We did field demos of our strip till system in corn and beans in the MO river valley late last week in an area of very variable and largely gumbo soils - the kind that you get taller as you walk across the field.  This maybe of interest to others.

Folks in this area traditionally fall deep rip, maybe disc, apply nh3 for corn then spring FC and plant.  Even the ground going to beans gets fall worked and again in the spring. I am told the soil in this Missouri River Vallety area is about a foot of gumbo on top of pure sand. Most is pivot irrigated.

We made test strips between the old corn rows in one field with patches of gumbo. We found that higher speeds (7-9 mph) with a lighter setting at about 4" depth seemed to work the best visually. Concern seemed to be that we weren't ripping deep enough. I suggested that they experiment by running a ripper with our strip till over the top of that or just try the shallower type strip which we have seen work successfully many other places in a side by side comparison.

There was a recent interesting thread about how to deal with ruts in no til or strip till. I think the consensus I got out of that thread was that, if necessary, work the trouble areas when it is fit to do so. Seems to make sense. I have done the same myself. I do find that as ground improves under strip till, leaving all residue on top, its ability to hold tire traffic and water changes/improves significantly. This has long been documented by Jim Kinsella and others. But there will be still be some times and places where we do leave some ruts.

The heavily worked bean fields pictured had some much harder wheel tracks/shallow ruts and softer middles. Hard to see in the photos but there are 3-4" deeper wheel tracks in some middles more than non traffic middles. What we found worked here was to drive in the same wheel tracks and make the strips right down the recently harvested sotbean rows. This gave us the most consistent strips as pictured. It has somewhat changed my thinking on making strips for corn into bean stubble - seems to work best driving in the middles and make strips down the top of the just-harvested rows, at least where the beans were planted into heavily worked ground. Summary - even if there are minor ruts, driving in the same track seems to be a possibility for getting the next crop in. Ultimately the ruts may need to be worked, that may be best done in the fall, however. jmho.

I will include one photo of some demo strips made into some VERY tough gumbo. This field flooded this past spring and was prevented planting ground. The stalks are one year old, nothing had been planted here this season but will go to corn next spring. This is some nasty gumbo soil if I ever saw any. We did make some decent strips right over the top of these year-old stalks (NOT this season's) without too many clods. Should mellow out nicely for planting. Criticism again was that they would usually rip this ground and our 4-5" deep (from the nominal soil surface) wasn't deep enough.

My experience in gumbo soils elsewhere is that usually the less you do to them, especially in the spring, the better. Once you work them, you need to really work them. They did convince me that in these soil conditions even strip till is better done in the fall. My thanks to the hosts of this demo.

I still feel that in general in MOST northern cornbelt (north of I-80?) applications I would use our Dawn Pluribus in the SPRING in cornstalks. This gumbo soil is probably an exception to our general recommendation (= strip wheat in the fall, corn in the spring, bean stubble either way).  Another possibility is to deep rip this gumbo ground with a minimum disturbance ripper in the fall then run the Pluribus lightly in the spring, maybe putting down all of your N as you do. Gumbo is definitely a challenge. No till seems to be working in the NE hills nearby. Folks seem to feel that no till will not work in this gumbo, as I understand it.

Monsoon season seems to be upon us in N IA, S MN, W WI...Many beans may need to be mudded out.   

Jim at Dawn

(Dawn strip till Mo Valley on corn stalks 7-9mph IMGA0510 10-11-07.JPG)

(Dawn strip till Mo Valley on corn stalks 7-9mph IMGA0513 10-11-07.JPG)

(Dawn strip till Mo Valley on bean stubbble row high speed IMGA0533 10-12-07.JPG)

(Dawn strip till Mo Valley on bean stubbble row high speed IMGA0534 10-12-07.JPG)

(Dawn strip till Mo Valley on bean stubbble row high speed IMGA0535 10-12-07.JPG)

(Dawn strip till Mo Valley on heavy gumbo pp yr old stalks IMGA0546 10-12-07c.jpg)

Dawn strip till Mo Valley on corn stalks 7-9mph IMGA0510 10-11-07.JPG (93KB - 251 downloads)

Dawn strip till Mo Valley on corn stalks 7-9mph IMGA0513 10-11-07.JPG (96KB - 242 downloads)

Dawn strip till Mo Valley on bean stubbble row high speed IMGA0533 10-12-07.JPG (77KB - 235 downloads)

Dawn strip till Mo Valley on bean stubbble row high speed IMGA0534 10-12-07.JPG (69KB - 241 downloads)

Dawn strip till Mo Valley on bean stubbble row high speed IMGA0535 10-12-07.JPG (70KB - 235 downloads)

Dawn strip till Mo Valley on heavy gumbo pp yr old stalks IMGA0546 10-12-07c.jpg (87KB - 262 downloads)