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Thumb of Michigan | I farm similar soils to yours. We've had some of our "better" (ie heavier) soils into no-till for over 20 years. Just an observation I've had over the years, and I had to prove it to myself again this year. We ripped some headlands last fall that were getting tight. The fields were OK compaction wise so didn't do any ripping there. This fall with all the rain we're getting, we're able to get in the fields without cutting them up if we don't try to push it. The headlands are an entirely diffent story. Have some spots that are just soup. Last years ripping has probably caused way more compaction this year than we fixed. We saw the same thing years ago with the advent of the chisel plow and v-ripper. Blow out one compaction layer only to create a deeper layer. I'm not against ripping in the right circumstances- we owned a ripper for a few years and did ourselves some good. But not on the heavy soils, our old sand bars (we're on a lakebed) were the real problems. I'll rip some of those this year if it ever dries up enough.
Gypsum seems to be used in your area a lot more than here. In fact, I'm pretty sure Ed W will chime in here sometime. Our soils and soil tests don't support the use of gyp, our magnesium levels are fine as they are. My Ca levels are approaching 80% on some farms now. | |
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soils question?
