Is strip till a fit for your farm? On-farm research is providing the answer

Strip till is an option for farmers wanting to reduce tillage with row crops like corn, soybeans and edible beans. Dr. Yvonne Lawley and John Heard discuss what they are learning about strip till benefits and optimal agronomic practices by working directly with Manitoba farmers.

Yvonne Lawley (@YvonneLawley_UM) is an assistant professor at the University of Manitoba in agronomy and cropping systems design. John Heard (@SoilSafariJohn) is the provincial soil fertility extension specialist with the Government of Manitoba. Both Yvonne and John work closely with farmers, agronomists and other researchers to identify and promote beneficial agronomic practices.

Transcript

Intro: 0:03

The way we grow and produce food is ever-changing shaped by consumers and the climate in which we live in farm research at all points of our food system is essential for continuously improving food's journey from farm to table, the Manitoba Agriculture and Food Knowledge Exchange explores timely research innovations and applications that make our food system better than ever, join us for today's podcast.

Jordan Cieciwa: 0:28

Welcome to the Manitoba Agriculture and Food Knowledge Exchange podcast on Jordan Cieciwa your host for this show. And today we are talking land management, specifically the process of strip-till. So to do that, we brought in a couple of experts and they know their stuff. When it comes to land management. First, we have John Heard he is the soil fertility extension specialist for Manitoba. Besides soil fertility he has also been involved in minimum tillage demonstrations and research since 1981. We are also joined by Dr. Yvonne Lawley, who is an associate professor in the plant science department at the University of Manitoba. She is an expert in agronomy and crop system design. All right, so let's get right to it. What is strip-till?

Yvonne Lawley: 1:18

Well strip-till is a new tillage system and tillage tool that I've been evaluating with farmers in Manitoba. And I think it's got a lot to offer farmers who are usually grouped in 2 very different groups- farmers that are using tillage to manage soil, conventional till farmers, as well as the group of farmers that don't use tillage or have found ways to avoid using tillage to conserve soil, no till farmers. And then, you know, the spectrum of reduced till farmers, farmers that use tillage targetedly or occasionally. And so this new strip tillage tool is a tillage tool like any other tillage implement that does tillage, but it does it in a very targeted area. It does it in 6 to 8 inch strips in the row where we're going to be planting crops next year. Tillages are an important tool for many different reasons. Like the origins of agriculture, right? Are of people pulling plows, right? That is in some cases, the very definition of what agriculture is or was.

John Heard: 2:21

The tillage is what made the agriculture in the prairies for the first half of the last century, a rather destructive tillage long-term, but in the short term, tillage allowed us to, to fallow between crops and fallowing meant that we control weeds, we preserve moisture, when we then grow the crop. And it also decomposed organic matter and liberated nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus. So tillage was what actually converted the virgin prairie into crop production.

Jordan Cieciwa: 2:57

It's breaking up the land and making that system easier?

Yvonne Lawley: 2:59

Yeah, and we have a range of tools from tools that completely invert and turn soil or tools that just kind of stir up the soil or tools that smooth the soil. And so farmers...

John Heard: 3:10

Spread the residue, yeah.

Yvonne Lawley: 3:12

There's that other part of tillage that is managing what's left over after harvest, that residue. And an interesting thing that's happening in Manitoba right now is we're growing some new crops like corn that have a lot of residue. And that's actually one of the challenges that farmers are dealing with. A crop that we've grown for a long time like wheat. If we have some really productive years where we're growing really good wheat crops, we can have a lot of straw to manage. So that can be a challenge on the complete other end of the spectrum, we also have a lot of crops that don't produce a lot of residue, some new crops like soy bean, some other really important crops like pulses, like peas that don't leave a lot of residue after harvest. And that residue can act as a protective layer to keep the soil from blowing in the wind or from washing away with water. We call that erosion. And so we also need to look at tillage as a way to protect those soils when we don't have a lot of residue in those fields for those crops.

