Mike,

I know how dry your area is and I feel for you and everyone in that area. Especially after so much moisture early on.

A question for you on something I don't understand very well. Maybe I'm missing something, but why, this time of year, is the corn on corn looking worse than the corn on beans? Both had good moisture to start with, didn't they?

Are we comparing crops or tillage systems?  I was looking at some strip tilled corn on corn today that does look a lot better than the nearby corn that was planted on worked corn stalks. The corn on corn strip tilled ground has much more residue remaining on the ground between the rows then the corn that was even no tilled into bean stubble.

That residue is mulching in moisture and keeping soil temperatures measureably cooler between the rows than in full tillage systems. I have a central ILL strip till customer who measured and compared soil temps to a conventional neighbor's field across the road.

In your area of SW MN I know folks work both corn and bean ground but generally isn't the bean ground is worked less and shallower than the corn ground. There are some folks I know in that area that disc chisel corn stalks with shin plates in the fall, disc chisel again in the spring then make at least 2 passes with a field cultivator before planting corn on corn.

In bean stubble, I believe these folks disc chisel once in the fall then one pass with the field cultivator in the spring.

I am not trying to push strip till, I know you are not a fan, and strip tilled crops need rain eventually too. But what you are saying is not meshing with what I have seen in several other areas.

I don't doubt what you say about seeing a difference, but I think the cause of a difference in ability to stand in a dry period at this time of year is more a function of tillage system and surface residue remaining than the previous crop. After all that tillage there is very little soil structure (= water holding capacity) left.

Or am I missing something? I know it doesn't help the tough situation but I would like to understand more.

Jim at Dawn