Soybean School: No-till works but a little tillage can help
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- Опубліковано 30 січ 2024
- You can learn a lot about reducing tillage in 35 years. That's the combined number of years Horst Bohner and Rob Templeman have spent leading Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) soybean research and extension efforts.
On the first episode of the 2024 season of RealAgriculture Soybean School, OMAFRA's current and former soybean specialists gather at the Templeman farm near Staffa, Ont., to look at the evolution of no-till and residue management in soybeans.
Both Bohner, provincial soybean specialist since 2001, and Templeman say there are opportunities to do no-till while managing an ever-increasing mountain of corn. They also agree that often a little tillage can help deliver top soybean yields.
In the video, Templeman shares the success he continues to have planting twin-row soybeans in true no-till conditions. The trick, he says, is to fine-tune the planter to manage corn residue, plant soys between the corn rows and steer clear of those root balls.
The experts also discuss how Templeman employs a vertical tillage implement in wheat stubble to work in straw while planting cover crop oats. A shallow pass - never below seeding depth - also works in broadcast fertilizer before corn. There's also a second shallow tillage pass in spring prior to planting soybeans after the wheat.
In an ideal world, Templeman says, growers wouldn't do any tillage but realty dictates that he and his farming neighbours often do a little to optimize their cropping systems.
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Here (Nebraska) where the corn/soy rotation is common there are some guys that will till the corn stalks just because in 2 years when they go back to corn it helps them get a better stand. Even after the year of beans when you go back to corn there will still be a lot of corn residue in the fields.
RTK has helped me a lot with residue management in no-till. I’ll move 8.5 inches to the side of the corn stalk. Just enough to keep the gauge wheel from contacting the root balls. This also keeps the stalks from wearing out the planter tires so badly. Next year I’ll move 15 inches or so back the other direction. That way I’m not planting into the soybean stubble or the root balls from 2 years before. This is all 30 inch rows. Works pretty well.
I have planted right down the corn row with zero tillage for years. Grow 80 bushel soybeans last year. The planter is tillage.
The planter is definitely tillage. Would love 80 bu soys in western Ne!
Very interesting video. I farm in WNY and trying to get away from as much tillage. To give you an idea, 10-12 years ago we were still molboard plowing and switching over to a disk chisel. We've come a long way since and have been strip-tilling corn since 2019, and also no-tilling corn into soybean stubble. I own a Landoll VT and really like the tool for hitting wheat stubble that had cover crop medium red clover growing on it after wheat was taken off bc come spring we were having issues with that thick mat not allowing the topsoil to dry out. So after chopping the clover late august for some re-growth through sept., we kill it off early oct. and then after it's dead brown I run the VT and by spring it provides a beautiful seedbed to strip-till in to...dry-out is MUCH faster and soil tilth is better.
We've tried no-tilling soybeans, but run into slug issues, so we also run the VT over the corn stalks in the fall to get the trash/fluff to the ground (run a JD Stalkmaster corn head), then come spring a light pass again with VT, then plant 15" row beans with JD 1990 Air seeder. I do agree that a drill is controlled spill, but we like the idea of using a drill bc it also plants our winter wheat come fall and it's hard to justify having another wad of money stuck in a 30' bean planter. We don't want to tie up our 12 row corn planter, switching back n' forth from beans and corn during planting season; on most years we are planting beans and corn on the same day and actually try to get some beans in before planting corn.
I enjoy your videos; they help you learn and gain perspective. PS we were also dry bean growers for 19 years and a few years back sold our bean equipment (Bob's 56 & a Picket) to an Ontario Canadian farmer.
A lot of this depends on soil types. Heavy clays where I am respond better to some tillage. Fertilizer run-off has been a hot topic here in NW Ohio because of algae bloom in Lake Erie. May look in to deep banding dry fertilizer in strip till.
No till or minimum farmers will always be searching and will be modifying 24-7. They think they are saving all this fuel but go buy $500,000 vertical tillage tools. Total confusion of methods starts at 8:19 mark.
Old school plowing helps, also. Check the research. Thank you.