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Planting no-till with mixed results
A central Wisconsin farmer experimenting with no-till says he’s having mixed results.
Brad Kramer of Pittsville tells Brownfield he planted about 60 acres of corn into soybean stubble this spring.
“I’m a little disappointed in our no-tilling. I don’t know if it’s anything more than us having a learning curve. Our stuff that we tilled and our conventional tillage looks spectacular; we had great emergence.”
Kramer says his no-till corn has good color but uneven emergence.
He hasn’t put a finger on what the problem might be.
“I did not have trash rippers on my planter and I think that is something that we will implement in the future. I didn’t have a no-till knife (or a blade) in front. I did have down-pressure on my planter. It was something we tried, and it hasn’t appeared to be a failure. But it’s not the result I was hoping for either.”
Kramer says he has seen environmental benefits from planting no-till, with reduced soil erosion occurring on those acres after a recent downpour.
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