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| There are more variations, strip till, and split applications of nitrogen.
Thing is yield depends a lot on the corn breeding as well as its care from preplanting to harvest. And yield is not the only judge of profit, input costs for the various techniques affect the bottom line considerably. And then there are side effects, like a 5" rain removing tons of topsoil from the fully tilled field and not from the strip tilled, cover cropped, and no tilled field. Causing extra machinery time leveling the gullies so the machinery can get across the field. To say nothing about the loss of top soil which can be significant with full tillage. Strip till takes a bigger investment in machinery than no till but on my farm produces better because the strips warm up and dry faster in the spring than pure no till and I think cover crop ground. Corn tends to yield better with a long summer so planting late from cold wet soil under stover hurts the yield. At the same time no till involves the fewest machinery passes over the field and so lowers the input costs of fuel, machinery wear and working hours.
Then cover crops can capture and recycle nutrients that might have otherwise leached out over winter to save on nutrient needs for the following crop while the cover crops also prevent soil erosion.
I have worked my farm full spring tillage, then no till, and now my tenant of 8 years is strip till. I saved some spring soil erosion by my late spring tillage, but I could see it all around the area in the fully tilled fields. I experienced virtually no erosion doing no till and in 8 years there hasn't been any in the strip till either. The remaining stover has done a good job of reducing the impact of heavy rain even with the bare strips. I know strips can erode, but it hasn't happened on my farm yet.
The side effects of no till are very much reduced erosion, and way fewer heavy machinery hours (fuel, and operator hours) in the field, replaced by an extra sprayer pass or two.
The side effects of cover crops are similar with added costs of cover crop seed, planting, and termination but the cover crop residue can act as mulch letting the crop grow but shading weeds better than no till.
Gerald J. | |
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So many different ways to farm!
