Hello everyone.  We are looking to possibly make a change here to strip till.  I have a neighbor that does it and he seems to get along "OK" with it.  In wet years I usually win the yield contest and in dry years his shines through.  Currently we are running a 17' chisel plow and a 34ft digger pulled with a 230 hp 4wd.  We currently plant on 16r30, harvest on 8r30 (9600 with straddle duels) and spray on 60'.  The current system seems to work really well.  The sprayer is the easiest thing to swap out of the whole equation.  We are upgrading the 4wd this year to a few more hp so that may help the cause a bit.

We are considering going to strip till on 500 acres as we are in a position to move out of the chisel plow and field cultivator.  I was thinking a 12r30 strip till rig and a 12r30 planter with a 90ft sprayer would be a good fit... The only beef would be the 9600 with a 6r30.  We have tons of hills and almost everything is contour farmed (another problem with a 6r30).  With the hills/side hills I think I'd have a hard time giving up the straddle duels.   I have only one field that is square on three sides... and that has terraces in the middle.  Talking with a friend he thought maybe a mounted 8r30 strip till rig on the 4wd could possibly be good enough?.?.?  My concern is the contours and corners trying to match up 8 rows to 16.  I don't think I have enough acres to justify a 16r30  rig.  Custom work here is plentiful but getting paid for it is.... well .... another post for another day.

I suppose I can go back to an 8 row planter but I'd really, really hate to do that.

What do you all think?