An article, written by Dan Zinkand, from today’s No-Till Farmer talks about soil temperatures in strip-tilled fields.
University of Minnesota Extension crop adviser Jodi DeJong-Hughes has been measuring strip-tilled fields for the past four years.
“During the past 4 years, data gathered from the strip-tilled fields shows temperatures in the middle of the strips in a corn-soybean rotation were 5 to 8 degrees F warmer than under the residue, she says. And in continuous corn, the temperature in the middle of the strips was up to 15 degrees F warmer than under the residue.
“The center of the strip — not under the residue — is where you are planting corn, or should be,” DeJong-Hughes says. “For strip-tillers using RTK, planting into the center is easy. But for farmers who are eyeballing their planting into strips, being 4 inches off from the middle of the strip can cut corn yields by 5%. That s $60 per acre in 200-bushel-per-acre fields, at $6 corn.”
-ILF
Iowa Learning Farms 