Strip till establishment is a feature of the crop management systems implemented by Co. Kildare farmer, Michael Grace.
It is a process that sows and carries out limited cultivation in strips, courtesy of a one-machine pass.
A lead tine working at 100-200mm depth cultivates strips of soil at a row spacing of 300-330mm in advance of a sowing coulter.
Strip tillage typically cultivates about one third of the field area, seeds are sown in these strips of disturbed soil and the area between the strips is left untouched. The soil between the rows is left completely undisturbed.
Strip till
Grace discusses his experiences with strip till on the latest Tillage Edge podcast.
He strongly advises that growers should commence strip tilling a fortnight before they would normally commit to planting crops in the back end.
His seeding rates are on a par with other crop establishment systems.
“I have not had an issue with lodging of crops up to this point,” Grace added.
“Over a period of time they grow out as normal. Nor do weed problems increase, relative to what would be expected within any cropping scenario.”
Conservation tillage
Grace is one of the growers currently involved with Teagasc’s Conservation Tillage project.
He admits that the transition to strip till brought with it a reduction in yields.
“I put this down to me getting used to the system. But for the past seven to eight years, I am definitely on a par with the average yields in the area,” he explained.
“In a good growing season where there are top yields to be secured, strip till can more than hold its own in this regard.”
According to Grace, strip till works equally well on all spring and winter crops. Plough-based systems had been his cultivation option of choice prior to the adoption of strip till.
“I had seen a few demonstrations of Claydon drills in action and decided this was the option for me,” he continued.
“Strip till is very well suited to systems where labour availability is an issue. It suits farmers working on their own, who want to get ground covered quickly and easily.
“But strip-till is not that well suited to ground conditions that are wet, come October. This is why I would encourage growers to get out that little bit earlier in the season.
“Once the rains come, the drill should be put back in its shed until the following spring,” he concluded.