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Central Iowa | An excellent cropping system that has been largely marginalized and ignored, I am not surprised at any negative comments that may be posted here. Any positive comments on ridge till are responded to by crickets.
Yes, it does help on poorly drained pothole type soils where tile drainage is less than perfect. Would it be better to pattern tile? Yes but sometimes that's not possible for many reasons.
I am retired now but farmed many years with this system (40 years) and worked through all the problems encountered and found solutions. All of my landlords (except one who was never happy about anything) were on board with the system and liked that their land was benefiting from the soil conservation and soil health benefits. At the same time yields were being maintained. Because controlled traffic is integral with ridge till this resulted in better soil structure from less wheel traffic combined with the ridges promoted faster seedbed drying and drainage. It is true that cultivation could be a problem is a wet year, but I found even if all the cultivation didn't get done there would still be ridges although smaller and could be maintained for a number of years with less cultivation if necessary. I will add too that RTK guidance made the system work even better, especially cultivation.
I find it ironic that all of the chemical technology that was supposed to replace cultivation has many downsides. These would be more dependance on high clearance sprayers making post applications and weed resistance to a number of herbicides. A return to at least some cultivation could mitigate some of these issues.
My tenant, one who is not versed on ridge till, no tilled into last year's corn stalks and bean stubble. He was amazed at how mellow the ridges were and being from a conventional farming background had never seen anything quite like them. I will encourage him to incorporate some ridge till principals such as controlled traffic and banding fertilizer in the future. He will have to make it work because any kind of tillage is not an option.
Edited by cardinal farms 6/24/2024 08:21
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Ridge till?
