No-tillers love residue, but there's one thing about it that's less than desirable.
Upright cornstalks are a nightmare for tires, and can gore even the toughest treads.
Corn and soybean no-tiller Jay Allen has devised a solution. He suspends a 30-pound pipe from chains on a steel frame mounted to the front of his tractor. As the tractor rolls forward, it pushes the corn stalks over in the direction of travel, angling the pointy end of any residue away from the tire.
He can even hook the pipe on shorter chains to get it out of the way for road travel, he tells Successful Farming.
While the system works well, it has at least one troublesome aspect, Allen says.
"You just have to remember not to hit a fence post," he says.
Allen uses a 750 John Deere planter, and no-tills all of his soybeans, from land designated HEL by the NRCS to the flatter textures. For corn, he vertical tills the soybean residue, then plants using trash whippers, he tells No-Till Farmer.
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Brian O'Connor started at Lessiter Media as the Lead Content Editor for Conservation Agriculture in November 2021. He previously worked in daily print journalism for more than a decade in places as far flung as Alaska and the U.S. Virgin Islands, where he shared a national award for coverage of two Category 5 hurricanes that struck the islands in 2017. He's also taught English in Korea, delivered packages for Amazon, and coordinated Wisconsin election night coverage for the Associated Press. His first job was on a Southeast Wisconsin farm.
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