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Driftless SW Wisconsin | I am not sure. I will check with the customer.
Taking a guess, however, I would say that last year's corn was harvested with aggressive knife rolls on the corn head. This is likely since our Pluribus units this spring replaced shank type strip till units which almost require something be done with the stalks to avoid becoming a rake.
Our experience has shown that northern corn on corn strip till works best with the stalk left as intact as possible and standing. This way the stalks catch snow and stop the wind over the winter. There is also less of a mat in the space between the rows so the soil can dry and warm a bit earlier in the spring.
I like the oldest cast iron corn head stalk rolls you've got - just enough flute left to get the ears off of the plant - for strip till into corn stalks. And run the corn head as high as possible - minimizing the amount of MOG brought into the combine and again leaving the corn residue more vertical than horizontal.
The strip till crop year actually STARTS under the feeder house AT HARVEST. More and more customers are using large singles on their combine, spaced to run on the just-harvested row. This keeps massive combine tire loads running on stalks and not where you are going to plant in the spring. Use a "stalk stomper" or hang a piece of iron under the corn head in line with each tire to get the long stalks leaning away from the tire. This works well if you can do it on your combine.
Jim at Dawn
Edited by Jim 6/15/2006 18:21
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How's your strip till lookin' ?
