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Aberdeen MS | Both. Plain and simple. The guy with the NH/Hiniker also has a Dawn for spring use. Catch what didn't get done in the fall and freshen up strips in the spring. He's tickled pink using the combo.
The heavier drier soils like i had here yesterday need the shank/knife type for penetration through the wheel tracks for sure. I'm not sure I had enough weight on just the bar weight for 8 rows and full down pressure. After everything gets set up right on mine.....probably will be a different story.
In the root pit yesterday, I dug the pit through planter tracker tracks with rogator tracks on each side of that, then 3 rows past out of the controlled traffic pattern. This field had been stripped/direct seeded for 4 years. Last time any type of deep tillage done was fall of 04. In the one rogator track, Jodi lifted out a chunk the size of a soccer ball that her 3" lock back blade couldn't penetrate. Rogator went through the field just before Farm Fest for aphids and about 2.5" of rain fell after that.
How dry/chunky was the combine wheel tracks yesterday? The Hiniker and Red Ball were pulling/lifting chunks bigger than soft balls from the wheel tracks. One of the guys took his pocket knife out.... pushed it into one of the chunks, lifted and gave it a slam against the ground to break the chunk apart.... blade snapped off instead. 2 rows over the strip was potty soil consistency.
If I could thread the needle so to speak and time a rain in late fall, keep the strip bare, and catch things damp but not wet, I can do a pretty decent job I believe in fall. I've done wheat stubble in Nov....with a perfect job, but that's after the Sept/early Oct ( after one/two light frosts) rains to soften things up first. Plenty of moisture was in the field, all of us were getting moisture in the strips and I was getting a short 4" deep. With the structure I have... per the root dig..... a couple freeze thaw cycles on "wet" clumps...... should be good to go planting next spring. Get a dry freeze?????? I'm not sure how good they'd break down.
This field will be a double experiment next year. Of the Hiniker and Redball... some will stay for stale strips.....others I'll freshen up with the Dawn. And the entire field will be a 60' strip cropping on a north/south orientation beans/corn. | |
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Thanks Gerywolf & all