John Heard: 4:16

So what I see strip till doing, it's real fit is, for those non traditional prairie crops, the row crops, the farmers are now choosing to, to wish to grow on broader acreages, moving them out of the so-called banana belts in Manitoba, and those types of crops that we grow in wider rows- corn, soybeans, in many instances edible beans or dry beans and sunflowers, and they all, uh, have a potential fit to be growing under this strip-till that Yvonne mentioned, that maybe 8 inch strip of worked soil that in the spring should be warmer and probably drier then, and more fit for seeding and early growth than if we were to do a pure zero till type of system, which on the other hand the zero till can work very well for some of our traditional prairie crops- cereals that thrive under cool conditions, oil seeds, like canola and flax and pulse crops like peas. But not... those are not the crops that are being targeted for a strip till. They're the warm season crops that we're shoving into and trying to grow in a cool prairie environment. So that traditionally there's been a lot of tillage associated with some of these crops. We're trying to put together the best of both worlds. We can do some reduced tillage without jeopardizing a warm appropriate moisture seed bed for planting into.

Jordan Cieciwa: 5:53

Why are farmers, in Manitoba, interested in using strip-till?

John Heard: 5:58

I see it as... it's a bridge. It's a way to start putting some conservation tillage into what's traditionally for these crops been a full till type of system and allows us to incorporate some of the advantages of both tillage advantages- like warmer and appropriate moisture seed beds for seeding into, but in between those I've got reduced tills. So I've got anchored residue that will reduce moisture loss that will reduce erosion and actually provide some better traffic ability for equipment. My aspect that I see is the strip till operation affords an excellent opportunity for what I call advanced or appropriate nutrient management by putting nutrients in the role where you will have good root uptake or we're optimized nutrient uptake.

Jordan Cieciwa: 6:54

And Yvonne, you're the one doing the research right now. You're out there seeing the differences, so what are you seeing that would inspire a farmer to utilize this?

Yvonne Lawley: 7:03

Well, in the research that I've been doing with strip-till, we've been looking at what impact does strip-till have on the soil. What impact does it have on crops that we grow after we create those strips. But one of the other important things that we looked at with strip-till that I think is really important to farmers right now is how much time does it take to use this compared to our other options, the other standard practices, and also in terms of costs, how much fuel do you use? What are some of those costs? So labor and fuel are constrained resources, fuel is expensive. Sometimes, especially with these long season row crops like corn and soybeans. Sometimes time is actually the most limiting factor because when those crops are harvested, is that the very end or edge of our growing season in October, getting even into November where you may have hours or days between having the first snowfall where you're not going to be able to have... the soil is going to freeze, and you're not going to be able to till and manage that residue. So because we're growing very long season crops, time can actually be one of the most constraining resources at the end of that very long season to try and prep that seed bed for next year. Now, there are also farmers that intentionally use strip-till in the spring time, after the very wet fall that we had in 2019, strip-till may also be a very interesting tool that would enable us to do residue management in the spring scenario, when we're trying to recover after the season where we didn't have a good window for doing a lot of tillage.

Jordan Cieciwa: 8:43

As somebody driving down the highway, what do I see as a difference between regular tillage and strip-till?

John Heard: 8:50

Well, it's interesting you mentioned that because usually that's the eye-catcher going down the road. But if someone has done some fall strip tillage and preparation for next year seeding, you'll tend to see exactly like Yvonne said, they'll generally be on 30 inch centres. Most of our row crops are 30 inches apart, but you'll have these 8 inch or 8 to 10 inch black strips that are on that. And not really, you can look and say, well, the tillage has been done there for next spring. And in-between where the previous crop was weeds or canola it will still be sitting there looking like an undisturbed field. So that that's, what's going to catch your eye. Once the crops are growing until you get road closure, you'll still see those unworked areas, but rapidly allowing these row crops, but by July, you wouldn't know any difference. Things you've got canopy cover and they will look really look no different than any normal crop you're growing.

