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Reduced tillage widens planting window
Photo courtesy FCSAmerica
Strip and no-till practices are allowing farmers to resume planting faster following a wet start to the spring.
North central Iowa corn and soybean grower Wayne Fredericks, who also uses cover crops, says there are definite advantages to not disturbing topsoil.
“Cover crop, even though it is small, it will utilize some excess moisture. We’re hoping that will be beneficial in getting us back into the field. We fall strip-till for our corn, and those strips are always slightly elevated and tend to dry off just a little bit quicker.”
Planting has been severely limited in many parts of the Upper Midwest because of excess moisture.
University of Minnesota Extension agronomist Seth Naeve tells Brownfield direct seeding might be the way to go if the rain continues.
“I was out (Monday) and saw some beautiful fields that looked like a farmer had gone in and no-tilled some corn into soybean stubble. It made me think that guy probably was onto something.”
Naeve says those fields probably weren’t suitable for cultivating, but the farmer was able to get the corn planted on top.
Wayne Fredericks audio:
Seth Naeve audio:
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