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Yellowstone Valley producers choose strip-till, pivot irrigation
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| Don Steinbeisser, who farms south of Sidney, Mont., shows a Roundup Ready sugarbeet on the tour. |
Strip-tilling may be the best labor-saving method for seeding row crops such as Roundup Ready sugarbeets, soybeans, and corn in the Yellowstone River Valley.
Some producers in the northeastern re-gion of Montana and northwestern region of North Dakota are beginning to strip-till row crops because they can eliminate steps in the planting process and also cut down on input costs.
“This is my first year of strip-tilling sugarbeets and corn,” said Scott Flynn, of Cart-wright, N.D., who raises sugarbeets, corn and malting barley, and runs a cow-calf operation. “I was able to cut seven passes down to one.”
Flynn says he purchased a strip-till machine and began strip-tilling Roundup Ready sugarbeets this past spring to try it out. But from now on out, he will be strip-tilling in the fall.
Don Steinbeisser, Jr., who farms with his brothers in northeastern Montana south of Sidney, said, “For most of us, it is a labor savings.”
While he has not yet invested in strip-tilling equipment, he is considering beginning the farming method in the near future.
Steinbeisser has already been changing over many of his fields from flood to pivot irrigation, and strip-till is the next step.
Strip-till saves labor because producers can work the soil and apply fertilizer all in one pass, said Paul Deutsch, NRCS district conservationist, based in Watford City, N.D.
Usually producers do the work in the fall after harvest, which prepares a seedbed for the spring, but some are doing it in the spring, too, Steinbeisser said.
Advantages of strip-tilling include re-duced soil erosion and moisture runoff, fuel and labor savings resulting from a one-pass system and a warmer seedbed for good emergence, he said.
Deutsch particularly likes the fact that strip-till helps with soil erosion and keeping moisture in the soil.
He works out in the fields with producers on cost-share irrigation systems for helping change from flood irrigation systems to low pressure pivot systems that save water and time, he added.
Flynn talked about strip-till at a tour of his fields during the recent Mon-Dak Ag Open held in Williston, N.D.
“I've noticed better emergence, a better stand. It's a good way of establishing the crop,” he said.
His young plants get the benefit of wind-protection too, being placed in a narrow strip instead of underneath the ground.
Flynn irrigates many of his fields as do most of the producers in the Yellowstone River Valley. Crops that were dryland farmed in the region are very short, and may not yield much. But the irrigated crops are growing nicely this summer.
To emphasize how well the strip-tilled Roundup Ready sugarbeets were doing on this already-warm Aug. 6 morning, Steinbeisser pulled up some sugarbeets from Flynn's field.
Flynn's sugarbeets had about a 5-inch diameter, while a sample pulled on Steinbeisser's farm from a non strip-tilled field was thinner.
“His sugarbeets are a nice size for this time of year,” Steinbeisser said.
Deutsch says strip-tilling keeps the crop residue from last year's crop in place in the narrow rows between the tilled rows, just like no-till. While no-tilling is the least invasive way of disturbing the soil to plant, strip-till is the next best thing and the only way row crop producers can no-till, he added.
“People here in the valley have been trying strip-tilling to reduce tillage,” Deutsch said. “Strip-tilling is the next closest thing to no-till because row crops already disturb the soil when they are harvested.”
If the work is done in the fall, producers will till narrow strips of soil throughout the fields and apply their anhydrous at the same time. In the spring, the seedbeds in the strips will warm up faster than the rows with residue.
Flynn said strip-till helps with soil impaction, and breaking up the soil.
The soils in the fields where he planted his sugarbeets this year are heavy clay, so he needs to till before he can plant.
Using strip-till is giving him both the advantages of tilling and no-tilling, the best of both worlds for a row crop producer, he said.
Fertilizer placement is also a big plus with strip-till, Flynn said. Since the phosphorus and potassium are banded in the strip close to where the seed will be placed, he can cut down on fertilizer rates and still provide the needed boost to the seed.
Since sugarbeets use a lot of fertilizer anyway, he receives both a time and cost savings of tilling and fertilizing with the one-pass method, he added.
“I have definitely seen an input savings,” he added.
Flynn showed the strip-till machine that he purchased at the tour.
The machine uses precision GPS so rows stay straight as he pulls it along behind his tractor. It will mix the residue with the soil within each strip.
Tiller rows are formed by a coulter and shank system. The coulters cut through the residue while the shank breaks up the soil.
“It's a good system,” Flynn said.
