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Western Iowa | I jumped into no till with both feet in the late 90's . I was continuous no till for the first 5 yrs. The trouble I had is early season soil temps in the spring on this heavy clay and the hardness of the ground. The soybean yields were ok but the corn yields took a hit. I have evolved to light disking in the fall on the bean stubble to help the soil warm in the spring, and leaving the cornstalks alone-notill the soybeans. This seems to work well for me. But.......I have heard of anaerobic and aerobic respiration in the soil. My question is - Am I confusing the microbes by switching tilling practices? My corn yields are great but the soybean yields have lots of room to improve. I have tracked down some problems with high pH being the cause (7.8). On those farms I am continuous corn until I get the pH lower(AMS?).
One thing I noticed early is no matter what the crop, in the areas where I leveled ruts or endrows with the finisher the crop looked 2x better early season next to the no till. No diff in yield on soybeans but corn sometimes there was a 30 bushel diff!
I bought a case 2500 eco till inline ripper to rip the corn stalks. This seemed ok but the gumbo doesn't heave and fracture like the compacted lighter soils. It just pulls like an anchor and smears around the shank. It feels like im wasting fuel. On the lighter soils it humps the ground up and cracks it every 3 feet and does a nice job. Both plant good in the spring.
Anybody else give up on notill on heavy clay soils. I would be interested to hear on how to deal with compaction issues and emergence issues (especially corn). Strip till isn't an option...I have people in my area that strip till and their corn looked and yielded terrible this year. I can't afford that kind of investment for so so results.
Thanks
Ken | |
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No till troubles in heavy clay (gumbo) Solil Life and others
