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West Central Indiana | We went to no-till beans in the late 90's and have stayed with that program except for a few fields each year that need leveled up from tiling or dozer work. About 2004 we decided to start no-tilling the bulk of our corn. At that time we had a little less qualified help to run equipment, picked up some acres, and decided to make spraying ourselves more of a priority. Half of what I farm is classified HEL by the NRCS so for me no-tilling all the corn is easier than tillage on some fields and no-till on others. Last year was the first spring with hydraulic downforce and clean sweep on the corn planter. Switching back and forth between conventional till and no-till is much easier now. May do a little more tillage this spring than normal for that reason.
I'm an emotional roller coaster with no-till corn.
1. With my current help we are able to start planting beans and corn the same day in the spring. +1 for no-till
2. Neighbors conventional till corn starts coming up faster and sometimes more even than mine. -1 for no-till
3. When I need to spray and my ground is firmer than conventional till ground. +1 for no-till
4. Come fall I always feel my neighbors corn is drier than mine. -1 for no-till
5. After a few rain outs it seems like my harvest equipment doesn't track up a field as bad as conventional till. +1 for no-till
6. Neighbors yields seem higher than mine. -1 for no till
7. When we do fall tillage (7-10% of our acreage) the whole time I'm in the tractor I think "I can't believe we use to chisel all of our cornstalks when I was younger!" +1 for no-till
If I had some more help....I would probably try a little more tillage on corn.
Edited by CMCC 2/23/2019 15:50
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Anybody went back to full tillage?
