Harvest took much longer than anticipated for Geneva, Neb., crop farmer Dan Aspegren.
“The last field took 10 days because we received about 4" inches of rain,” Aspegren says.
As of early December, his fall fieldwork wasn’t done. The operation switched to strip-till about 15 years ago. He’s found doing a good job in the field in the fall makes a more efficient furrow come spring.
“We make a clean strip and apply fertilizer with our machine 7" to 8" below the surface,” Aspegren says. “We’re breaking up compaction in that strip so it plants a lot better, helping improve the uniformity in our stands.”
MANAGE THE TOP FOOT
Natural soil compaction occurs below 12" deep, says Mick Goedeken, a tillage systems agronomist for Orthman Manufacturing.
“We’re never going to do anything about that,” he says. “What we can manage is that top 12".”
He says a typical disk type of tillage will create a compaction layer between 3" and 8" deep.
“I want to set that shank just a half-inch below that compaction layer and create a nice trench for the seed,” Goedeken says.
FACTOR IN WEATHER
Fall weather can have just as big of an impact on the seedbed as the weather in the spring, says Farm Journal Field Agronomist Ken Ferrie. If the soil is too wet in the fall or the shanks run too deep, dirt clods can be pulled to the surface.
“Granted they will freeze, and they’ll melt down to about third of the size, but you’re going to have to deal with it next spring,” Ferrie says.
A row warmer can help with the clods, but there might also be a hidden slot just below the surface.
“This is where a seed can get dropped in the spring and end up being below your planting depth or fall into a false bottom,” Ferrie says. “Often there’s a missing kernel, and we’ll dig down and find it sometimes 3", 4" or 5" deep.”
Ferrie recommends running shanks a little shallower as long as it’s still deep enough to seal in the anhydrous. It’s the first step in rebuilding the foundation of next season’s yields.
“If farmers want to produce great crops, then we want a consistent seedbed, consistent temperatures and consistent moisture conditions,” Goedeken says.
WATCH THESE VIDEOS TO LEARN MORE:
Preparing the Perfect Seed Bed
The Tools for Strip-Till
Working with the Weather
Working with Cover Crops
Preparing the Seedbed
