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Ottawa, Ontario | I tried a RTS unit in the spring before planting and was dissappointed. I have some silty soils and all it did was smear a trench like running a knife through butter. It needs a dry soil to shatter and till. I split a field 50% with the RTS and 50% with the cultivator (1 pass) before corn. The cultivated portion had a better final population and a larger root mass despite a visible horizontal smeared layer just below the cultivator sweep (a little damp at tillage time) The whole idea behind shallow vertical tillage is to eliminate this horizontal layer below the seed.
The only reason I mentioned it was b/c there was a big spread on the RTS this week in the Ontario Farmer newspaper. 1st page of the Production Section...
The owner of Salford Farm Machinery, Jim Boak, is promoting the RTS for working wet soils this fall rather than using the disks or plowing. Although he admits it may take 2-3 passes to get the results expected by tillage. He figures it can smooth out some ruts in a wet residue-covered field, at a working depth of 4 inches.
I still have 250 acres of corn out and water is laying everywhere despite good drainage. All of the ditches are full and the creek is as high as in the spring.
My plan right now is to wait until December when the ground is good and frozen. All of these acres will be no-tilled into soys next spring, so tillage isn't a concern. My dad was interested in my plans this morning and suggested getting the corn off sooner if we get a dry spell, he's concerned about snow.
Clay- did you manage to get your beans off ? | |
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Fixing the ruts
