This past spring the UW-Discovery Farms Program conducted a special project on five western Wisconsin farms to answer questions associated with soil and water conservation features of vertical tillage implements. Vertical tillage implements are designed to cut and distribute crop residue, as well as conduct shallow tillage.
Through this project, we collected field data on 14 crop fields where either Great Plains Turbo-Till or Summers Supercoulter Plus implements had been used (not an endorsement or exclusive list, represents participant’s machines).
Machinery. All machines had non-concave blades, either straight or waved. Each had two gangs of forward-facing blades, spaced at 10 inches, with the back gang off-set from the front by five inches. These machines created slices of disturbed soil in the same direction of travel, every five inches.
Depth and Width. In general, a single-pass tillage by these machines creates slices through the field such that every five inches of field width has a two inch wide by two inch deep tilled area and three inches of undisturbed soil. A conservative, single-pass on silt loam soil can be equivalent to 40% of the field area being tilled to a two inch depth, while 60% remains untilled.
Vertical tillage soil disturbance
Corn Root Balls. Interestingly, in corn fields where vertical tillage was conducted as a 1-pass operation prior to planting, a significant amount of the prior year’s corn plant roots remained intact, anchored and still in place, post tillage. We observed this in every project field and counted anywhere from 22-25 K in-place prior year corn roots per acre.
Compare With Disk. Sometimes vertical tillage machinery is equated with tandem disking when discussing soil disturbance. When corn was the previous crop, tandem disking un-earths and ejects more prior year roots, compared to vertical tillage implements.
Post Planting. 75-80 % of last year’s corn residue left in place after one pass prior to planting, as well as 80 % of last year’s corn roots still in place.
Summary. Conservative operation of vertical tillage implements has less of an impact on soil disturbance and residue management than disking or field cultivating. A more in-depth factsheet for this project will be available in the fall of 2010.
This past spring the UW-Discovery Farms Program conducted a special project on five western Wisconsin farms to answer questions associated with soil and water conservation features of vertical tillage implements. Vertical tillage implements are designed to cut and distribute crop residue, as well as conduct shallow tillage.
Through this project, we collected field data on 14 crop fields where either Great Plains Turbo-Till or Summers Supercoulter Plus implements had been used (not an endorsement or exclusive list, represents participant’s machines).
Machinery. All machines had non-concave blades, either straight or waved. Each had two gangs of forward-facing blades, spaced at 10 inches, with the back gang off-set from the front by five inches. These machines created slices of disturbed soil in the same direction of travel, every five inches.
Depth and Width. In general, a single-pass tillage by these machines creates slices through the field such that every five inches of field width has a two inch wide by two inch deep tilled area and three inches of undisturbed soil. A conservative, single-pass on silt loam soil can be equivalent to 40% of the field area being tilled to a two inch depth, while 60% remains untilled.
Corn Root Balls. Interestingly, in corn fields where vertical tillage was conducted as a 1-pass operation prior to planting, a significant amount of the prior year’s corn plant roots remained intact, anchored and still in place, post tillage. We observed this in every project field and counted anywhere from 22-25 K in-place prior year corn roots per acre.
Compare With Disk. Sometimes vertical tillage machinery is equated with tandem disking when discussing soil disturbance. When corn was the previous crop, tandem disking un-earths and ejects more prior year roots, compared to vertical tillage implements.
Post Planting. 75-80 % of last year’s corn residue left in place after one pass prior to planting, as well as 80 % of last year’s corn roots still in place.
Summary. Conservative operation of vertical tillage implements has less of an impact on soil disturbance and residue management than disking or field cultivating. A more in-depth factsheet for this project will be available in the fall of 2010.
Source: uwex.edu