Time now to visit with a true conservation innovator. Walnut, Ill, farmer Alan Madison started promoting no-till and strip-till decades ago during his 30-year run with the NRCS.

Today, he strip-tills 100% of his corn and soybeans. He follows 8 steps to achieve high yields and strip-till success, which includes broadcasting cereal rye on all 2,000 of his acres immediately after harvest with this pendulum spreader.  

“The cover crop, seeing that cover crop in there, it does help that compaction. So that can work for you. We're using starter. We've used starter for 40 years on the planter, looking at at least somehow getting maybe 20 units or 30 units of nitrogen (N) out there and some zinc is a key component.

“And then there's a lot of other things you can put with that to maybe help improve it somewhat. And then make sure your planter is set up with the right row cleaners and disc openers and closing wheels and those kinds of things. And there's a lot of information out there on how to set up planters. And then of course we kind of spoonfeed N, so we're putting some on with the planter. We might put some on with our herbicides and then side dressing. And if we have to, we actually do some Y-drops later in the season.”

The final thing on Alan’s checklist is to harvest early, usually around the last week of September, so that heavy residue can start breaking down into the soil before he makes his strips in early November.

Watch the full version of this episode of Conservation Ag Update.