no till irrigated

Question

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

Answer

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.

Answer

Can you rotate corn and beans with cereal rye for a winter cover? Graze the cereal rye and corn stover over the winter into spring?

Answer

Put on a good set of row cleaners to clear out that trash and you will get more even emergence.  It might still be a little slower than conventional till because you don't have black soil which will catch more sun/heat in the early spring and speed emergence.

Answer

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 fall burndown/residual program helps prepare for a spring planting. If you do a cover make sure to terminate with glyphosate a couple weeks before planting.
     Good trash whips/row cleaners on the planter are a must to get good stand establishment.I also have had several growers say they liked to have a good infurrow starter to help with the cool soils. Most times jumping over 15" the second year on planting and then turning about 15-20 degrees the third year helps with handling the residue. 
     Also if you can incorporate a wheat crop in sometime that gives a year of different weed control and residue. Most of my experience with that has been if there was a significant hail event or similar situation where the corn crop comes out early is where that fits in. Some situations allow a forage crop after the wheat crop but wheat makes a great stubble to plant corn or Milo into the following year. Also on the sorghum side most growers like to graze the corn stalks before sorghum to prevent issues with volunteer corn being heavy. 
     Fertilization is not that different compared to the conventional farmed fields. Using some dry or liquid before planting . A good starter . I personally like a large part of the nitrogen ,potash and sulfur run through chemigation if that is possible.

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no till irrigated

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