Ryan,

Thanks for your detailed post. It is especially interesting considering it is your first post. We have been working on various forms of strip till since at least 1993, beginning with adding row cleaners to a DMI-type mole knife anhydrous bars.

Over the years it became clear that this type setup, as originally invented by Jim Kinsella, is basically a fall strip system.  Some years you can get away with it in the spring, some years you will have significant fertilizer burn or delayed plant development because of an open drying slot made in wet soils directly under the seed. 

As Bruce mentions this becomes more of a concern the farther north you are and the wetter heavy soils tend to be in the spring. Soils dry from the top down - the fittest soil you have in the spring is near the surface, not down deep.

Strip till in the south is a whole different process altogether. Folks there have been basically deep ripping just ahead of the planter for years. This is also done in many of the drier areas of the southern plains. This spring ripping/planting directly over it type strip till is not generally done from about the central cornbelt on north - the mud belt.

Take a look at some of the mud pictures on the Stock Talk page right now. Picture pulling a deep ripper through that stuff any time in the near future. When it does start to dry, from the top down, doing a bit or row cleaning and light working/aeration of the soil followed by planting as it grays off can work very well. Fertilizer can also be precisely placed at the same time either mixed in or a safe distance away depending on the product and amount being used.

Many agronomists are saying the most efficient use of fertilizer is about 1/3 of your N and maybe all of a reduced rate of P & K in the strip just ahead of planting followed by side dressing about 2/3 of your N, maybe even on 60" centers.  There are a wide range of fertilizer placement systems which will "work" and that is a much longer discussion.

I applaud manufacturers such as Orthman that build quality products in the US and are flexible enough to provide adaptations, such as their new all coulter system, to meet some of their customers needs.

As far as the logic of trying to turn a larger cultivator bar into a strip till bar, many folks that try it soon find they would have been time and money ahead just to purchase a planter-style bar, such as a Moore-Built or any one of a number of other bar manufacturers we have worked with, from the start. 

Even a used planter bar such as the JD 1780, with wheels on the front, makes a good strip till bar. There is one in the video here. Bauer makes large planter type bars that are ideal for wide strip till. Cultivator bars just never seem to work out.

I am on this board, often at all hours, for the same reasons most of us are here - we love ag equipment and farming. I am not on here at 3 am to take shots at any other manufacturer. I am a believer in what we are doing but it is not the only way - never said that and never will.

Regards,

Jim at Dawn