The 10th annual National Strip-Tillage Conference captured a growing interest in strip-till as over 400 attendees, including 197 first timers, traveled to Bloomington, Ill., for the 3-day event.
With a self-described “living laboratory,” Streator, Ill., no-tiller and strip-tiller Larry Tombaugh experiments with biological combinations to help stimulate soil health and add bushels each year.
I ACTUALLY TRIED no-till when I came home from the University of Illinois in 1973. I rented an Allis Chalmers “no-till planter” from the conservation department and it gave my neighbors a good laugh because we were way ahead of the curve.
Streator, Ill., strip-tiller Larry Tombaugh shares the front-to-back setup of his 1994 12-row John Deere 7200 vac planter and explains some of the recent modifications to his row units to include trimming down his spike wheels to accommodate softer soils and the addition of Precision Planting's RowFlow seed rate sensing tool.
Streator, Ill., strip-tiller Larry Tombaugh took us into his farm “laboratory” to discuss some biological solutions he’s experimenting with on his corn and soybean operation, including Compost Tea, a biological soil stimulant which has 4,000 different strains of colony forming fungal units.
Some no-tillers and strip-tillers say vertical-tillage tools are helping them size and incorporate residue, prepare seedbeds, reduce weed pressure and improve planting conditions without trashing no-till.
Since vertical-tillage implements debuted, they’ve been a bit controversial with no-tillers, with some feeling the tools violate the basic principles of no-tilling by disturbing the soil.
Strip-tiller Larry Tombaugh combined an old cultivator, SpikeWheel units and a CDS-John Blue pump into a unit that dispenses nitrogen with low soil disturbance.
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On this edition of Conservation Ag Update, brought to you by CultivAce, longtime no-tiller Jim Leverich explains why 20-inch corn rows are paying off big time on his Sparta, Wis., farm.
Needham Ag understands the role of technology in making better use of limited resources within a specific environment by drawing on a wealth of global experience to overcome the challenges facing today's farmers, manufacturers and dealers.
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