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| Did C-SB 60' strips for a number of years thinking I should be able to produce 300 bu. corn consistently in the good years.
Did this on an 80 acre out on the prairie, which is the only field I had that doesn't have significant deer damage, and deer really thrive on the edge and will really hit outside rows.
So do Japanese beetles. It didn't take long for the Japanese beetles to populate to extremely high levels in the strips. Luckily they don't eat fresh corn silks, but they would wipe out all the brown silks most years, which has a negative corn yield effect. In our area, some years the outside corn rows now yield the worst (the border effect, Top Producer article) due to Japanese beetles.
Had good soybean yields with the strips, probably due to more scouting and spraying in the strips than my normal fields, usually in the 65-75 bu. range.
Corn could still compare well to the regular corn fields, but not enough to justify the cost of extra spraying or the effect the excessive beetle numbers were having on neighboring fields.
Lots of potential with strips, especially if you can control the beetle numbers. just didn't work the best under my management.
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4 row strip cropping
