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Nevada, Iowa | I have to add this and it may be a once in a lifetime problem but it was a problem nonetheless. I got a used 600 series Deere chopping head a few years ago and I think it has been the answer for me and residue. I'm not plugging the head here, there are many versions of however you want to pick corn but sizing the residue up is the solution for me. Before this header I used a flail chopper and they're good too, I was always just running out of time and help to get that pass done.
Back to the problem, last year I left a field of corn stubble with cover crop untilled and we received some unusually heavy rain in December - 4+ inches of rain. I had some huge residue issues at the edges of ponds. It was better where we tilled but still a problem, even bean stubble was a big issue this spring but the untilled cornstalk field was the worst. I finally had to resort to a burn on a day when it was dry enough to get most of it going. I really hated to torch that stuff off but I had no other obvious course of action. Like I said, may never happen again but I'll be a little better prepared to assume it can happen in the future.
Regarding a solution to chemically digest corn stalks, I have tried 32% a time or two and I've seen other products tried and almost no one goes back to it "here". We are just too cold too early on the average to break anything down biologically from October on but every area is different. With the price of N and all of the local squawk about nitrates in the water, I'm not anxious to put anything volatile on in the fall, again that's "here". | |
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Stalk breakdown concoction
