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IL | We may not have been the first, but for what it's worth this is how we started. We started no-tilling corn in 1975 and for the first several years we would apply 28% N with herbicides after planting, with varying degrees of success depending upon rainfall. 1981 was one of those limited rainfall years after planting, so that fall we converted to 100% fall NH3. With a 30 in. applicator without markers and a 38 in. row planter, about 10% of the corn ended up directly over the fall NH3. 1982 was a cold, rather wet spring and the corn directly over the NH3 was much greener and twice as tall by V 6 or 7. Since indexing the corn row over the NH3 seemed to at least reduce the slow early growth problem with straight no-till corn in those problem years, the fall of 82 we converted a 9 row 30 in. NH3 applicator to a 7 row 38 in. with a chain out front over the last row for a marker and attempted to plant directly over the slight NH3 mound. With that set-up the corn didn't always end up directly over the NH3, but where it did the growth difference was even greater than in 82. At that time we were working with a great group of no-till farmers from throughout the Midwest who were all having similar problems with slow early growth in no-till corn. In 84 several in the group tried something similar and that fall we got together to compare results. At that point we all felt a system like this could reduce the early growth problems with no-till corn at least in the Midwest, but we didn't know what to call it. After considering indexing, zone till and several others, we decided on Strip Till. We developed slide sets and began talking about Strip Till at various No-Till meetings and conferences. We may not have been the first, but Strip Till has certainly come a long way since we started. Jim Kinsella, Lexington IL.
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Who invented Strip Till?
