Ferrie: Farmers Are Strip-Tilling Covers Now. Is That A Good Idea?

With good weather conditions across much of the Midwest, farmers are working on fall tillage and fertility applications.

Ken Ferrie says many growers in central Illinois are telling him how challenging tillage is this fall. Many fields are dry and the ground is hard, making equipment tough to pull and achieve full shatter.

“Farmers are burning up points, shear bolts and diesel fuel,” he says. 

His agronomic crew at Crop-Tech Consulting, near Heyworth, Ill., was putting in tillage plots this week and had some similar challenges as local farmers. 

“I was the parts runner for the team and went to three different places only to find that everyone was out of grade five shear bolts,” he says, noting that’s an indication of how tough area soils are.

For farmers in a vertical tillage program, he says to remember the golden rule: “You need full-width shatter, meaning you will need to add ballasts to the tractor and shift down if need be. In some cases, you may need to

flip the outside shanks on your seven-shank rippers and make them five shanks to get the job done,” he adds.

Is Strip Tillage A Solution?
Some farmers are strip tilling through cover crops, a move that Ferrie believes is partly due to their disappointment over yield results in fields this season. He believes strip tillage in those fields can potentially help corn yields by reducing some of the allopathic issues and carbon penalty issues that are present. 

“It does allow you to let the covers grow longer, and while it does reduce some of the agronomic issues, it doesn't completely remove them,” he cautions. 

Strip tillage ahead of soybeans has some of the same benefits: Beans get out of the ground faster and are not as affected by the carbon penalty of a decomposing cover crop. However, if the decision to use strip tillage ahead of soybeans is a practice change, it needs to be weighed against the original plan.

Ferrie says If the plan was to plant narrow-row soybeans, and you're now switching to wide-row beans, there are a couple things to think through: 

1. First, evaluate the potential impact on yield outcomes in 2024. 

Based on Farm Journal Test Plot plot research in previous years, narrow-row soybeans tend to yield more than wide-row beans. 

“This yield gain is higher in dry years when the 30-inch rows have trouble closing, like in this year, when the narrow-row beans were out-doing wide-row beans by 6 bushels to 8 bushels per acre in our side by side trials,” he says.

2. Second, and perhaps more importantly, consider the impact of tilling covers on weed management.

“Due to prolonged sunlight reaching the ground, our wide-row beans here tend to have late breaks in waterhemp,” Ferrie reports. “When these waterhemp break, many times it is too late to fix them with a herbicide because we're already in the mid-R growth stages in the beans, especially if we planted them early.

So, you're left with few options – possible cultivation, weed zapping or walking the weeds out.”

For growers already using 30-inch rows with soybeans, this is likely a non-issue. But for growers going to 30-inch rows for the first time and, on top of that, growing non-GMO soybeans, Ferrie says to be cautious.

“Have a long talk with your chemical supplier on how you're going to manage these weeds,” he says. “A cover crop will help with the winter annuals but not the late-breaking waterhemp.”

As a point of reference, Ferrie says the combination of cover crops and dry weather conditions locked-up soybeans this season for three to four weeks, which led to more weed issues in 30-inch rows. 

“Again, strip tilling through the covers will help some but will not eliminate all the issues,” he emphasizes. “I am seeing a lot of nice strip-tilled fields, though. This stretch of good weather has created a window to create some of the nicest strips we've seen in a while. This will be a big plus for next spring,” he adds.

Ferrie provides additional insights on strip tillage in cover crops, as well as a brief report on initial test-plot results, in this week’s Boots In The Field podcast available below:

Strip-Tillers Need a Plan B After Tough Post-Harvest Conditions

Your Guide To Hybrid Tillage Tools

Strip Tillage Promotes Soil Health