|
NE Colorado | This will be year 20 with Shelbournes. I do not think we will ever go back to straight cutting, but there are several things to consider.
Positives:
-Moisture. You will capture and retain moisture better as you will keep sun and wind off of the ground.
-Productivity of your machine. With modern machines you should be pushing 15-30% more grain through each machine per hour. In good threshing wheat I have cleared 2200 bu/hr on average in a field, but I am typically in the 1500 range with .2 out the back.
-You will be able to spray in higher winds as you can set the boom at the top of the stubble and it shields it. Not 30 mph winds, but you will feel better when its 12+.
-RESIDUE!!! For us stripper stubble is our version of a cover crop
Negatives:
-They are more expensive to run than a straight head. You'll burn more fuel because they pull hard, and you will have more in maintenance and when you suck up a rock it is going to hurt a lot more.
-It changes what you use for equipment and how you set things up. Disc drills vs hoe drills (giant comb), you will lift or toss trash whippers on planters, closing wheels will probably need to be different, etc.
-The days of driving past a field and being able to see if it needs sprayed are over. You will have to spend more time checking fields. (sounds odd but guys have really struggled with that around here)
-First couple years you will slow nutrient cycling because the residue is not breaking down as fast.
-You now have to think about residue management in terms of crop rotation. If you are heavy wheat, and you have 2 or 3 good crops in a row it may be really tough to plant that field next time and get a good stand.
We plant very little corn or sunflowers that is not into stripper stubble especially for the first year of corn. What is interesting is as long as that stubble stays around our corn on corn has stayed with or out yielded our corn on wheat, that is a whole different discussion though. I can't definitively tell you how many bushels you can gain because every operation is different, but if you stick with it for 5+ years you will see a difference. When we started we were the only ones around and we were basically laughed at, and now probably 70% of the wheat in our area is stripped. | |
|
Shelbourne header
