It’s no secret that many producers are often not satisfied with the results of no-till corn. Cold, wet spring weather certainly doesn’t help to promote early growth. Corn grown under no-till often encounters a slow growth syndrome and subsequent lower performance and yield compared to more conventional tillage systems. Additionally, wet conditions during harvest can also provide challenges to prevent marking up fields, altering seedbed surface and compacting the soil profile.

Many producers who have tried to no-till corn have abandoned it due to planter problems, seedbed quality, poor planting conditions, poor seedling establishment, and often, poor yield. Now, instead of scrapping the entire system of conservation tillage and pulling all the old tillage equipment back out of the shed, there are alternatives to no-till. Tillage equipment improvements have brought new interest in the form of strip tillage (may also be called zone-tillage). Strip tillage combines the best of tillage and no-till systems. Strip tillage can promote a warm seedbed without removing all old crop residue and leaving soil vulnerable to erosion, plus save time and expense from extra trips across the field.

Using strip-till, a process typically conducted as a separate fall operation (with or without fertilizer application), a producer makes a strip with a knife, about eight or nine inches deep in the fall. The resulting strips on top of the ground end up in a two or three-inch tall mound. Strip till may also be performed in the spring pre-plant or by adding attachments on the planter. This program allows farmers to get in the field in good time during the spring planting season and maximize time by planting, not spending time reworking the soil.