HeyhayJCM - 11/28/2015 09:15
Boone & Crockett - 11/28/2015 06:19
mhagny - 11/27/2015 19:20
It's a great way to compact your soils, much like a sheepsfoot that is used to build roads.
I agree with the other posters about applying more N -- not necessarily onto the stalks in hopes of decomposing them faster, but merely in a way that the next corn crop can access the additional N. Also, more S and Zn help.
Matt, I am not a physics scientist, so could you please explain how Aerway compacts like a sheepsfoot? My understanding is the tine enters the ground at a different angle, and with a twist, and tears some, also shattering compaction to the level it's running in the ground. But is the point of the tine compacting the ground beneath it, or is the tine angle such that it does not? Not trying to argue, trying to learn. I liked the idea of a bazillion little water reservoirs to store surface water instead of runoff come spring.
Boone and crockett,
I dont have any advice for the op but I am in the same camp as you . I have run over some soybean fields that have been going to corn with my 15' Aerway after they were strip tilled...saw a 20 bushel increase in corn yield and roots that grew much wider and deeper. I don't believe the Aerway compacts ...at least no where near as much as a disc or cultivator. It removes the compaction as deep as you run it and really fractures the soil sideways without disturbing the top.
I also use it ALOT in hay fields...we run it very slowly and just poke holes before we apply lime and litter and potash and the holes are still there the next year. I did it once on a hill field that I could never keep the waterway from washing out on...that waterway hasn't washed AT ALL in the 2 years since it was done. It really does catch and hold rain water if run slowly at a straight angle.
There is a give and take though...if u run it at enough of an angle to get some fracturing you are not gonna have a bazillion little water reservoirs. ..if you run it straight enough to retain water you are not gonna get any fracturing effect.
Josh Moorefield
Aerway use in notill
