Godzilla the Strip Tilla

This year before we started planting corn we prepared our fields in a different way.  Instead of using a disc and tilling our entire field we used a strip tiller.  A strip tiller is an implement that only tills "strips" about 8 inches wide through the field.  The strip tiller also has metal bars called ripper shanks that go deep into the ground and break up any compaction in the subsoil.

The benefits of strip tilling are huge.  When tilling up the ground the old way the the disc had to till the entire field three times and then fertilizer had to be applied with a four operation.  With Strip tilling all those operations are competed in one step.  This equates to substantial savings on diesel fuel, time and wear on equipment.

There are other benefits to strip tilling that we are looking forward to realizing.  Only tilling the soil one time means less moisture is lost during the tillage process.  There is also moisture savings throughout the growing season.  By leaving crop residue from the previous season on top of the non tilled ground, less moisture evaporates from the soil.

So what's the downside?  In order to be able to strip till you must have an extremely accurate GPS guidance system.  After all the strip tilling has been completed then the corn seeds have to be planted directly in the center of the 8 inch strip that was tilled.  This requires accuracy, which is expensive.  The other requirement of strip tilling is HORSEPOWER.  A good rule to follow is that it takes 25 horsepower per strip tiller row.   So for an 8 row strip tiller you need a tractor with at least 200 horsepower.  Like accuracy, horsepower is also expensive.

Below is an example of one of our strip tilled fields.  You can see the crop residue on the top of the non tilled strips and you can see where the corn is planted right down the middle of the tilled strip.

-Farmer Ryan

P.S. - You might have guessed from the title, I named our strip tiller Godzilla.