Verified FBN Member (KS)

Agronomy

no till irrigated

anybody on the high plains (TX/OK panhandle, western KS, western NE, eastern Colorado) going full blown no-till on irrigated acres? This is our 2nd and 3rd year on our irrigated corn and can anyone tell me if this will work long term? Have no tilled into all kinds of crop residue except corn stalks before and had great success but now corn on corn seems to be a little challenging. Everything looks ok but some fields started extremely slow and un even and some are still pretty un even. Our main goal is to save water but still increase yield (obviously) cause we’ve been screwed down pretty tight on our water.


Guys that have been doing this are you getting comparable or better yields than strip till? Can it be done year after year or does the time come when there’s to much trash? Can Milo come up threw heavy corn residue? Fertility issues?


I uploaded some photos to show kind of how it started and the residue situation


Any advice/comments/tips/failures/successes appreciated

  • no till irrigated
  • no till irrigated
  • no till irrigated
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5


CO
Chris O'Hare
FBN Employee

Going full No-till is a challenge.Luckily farmers in the west have been working at it for quite a while. A couple keys to making things work are using products that help break down stubble after harvest. A few gallons of ammonium thiosulfate with a product like Catalayst advanced helps get the microbes working on breaking the residue down. Also either running a winter cover like rye or wheat or a...

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Verified FBN Member (ND)

For our corn stover we ran a quick till disc 1 inch deep. It worked quite well. With heavy summer rains the stover stopped soil erosion.

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