There has been some discussion here recently regarding corn on corn and tillage.  I have some 7th year strip till corn on corn in paddock that has been grazed the past three or four winters to finish some steers. Earlier it was combined and grazed the stalks but in recent years I am really growing this corn for grazing.

The way this is lid out is there is a lane to the waterer and woods. The cattle pass through this slinky gate area to get to the corn strip. I drive down a path with the four wheeler for cross wires gradually exposing more corn out from this gate lane until the steers go to the processors in mid to late April.

This lane leading from the gate gets heavy hoof traffic for several months every year both frozen and spring clay mud.

This year on the recommendation of a goof C ILL strip till CoC Pluribus customer, I tried an Aerway to both incorporate  winter pack manure spread in April just ahead of spring Pluribus strip tilling.  Frankly the results in the compacted areas are amazing.

There have been discussions on strip till and hp here where folks talk about pulling shank type strip till machines in the fall 6" deep to reduce hp required and increase speed and acres covered/hour.

The Aerway when run at full depth and aggressive corn angle setting goes 8" deep and really fractures the soil but without burying a lot of the surface residue. It seems to me this continuous strip tilled corn on corn with occasional use of an Aerway is a way to control compaction 8" deep, control excessive residue and build OM but not burn the OM up quickly by burying it.

Here are a couple pictures from yesterday of this year's corn right across the most compacted lane. This spot usually has very little corn due to compaction.  This is an outside row with some skips from the turkeys and pheasant thinning the planted seed so has more 2 ear plants than the interior rows but all in all not bad. This corn was planted May 24th. Late planting may have been an advantage this year since pollination occurred after most of the severe near 100 deg heat.

The ear pictured measured about 16x39 and was not filled to the tip as usual but overall I would estimate if combined this strip would be somewhere around 190 bu?

My main observation here is the effect the Aerway had in breaking up the hoof compaction areas so there was almost no visible difference in the corn between the heavily compacted cattle lanes and the rest of the field. 8" deep with the Aerway tines seems to about eliminate visible effects of compaction. I think it has also helped water infiltration. there was almost zxero runoff even after a 1.8" rain a couple weeks ago although the soil really needed it.

Since this field is grazed I use a palatable 95 day bt triple stack and just one spray of glypho right after emergence. I don't obsess about weeds on the edges. The spring Pluribus strip till keeps the in-row weeds down. This heavy clay really needs and responds to the OM of continuous corn.

Here are a couple pictures.

Jim at Dawn

(IMG_0925_Spring Striptilled Grazing Corn on Corn following Aerway thinned outside rows near lanes 081211.JPG)

(IMG_0927_16 x 39 spring strip tilled following Aerway 081211.JPG)

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IMG_0925_Spring Striptilled Grazing Corn on Corn following Aerway thinned outside rows near lanes 081211.JPG (93KB - 127 downloads)

IMG_0927_16 x 39 spring strip tilled following Aerway 081211.JPG (62KB - 105 downloads)

IMG_0929_Spring Striptilled Grazing Corn on Corn following Aerway thinned outside rows near lanes 081211.jpg (80KB - 111 downloads)

IMG_0933_Spring Striptilled Grazing Corn on Corn following Aerway thinned outside rows near lanes 081211.JPG (93KB - 111 downloads)