn stalks in the fall (once again, late season hybrids), but I don't know how much growth I'm going to get out of it, hopefully that will help the seedbed for planting soybeans some.
Any thoughts would be appreciated, thanks in advance. | |
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Is a chopping corn head beneficial in a no-till system?
