Fall Tillage

Fall Tillage

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
With harvest in full swing, many farmers will also be tilling their fields. Justin Render, product specialist for Kinze Manufacturing, says fall tillage offers several important benefits, including processing and breaking down carbon.

“200-bushel corn is going to give you about six tons of residue, which is going to immobilize about 90 lbs. of nitrogen. So, its really especially important on those higher carbon crops like corn on corn to start breaking that down so you don’t have that nitrogen penalty, or that tie-up in the springtime. The next reason is to incorporate things into the soil,  like manures, fertilizers, soil amendments like ag lime as farmers are wanting to do their fall tillage and apply a cover crop behind it. In the northern climates we found out that its important to their operations to be able to turn that soil a little bit black, so as the wintertime is fading off and spring’s rolling in, their ground starts warming up and drying out sooner. And, with anything else, it also helps break those pathogen cycles.”

 

Render offers several recommendations for successful tillage. “With the weather the way it is, we need to be diligent in staying out of fields in they are too wet. The best way to prevent compaction or to alleviate compaction is to prevent it in the first place. The next thing would be is to get right in behind that combine as soon as you can. Especially, we want to be able to start cycling those macros and micros and optimizing that decomposition cycle, but we can take advantage of that microbial life actively working still while the soils are at a fairly warm temperature yet before we get colder temps and they start to die off going into wintertime.”

 

He notes that hybrid horizontal tillage, like Kinze’s Mach Till equipment, offers additional benefits. “It combines several different features of conventional tillage into one tool. And it really offers a lot of that residue incorporation, land leveling, full weed takeout. Every grower has a little bit different mindset on how they need to incorporate their residue out there, so it is a very adjustable machine that doesn’t create a smear layer or stratification layer. So, we’re getting high rates of speed, very similar to those vertical till machines, but still leaving that great soil finish on top as well as incorporating that residue to set your table for the springtime.”

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