Published April 13, 2011 | By admin
After a few hiccups with accessing some control cables and some parts we had waited on from suppliers which happens, the team got into the field to carry out their pre-plant strip tilling operations. They are applying N-P-K-S-Zn in the strip in two locations immediately behind the shanks at 5 and 10 inches.
“The soil is at a near perfect moisture content at the 9 inch level to fracture and crumble for the seedbed that we recommend. This will get us off on a right foot for 2011,” Mike Petersen, Precision Tillage Agronomist with Orthman told us. He went on to say, “The soil today is so much different than when we started this field research back in 2006. Our soil tests values for organic matter has risen from 1.9% to 2.4% and on the south side it has risen from 1.9% to 2.7%. All in four years of strip-till after 50+ years of full width inversion tillage.”Mike told us that the earthworm numbers are incredible this year. The Orthman Farm is changing to a much higher soil quality level than before, that is the real beauty of precision tillage Mike says.
The image is 4/12/11 around 6:00pm on the Orthman Farm – getting it done!