Yvonne Lawley: 9:51

One other thing that looks a little bit different about strip-till is in that seed row that we prepare the shape of the soil after the tillage passes finished is in a berm. So it rounds up and that berm has a big impact on the temperature of the soil. And so the shape of that berm allows that swell to capture more sunlight. And we think that's why we are seeing warmer soil temperatures in the seed bed zone with strip till.

Jordan Cieciwa: 10:21

Was that designed or just an accidental... we did this and now, hey it worked in our favour.

John Heard: 10:27

I think the mechanics definitely does that. One of the farmers that we toured last year built his own rolling baskets to follow, because there is in many cases, some pretty aggressive tillage that goes on, some even do a sub soiling and consider compaction alleviation to be one of the practices that can produce a very loose and fluffy- that's okay for tillage, but that's not a good seed bed. And so many have found that what is more beneficial, you loosen that up and then to firm it up again. And the way they like to firm it is in a bit of this rounded berm. And I believe what Yvonne said is that helps contribute to the temperature. The other thing that I think, that I attributed the temperature to is if we are doing this in wheat stubble, we leave picket fences out there, of residue, and the wind blows here in the spring. And if we have these areas of bare soil in between these wind barriers, I think that helps contribute to warming soil.

Yvonne Lawley: 11:37

It makes a little micro-climate.

: 11:40

So I think we're not moving the warm air away fast, or like we tend to do with our winds. So I just think there's a lot of neat little factors going on that end up contributing and Yvonne students have measured these warmer temperatures that we can see they advance early season growth or they can be doing that. And that's always an attribute to us.

Yvonne Lawley: 12:02

There are a few things I'd like to come back to John. One is that, you know, there is a wide variety of different types of strip-till equipment out there. And many of them have some kind of cutting Coulter or residue movers that push residue out of that row where you're going to be planting next year's crop. I think that's another reason why we're seeing warmer soil temperatures, blacker soil is both because we've done some tillage, but we've also pushed that residue, cleared that residue to the side. Then there's usually some kind of disc that does the tillage and forms the berm. There also could be some, either shank or broadcast system that can be used to incorporate fertilizer. And then there's some kind of Fermi or closing wheel or basket at the end. So there's sort of trends and all the components, but each company has a different kind of system for creating those strips. And you know, which one is right for a farmer really depends on what their goals are, both for fertilizer placement, if they're looking to do that, or what kind of soil type they have. So there's lots of options out there and a r ange of tillage equipment. Now, coming back to what John was saying about temperature, I've done some research where we compared strip-tillage to conventional tillage and also vertical tillage in corn residue. And there we did find higher daytime temperatures in the afternoon when the sun was up in strip-till compared to those other tillage treatments. In the morning time or overnight we see less difference between a strip-till and the other residue management treatments, other than ones that keep residue in place. Those tend to stay warmer over that n ight t ime period. So if you go out and measure s oil temperature at 9:00 in the morning, you may not be measuring the difference. Whereas if you go t o the afternoon, that's where you're going to be able to measure those differences in s oil temperature. We also l ooked at s oil moisture and we do find that in some years at some sites, we did have drier soils, which means we could plant earlier into those strips t han our other treatments. The other thing that we found with s trip-till is when you have really dry seasons, if we keep measuring past that, y ou k now, initial crop establishment period, and we look at soil moisture where we have that residue covering the inter r ow period, we also see moisture conservation where we have strip-till. So I think that's really important for crops like soybeans and corn, because those crops especially need that moisture late in the season. And we've had some trouble with soybeans the last couple o f years in Manitoba in 2018 and 2019, where we didn't get rain at the end of the growing season. And so this may be a system that especially i f y ou compare it to conventional tillage, we can get some drying in the s pring t ime and then some conservation of moisture later in the season crops.

Jordan Cieciwa: 15:02

What crops can be grown with strip-till? What's the ideals?

