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SE PA | We farm 300 acres in southeast PA that is almost all double cropped with small grain harvested for silage, followed by corn for silage or shelling. Most of the acres have 7500 gallons manure surface applied through a dragline in spring and fall, with some acres getting same rate via tankers. Harvesting and manure spreading are all done by custom operators. We plant corn ourselves with a 6 row planter.
Soil compaction is an issue. We have ripped fields in the fall and run different vertical tillage tools in the spring, but if it is wet before small grain harvest it seems that the weight of silage trucks and carts causes new compaction.
Ripping in the spring is an option, but it is a slow process with a 6 bottom DMI and tractor rented from a neighbor. The only vertical tillage that seems to really loosen up the triticale stubble is two passes with a Kongskilde 9200, also run with by another farmer with his tractor.
I am curious about strip till. No one around here does it. Mainly wondering how hard would something like an Unverferth ripper stripper pull in small grain stubble and how hard is it to follow with the planter the next day? GPS necessary? We would not need to run shanks as deep as a ripper, maybe only 8 inches would be sufficient.
Picture is two corn plants from same row, 50 feet apart. Ground was ripped in fall and Kongkilde ran this spring.
TIA
Edit to add goals:
1. Break up compaction and prepare seed bed in one pass.
2. Run strip till tool with our own 4450, rather then renting tractor and tool.
Edited by Dpsatt 6/17/2020 12:51
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Strip till corn after small grain?
