As with any new practice, many growers considering a switch to strip-till for corn and soybeans may question what the eventual payoff will be.

But there is an abundance of research that suggests strip-till is a viable practice that can improve soil health through reduced disturbance, reduce operating costs and deliver comparable yields, even in cold climates, says Jodi DeJong-Hughes.

The University of Minnesota Extension regional educator, whos’ been an outspoken advocate of strip-till, believes the practice has value in her geographic area marked by short growing seasons and chilly spring planting conditions. She offers hard data to counter the two most popular reasons growers give for not adopting the practice.

Strip-till wins the economics test for both corn and soybeans, with lower input costs as it reduces soil erosion and improves water infiltration over tilled ground, says DeJong-Hughes, who oversees scientific studies of tillage systems as they relate to soil erosion and economic returns for growers.

After hundreds of on-farm studies, and thousands of miles of travel to grower meetings and conferences preaching proven benefits of reduced tillage, she says hesitant growers consistently default to: “It won’t warm up or dry out in the spring” and, her perennial favorite, “My yields are going to suffer.”

Planting Conditions

In a four-year study at three North Dakota sites in sand, silty-clay and clay loam soils, researchers took weekly soil moisture and temperature readings in fields under no-till, vertical-till, chisel-plow and strip-till management, up through planting.

The average soil temperatures at planting…