John Heard: 15:06

Whatever you're planting with a, tend to be a wide row planter configuration and those crops I see of course our corn, edible beans or dry beans, and there's a whole suite- pinto beans, navy beans, black beans, sunflowers, many of her sunflowers are still in wide rows and soybeans. I think that the greatest yield potential is still narrow rows for soybeans, but many farmers have chosen to grow soybeans in wide rows and I think if they grow them in wide rows this is a very appropriate system. So those are the crops we can grow. There's interest now in growing canola in wide rows, but those roles are more like 20 inch rows they're not going all the way to 30. I should probably just mention it, one of the impediments to the adoption of strip-till in the prairies, I think has been, if you're in the corn belt, all the crops you grow are in wide rows so you have this investment in this equipment that you use on every crop every year. In a period of rotation, these farmers that are growing these crops are also growing cereals like wheat and canola, so they still need to have 2 sets of equipment, a person in any one year, may just be doing strip-tillage on a 1/3 to 1/2 of their acreage. And that just makes it more difficult to justify the expense of moving into that system, it is just a bit of the baggage that comes with having a diversified crop rotation. You sometimes need more equipment than if you were extremely specialized.

Yvonne Lawley: 16:45

John maybe you could talk a little bit about this combining of field operations with strip-till on how you know it is a new piece of equipment. But in fact, we can think about strip-till is both a piece of equipment for managing residue and also applying and part of your fertility program.

John Heard: 17:05

And it's actually interesting that what makes that work is prairie farmers are very used to using air tanks to either deliver seed or fertilizer. The strip-tillage unit is a toolbar that generally does this tillage, but it affords the opportunity to actually place fertilizer in those veins, in the soil, and actually very efficient for root uptake. That is what I think many of the farmers are doing. They're not just doing tillage, but they're doing fertilizer placement and we consider it a very good environmental place to put your farm fertilizer, because it's in the soil below the soil surface where are we able to experience losses? It can replace fall operations you would do otherwise, this way, you're doing your fertilizing and your tillage at the same place. And you're assured that it's environmentally appropriate place to do that job. Some makers do some spring placement, but I think people's preferences that spring is a very busy time. I see one of the advantages to strip-till is that it can be done in the fall. There is 2 months of period that this could be done after wheat or canola stubble. There's a large window there. I tell some of my reluctant farmer friends that say, gee, its awful expensive for this equipment. Cause I need something that matches my planter in 24 inch rows. And I said not necessary, narrower, more affordable units can work very well because we have so much time in the fall to get this job done- usually we have good time. These strip-till units do not need to be gigantic because we have a rather large fall window, but a very short spring window under normal conditions to get that job done.

Jordan Cieciwa: 18:58

How would I need to adapt my management if I started with strip-till?

Yvonne Lawley: 19:04

I think 1 place to start is, you know, what are your goals- setting your goal? Is it, you know, to combine fertilizer applications? Is it simply to have more options to limit tillage or do you targeted tillage? And so that's going to obviously influence your choice of, you know, what kind of machine you're going to be interested in accessing. Then you're going to need to start thinking about, you know, what is my optimum residue type? Am I going to be going on canola residue? Is this meant for corn residue? And then what crop am I going to be planting? So thinking through some of the rotational aspects, which farmers are very used to doing, then you're going to want to start thinking about fertility and how is this going to influence the plan of how you provide nutrients for that next crop? I really liked the idea of starting with a legume crop like soybeans, because if you're not ready to take on that added complexity of combining residue management with tillage, soybeans is a crop that we don't need to apply nitrogen on and so that makes it a simpler starting place than maybe some of our other crops like corn or sunflowers. Then I think you need to think through residue after harvest. So we've got those strips. A lot of farmers ask me,"what am I going to do after the strip-till crop?" You know, am I going to keep strip-till? Am I going to strip-till in those same rows? Are you going to shift over and then strip tail in between those rows? And I think that really comes back to what your objectives are and maybe your next move is to go into a solid seeded crop where you have narrower row spacing. And there, I think you might want to be considering, am I going to plant with the strips? Am I going to plant across the strips? Am I going to plant on an angle? What do you want to add to that, John?

