Published May 19, 2006 | By Larry Stalcup
Strip-tilling with sub-inch accuracy? That’s a pretty tall order no matter how skilled the tractor driver.
Not for David Batson — a new auto-guidance system is enabling the northern Missouri grower to perform precision strip-till operations even when planting lines are completely covered with residue.
Batson farms about 5,800 acres of corn, soybeans and wheat near Trenton, MO. With that many acres, strip-till farming was the best way they knew to reduce inputs without suffering yield losses.
“We plant corn in 30-in. rows and soybeans in 15-in. rows,” says Batson. “Our goal is to plant both crops into the exact slots in the vertical-tilled strips. The most efficient way we found to do that was with the AutoSteer system that provides sub-inch accuracy.”