Your Quote:

"The windrow you see are the pods and do not seem to be a big problem for tillage."

I guess the key question her is what constitutes a "problem".

Does this residue prevent you from running a tillage tool through the field after the pea harvest?  No it does not usually, if this is what you are referring to as a problem.

However this concentration of biomass in one windrow, whether worked in or not, is not good for the overall health of the soil. Any nitrogen in that windrow area tends to get tied up in the breakdown of that material much more so than in the more open areas to the sides of the windrow.

It has long been know as important to distribute residue to approximately the same width as it came from (header width).

Concentrations of residue like that are an agronomic problem, if not a physical problem.

Here again is a photo I posted above. Look at the difference in the amount of residue, even though matted down from heavy rains, between the windrow and adjacent areas. If you look at the strips on the right, especially in the distance, you can see the difference in residue moved even clearer.

As long as the strip till is not entraining that residue in the soil it is less of a problem.

My point is that a very simple, low cost, 50-year-old-design combine-type spreader would greatly reduce or eliminate the entire issue.

Jim at Dawn

(Dawn_Strip till into MN pea stubble windrows_IMG_2558_1.JPG)

Dawn_Strip till into MN pea stubble windrows_IMG_2558_1.JPG (125KB - 989 downloads)