John Heard: 20:49

I think we're in... we're forced into flexibility with this system. Again on the prairies here, we're probably still going to keep those narrow seeded crops like canola and wheat or oats in that rotation. It's going to be like periodic tillage systems some of those crops being made able to seed very well into low residue strip-till crops like soybeans, but after corn, there may still need to be some more more aggressive tillage. I think that there's just a lot of pieces to put together there, based on the characteristics of the different crops, but we see it being done. We have some very successful strip-tillers, not many have made this move, but as they go into it, they found ways to adopt crops that you wouldn't think like dry beans, we were talking about a project we've had some that have been doing that for several years and when I look at that, why hasn't there been more when I talked to a few of the growers who were quite taken with it, they're just looking at the cost of another piece of equipment and some reluctance at this stage. But I see that it has opportunities for those farmers willing to work a little harder at putting a system together.

Yvonne Lawley: 22:10

One of the areas that I'm interested in looking at strip-till next in my research program is how strip-tillage could be a game changer with cover crops, especially cover crops that overwinter at rye. So some of the practices that I'm looking in my research program next with strip-till are not even related to managing residue, but also looking at how can we plant into cover crops with strip-till. So I think that there's lots of areas to explore and experiment with strip-till in Manitoba right now.

John Heard: 22:44

That prompts me to think also about soil management that goes into compaction. I mentioned before that some of these units use a deeper shank to disrupt some piled pan if there happens to be any, but the other thing is a strips- your best to stay within them. And that almost simulates a controlled traffic system. I have a confession that the farmer that farms my family farm back in Ontario, he's a committed strip-tiller, and he does grow cover crops through Yvonne. They're very careful that when they're harvesting the crop, that grain cart, everything stays on those... stays off of the strips and on the consolidated ground in between. And they see that it's part of also compaction management. You don't want to compact that rooting zone or strip that you are preparing, not the one that you're going to be planting into and so that's another strategy, perhaps another bonus that people are seeing. They're reducing traffic compaction in those planting zones.

Yvonne Lawley: 23:46

And maybe getting more traffic ability in those undisturbed areas compared to tilling the whole field and driving over tilled soil. That's certainly something I haven't measured, but I sure would be interested in measuring in my research is the impact of these different tillage systems on traffic ability.

John Heard: 24:04

I'd really be negligent if I did not mention that the University of Manitoba did some strip-till research for fertilizer placement in corn, when they did this, they compared the deep fall placement of phosphorus about 4 inches deep in the fall versus side banded phosphorous at seeding versus none. And they did this on cereal stubble and compared it to a traditional fall discing, and they were all direct seeded in the spring. So at the end of the day, the yields were the same between the fall discing and the strip-till as we've mentioned earlier, but there were differences in how the crop responded to phosphorus placement under the strip-till. The spring side banded phosphorus, it provided consistent yield response of about 5% it advanced maturity and reduce moisture at harvest by 2%. So those are all really important for corn. The benefits of the fall deep banded phosphorus was much less consistent and not as great. So for farmers, if they're choosing and want to deep band their phosphorus or potash in the fall strip, we suggest that they should use some spring starter or pop-up in the spring to get that corn started until it can tap into that deeper fertilizer.

Jordan Cieciwa: 25:14

More amazing research out of the faculty of agricultural and food sciences. If I wanted to start getting some ideas from you, how do I get in contact with you?

Yvonne Lawley: 25:23

Well, probably one of the easiest places to find me right now is on Twitter. And you can find my handle@ Yvonne Lawley underscore U M(@YvonneLawley_UM) or I'm on the University of Manitoba website(umanitoba.ca). And you can find my email there and send me an email(Yvonne.Lawley@umanitoba.ca). I've been doing a lot of this strip-till research on farm with farmers and that collaboration has been really important to advancing this research. And I think it's through that conversation and back and forth with farmers where we're going to see change and innovation on the prairies.

Jordan Cieciwa: 25:56

Perfect. Dr. Yvonne Lawley, John Heard. Thank you both so much for this.

John Heard: 26:02

Thank you for the opportunity.