11. What's The Best Tillage For Me?

Being a research farm, it seems that there is no shortage of interesting things to test. 

Now that harvest is over, this is a time to start a tillage research trial.  Many farmers are particular about the amount and type of tillage that they are conducting in their fields.  In fact, they are passionate about it.  Of note are the no-tillers, which can be further divided into light tillage over stalks only versus Never Till!  Others feel that working the ground enables better control of residue, better warm-up in the spring and a better seedbed.  But what is really better?  Much depends on location, such as field flatness and soil type.  This particular trial field is flat and is a Conover loam soil.  We made sure that the entire experiment was in a single soil type according to the soil map.  This is a big step in reducing treatment variability.  We applied several different tillage plans that will be part of a corn-soybean rotation.  This was the first step, and glad we did it last Friday as it rained over the weekend and has turned cold now.  Fall tillage is probably over for the most part.  We hope to keep you informed of findings from this multi-year experiment at the North Central Research Station. 

P.S. Yes, it has been a while since the last post. However, look for a new blog post at least every other week.  Research is our business!   

(Jerry Wilhm, Ph.D. November 16, 2020)