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Morris, IL | I personally look at tillage much differently then most I think, i see tillage tools as compaction creators and not compaction eliminators like you and many others say. I don't see field cultivators as taking compaction out, i see it loosing surface compaction but creating a compaction layer below the shovels. That doesn't take into account the 30+ thousand pound tractors pulling them either. They all have little different aspect to them but idea is same and i don't really believe VT tools are perfect there either. By far the best conventional tillage system i was around used RTK for controlled traffic, 60' FC, 60' planters. Field cultivate once and plant, use row cleaners for the less then idea seedbeds. Everything was tracks and everything planted into was loose to a point, tear it up and start over next year.
I really like strip till the more i do of it. Till it in the fall, let winter and time take out the compaction below the shank. Plant into a completely untouched, residue free, and loose strip of dark soil. Naturally this keeps all tires off the planted area. Any compaction from the fall is taken out and you start over next year. Now if you go rutting everything up harvesting too wet then compaction probably won't all be taken out but i can deal with that. Ideally everything would be same width including combine so i'd never leave traffic patterns but that isn't going to happen any time soon. Also it doesn't work with COC.
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To til or not to til
