What You Gain When You Till Less
What does success on your farm look like? For some, it’s top-end yields. To others, the ultimate goal is productive land to hand down to future generations. Still, others strive to maximize profitability by reducing their production costs. No matter how you define on-farm success, strip-tilling with the SoilWarrior® can help you achieve it. Here are a few things you gain when you employ conservation tillage methods, including strip-till, in your operation.
Better Fertilizer Efficiency
Fertilizer is likely one of your farm’s biggest expenses, so increasing fertilizer efficiency is critical to maximizing your return on investment. Strip-tilling provides an excellent opportunity for deep fertilizer placement, making it more accessible in the root zone compared to broadcast applications.
University of Minnesota corn fertilization recommendation tables indicate phosphorus and potassium fertilization rates can be as much as 50% lower when placed below the soil’s surface versus broadcasting1 while producing similar yields.2 Placing fertilizer below the soil’s surface in a strip-till system may also help reduce nutrient losses via runoff, volatilization, and even wind.
SoilWarrior systems are equipped with variable-rate technology for even more precise nutrient placement, enabling you to maximize the return on your fertilizer investment.
Healthier Soils
Many farmers are turning to strip-tillage for its soil health benefits. Topsoil is the most productive layer in the soil and is the first to be lost due to erosion. Strip-tilling helps protect valuable topsoil, which also impacts a field’s yield potential. The Columbia University Climate School reports that corn and wheat yields decrease almost 6% with every inch of topsoil lost in the U.S.3
Strip-tilling also reduces the level of compaction compared to conventional tillage with fewer passes required to achieve an ideal seedbed for planting. Compaction leads to several agronomic issues, including poor root development, limited water infiltration and poor soil structure.
The SoilWarrior can also help incorporate organic matter into the soil to stimulate beneficial soil micro- and macro-organism activity. This improves nutrient cycling, increases water infiltration and holding capacity, and enhances soil structure.
Stronger Crop Establishment
Compared to no-till, strip-tillage offers some significant benefits for crop establishment. First, seed placement can be optimized with less crop residue to contend with. That improves seed-to-soil contact for faster, more uniform emergence.
Research has shown that inconsistent emergence in corn can lead to lower kernel numbers per ear with crop yields diminishing by 8.5% per day of emergence delay after planting.4 Strip-tilling also helps warm soil temperatures to support earlier planting compared to no-till.
The SoilWarrior also provides a high-quality seedbed that allows for faster planter speeds and fewer skips/doubles that may have been caused by poor seedbed conditions. The smoothness of the planter ride impacts proper spacing.
Practical Environmental Stewardship
Strip-tilling offers nutrient stewardship benefits by helping limit soil erosion and keeping nutrients from eroding with the soil. In addition to these nutrients being available to the plant when in the root zone, reducing erosion can help protect sensitive water bodies and aquatic species from any adverse effects of runoff. Another environmental benefit of strip-tilling is moisture conservation, which is especially critical in dry environments where water may be the most limiting factor in crop production.
Efficiency and Profitability
Efficiency is a key benefit of strip-tilling, leading to opportunities to reduce costs and increase profits. Strip-tilling can help streamline your workload during critical points in the season. You can set yourself up for a stress-free planting season with just one pass through the field using rugged equipment like the SoilWarrior. That single pre-plant pass helps reduce labor costs and frees your staff to focus on other farm duties as well as minimizing the need for other equipment.
Fuel costs in a strip-till system are generally significantly lower than in a conventional tillage system. Lower production costs and the potential for higher yields offer opportunities to increase profitability with strip-tilling. As soil health improves over time, fertilizer costs may continue to decline in future seasons. One SoilWarrior user in Minnesota reports saving $90,000 annually in fuel, labor and fertilizer costs. Other owners have reported being able to farm additional acres with less machinery than when they were using a conventional tillage program.
Getting Started with the SoilWarrior
We’ve outlined many of the economic, agronomic and environmental benefits of strip-tilling. Now let’s focus on finding the best equipment to do the job. The SoilWarrior is popular among farmers for its durable construction and reliable performance. It's a clear industry leader with its precise nutrient placement and versatility. There are several SoilWarrior models available to align with your preferred production practices. For example, the SoilWarrior 4500 is available with a dry, liquid, NH3 or combination fertilizer system that covers up to 24 rows per pass and offers multiple row spacing options.
If you’re intrigued by the benefits of strip-tilling with the SoilWarrior but aren’t sure where to start, here are a few recommendations.
1. Invest in RTK GPS technology to plant more accurately over the strips you create.
2. Gauge your tractor’s horsepower to ensure it meets the SoilWarrior’s requirements. Running a tractor with insufficient horsepower can reduce efficiency, increase fuel consumption and reduce strip quality. Soil type, terrain, tillage depth, tillage type and hydraulic motor use can all affect horsepower requirements.
3. Work with your agronomist to discuss how strip-tilling might affect other production practices, such as seed selection and weed management.
4. Try it out first with our SoilWarrior rental program. Use the SoilWarrior for one season. If you choose to purchase a SoilWarrior at the end of the contract, you can apply a portion of your rental payment toward the final transaction. If it’s not right for your farm, you can return it. It’s that simple.
To learn more about implementing strip-tillage and the SoilWarrior to your operation, contact our team.
References
1 Kaiser, D. E., F. Fernandez, M. Wilson, J.A. Coulter, and B. Barber. Fertilizing Corn in Minnesota. University of Minnesota, Bulletin AG-FO-3790D (Revised 2020).
2 Rehm, G. Use of Banded Fertilizer for Corn Production. University of Minnesota. 2020.
3 Cho, R. Why Soil Matters. Columbia Climate School. 2012.
4 Albarenque, S., B. Basso, O. Davidson, B. Maestrini, and R. Melchiori. Plant Emergence and Maize (Zea mays L.) Yield Across Multiple Farmers’ Fields. Field Crops Research. Volume 302. 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fcr.2023.109090.
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