Vertical Tillage

I'm not an expert but there is no real answer for every farm.  Vertical tillage, no-till, max-till, min-till all have their place.  IMO vertical tillage works in places where you can use GPS and till only where you plant.  Where you use heavy equipment that compacts the soil and vertical tillage will break through that compaction.  And, where you have lots of top soil as at my place I have lots of very big rocks not too far underground.  

The idea is to reduce compaction and not to destroy crop residue to control erosion.

The idea is to get a little dirt stirred up to make the residue degrade while not changing the soil structure or tilthe.

Edited by Rawleigh - 26 Oct 2011 at 7:54am

uh, yeah, wow.

Ryan, I didn't mean to state the obvious, as probably most of the forum members use some type of no-till or minimum tillage.  It was just a cute little book though, and it had never occurred to me that such "revolutionary" ideas were around back then.  Apparently the book was extremely controversial when it came out.  Now, the ideas he talked about are commonplace.

Funny though, around our area (central NY) no-till is still a rarity.  Within probably 8-10 miles of us, I know of only one 10 acre corn plot done in no-till.  Virtually all the dairy farms around us still use the moldboard plow/disking for tillage.  The mid-west with its large acreages, seems to use it much more. 

i have been "testing" no-till for years....in different types of soil! if you have good black soil it will work better than lighter soils, it may work great the first year or 2, but will start to die out after that unless you keep uping the amount of commercial fertilizer each year! last year i "ripped" part of the farm, it had never had that done in it's life! the corn grew great! i also put corn in after beans, no till, no fertilizer, that yieded average then next to it, i appied fertilizer, it helped some, but next to that where i had plowed the bean field, and put corn in, no fertilizer, that part of the field yielded the best! have run these tests for about 10 years, as every year won't be the same! each of these tests were done in the same field, same soil, flat ground. Dad always plowed the fields every 5 years, then in-between just disked before planting. he had a JD disk, it wasn't very heavy so about all it did was chop some of the stalks and disturb about the top 1-2 inches of dirt. i have a very heavy deep tillage disk that cuts everything and goes in about 4-6 inches into the soil. so it's about like plowing! anyway, not trying to perswade anyone, this is just for my own learning. different types of practices works very different in other fields everywhere! when you find what works for you...use it, don't worry about what the neighbor or the manufacurer thinks! the equipment makers are in for the fast buck, they don't care if you raise a crop, just that you buy their equipment to try! and as alot of you know....alot of the older equipment still works better than the so called "new-improved" junk! 

Around this area(NW Illinois), most guys don't touch bean ground and no till or min till corn in. A good part of tillage around here is deep ripping cornstalks in the fall. Still a lot of chisel plowing and If you have bottom ground, more than likely there is a moldboard plow hooked up right now.

With BT cornstalks being as tough as they are some tillage almost has to take place. Have yall seen the new stalk stompers for combine tires??? Also any type of tillage no matter what, even row cleamers or no-till openers, causes some compaction especially when the soil is wet. I plowed early this spring before we had the big ohio river flood. I had my corn planted a week before lots of folks could get back in the field because the soil dried out faster and warmed up more. Each farms specific soil types and structure determine the practices best used.

We on our third fall using a Salford vertical tillage, This year we are trying to use it on everything, last 2 years ran corn stalks only, Plan to plant corn into soybeans stubble just like it is this spring, Will drill soybeans into corn stalks like they are come spring, Erosion has becomes less of an issue after using this tool. I keep telling my son there has to be a down side to this vertical tillage, But we have not found it yet. Fields are smoother for spreading fertilize and chemical application. seed depth is easier to regulate also, fuel comsumption at the end of the year is way down. But, like I have already stated I'm still looking for the bite to take place, hopefully it won't. I'm 60 years old and I really like this tool.

Steve Bright wrote: We on our third fall using a Salford vertical tillage, This year we are trying to use it on everything, last 2 years ran corn stalks only, Plan to plant corn into soybeans stubble just like it is this spring, Will drill soybeans into corn stalks like they are come spring, Erosion has becomes less of an issue after using this tool. I keep telling my son there has to be a down side to this vertical tillage, But we have not found it yet. Fields are smoother for spreading fertilize and chemical application. seed depth is easier to regulate also, fuel comsumption at the end of the year is way down. But, like I have already stated I'm still looking for the bite to take place, hopefully it won't. I'm 60 years old and I really like this tool.