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Giving up on Stripe Till
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Jim
Posted 6/29/2006 00:26 (#22680 - in reply to #22404)
Subject: There is more than one way to skin a cat...


Driftless SW Wisconsin
When row cleaners were introduced about 15 years ago I remember standing next to an Iowa farmer with both of us looking at a field where his hired man was running a planter with our row cleaners. I think he was trying to no till corn into bean residue for the first time. I was thinking to myself "what a nice job of planting", then the farmer turned to me and said, "see, I told you they don't work". We were in very heavy residue and he was complaining about the piles of residue between the rows... I told him we could raise them a bit, but then he complained because "the strip wasn't cleared black enough".

At that point I believe he went and got a disc and worked the field. I learned a lot that day.

I also bet that I had a customer within 5 or 10 miles of the "don't work" farmer that would say row cleaners are the "best thing since sliced bread"... Similarly, I have people maybe 10-20 miles apart who range from "3rd year/mildly ecstatic" about our Dawn strip till system to the "one season/don't work" category. We have had customers with machines that "doesn't work" sell them to folks that are calling me/unsolicited telling me how pleased they are with their crop. I guess it is part of the business. I don't get upset about it. As I say, it is not for everyone. But that does not mean it "doesn't work" in a general sense. Depends what you are looking to do and what is most important to you - your "paradigm"

In the end, the success or failure of any agricultural practice or piece of equipment which is given a fairly widespread trial will be how long does it survive in fairly common use. Practices and equipment will survive in the end if they provide a net benefit to the operator/buyer - do they produce more return than they cost. That cost can be in dollars/time/yield or even intangibles like "visual rewards".

There are many ways to raise a corn/bean crop, especially if you are in a fertile soil area with a good climate and generally sufficient (or more than sufficient) rainfall. You can even make money doing it with a range of different systems. Is "strip till" in some form going to be the way that "EVERYONE" farms in the future? Of course not.

Do we know everything there is to know about strip till yet? Do we know how to apply the concept to widely different soils, rotations, climates and operators? Of course not.

Again there are several very different systems which are being called "strip till". I can only speak for our version of it. We have enough units spread over a wide area of crops, soils, and producers that I personally feel very confident the system will be around for a long time, at least on some farms. Our units take only about 10 hp/row, they open the possibility of reducing applied fertilizer from 30-50% less than previous broadcast University recommendations. We can do all tillage and fertilization for in the area of 0.3 gallons of diesel per acre. We offer the possibility of reducing erosion, reducing compaction, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and building healthy soils while producing yields consistent with other methods and possibly significantly more profitable.

Are these things "EASY" or "INSTANT" no, of course not. I believe some versions of strip till will be around for a long, long time. There will be local variations. Some places/operations will want to cover some acres in the fall, others will be all spring. Some will run some sort of ripper between the rows in the fall, then clean up the rows with strip till in the spring. Some will run strip till only in the spring in continuous corn. Some open up a strip in the fall in 80+ bu non baled wheat straw then run it again lightly in the spring....

That is why we and other manufacturers provide a wide variety of different planter attachments and strip till systems. There is no such thing as one size fits all in agriculture. Strip till, in any form, is also not for everyone.

In my opinion, however, "strip till" in several varieties will be some of the tools in our toolbox for a long, long time to come. Strip till economics and agronomics are too good to fade any time soon. I feel quite the opposite. Again, "strip till", in any form, is also not for everyone. jmho.

Jim at Dawn

Edited by Jim 6/29/2006 14:04
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