Tony Anderson says his Uncle Ewing gave him a good lesson about farming years ago that every strip-tiller should adhere to.

“We were always in a hurry and he’d say, ‘Boys, you never have time to do it right, but you always have time to do it over.’ We have taken that to heart,” says the strip-tiller from Washington Court House, Ohio.

The following are a few suggestions he had for attendees at the 2008 National No-Tillage Conference on how to make strip-till work right the first time.

1. When planting corn on corn, Anderson will delay making strips until spring. “The residue in the fall is a challenge for us,” he says. “But the residue will disappear if you wait. We strip the ground in the spring and then spray it.”

2. It’s essential to keep your combine’s corn header in good condition. “We need to get the consistency of that residue into lengths that will degrade faster and give us the opportunity to work it into that nice little mound that’s 9 inches wide and 5 inches tall,” Anderson says. “That allows it to mellow down over the spring, and helps that mound better absorb those harsh spring rains.”

3. Lightbars are a tremendous asset. “They allow us to get fields laid out in a straight line much quicker than what we’ve been able to do with mechanical markers,” he says. “We recently invested in auto-steer on the big tractor and we had it on the planter last…