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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.