If you haven't heard of Richard Follmer, just know that you've probably used a version of his invention if you've used a strip-till unit recently. The owner of Progressive Farm Products in Hudson, Ill., invented the midmount, dual-placement strip-till toolbar that is being used by thousands of Corn Belt farmers.

A growing number of farmers are switching to strip-till for a variety of reasons. Whether it’s to warm up soils that remain cold for too long in the spring, to trim input costs, to reduce compaction, improve drainage or other reasons, strip-till is getting a closer look these days.

No-Till Operational Benchmark Study

Having his own strip-till unit to put down pre-plant nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium for corn was an idea that always bubbled on the back burner for Fred Abels. The Holland, Iowa, no-tiller thought he could incorporate just such a home-built unit into his current no-till operation.

When I shared our no-till experiences at the 2004 National No-Tillage Conference, we had just made a serious shift from a corn-soybean rotation to continuous corn. After 5 years, we’ve learned a lot about growing corn on corn. Now we’re evaluating new technology that will take our strip-till operation to the “next level,” as I reported in Indianapolis during the 2009 event.

In the spirit of continuous improvement, we recently asked strip-tillers if they could provide us with some of the beneficial modifications they've made to their strip-till rigs.