| JDB1980 - 10/6/2024 06:37
Been no-till for 20+ years. Corn is slower to senesce and dry-down than tilled. The limited tillage I did this spring, any place I did it, the yields jumped, corn and soy.
Bean yields have been steady, but last few years, corn yields have been trailing down....
Is the black ground or the the mixing of nutrients that gives the speed up to senesce and yield bump. Also is there a way to get it without doing full tillage?
I don't know for sure what you got going on, but I will venture a few guesses based on what we are seeing. On ours, some of the senesce is related directly to emergence. Over the tile lines or better drained soil in general, the ground was warmer, drier, more oxygen available when it wouldn't quit raining. These areas also confirmed they were ahead physiologically at tassel. The areas between the tile lines or where it was just plain wetter for whatever reason, stayed green longer....however, stand counts suggests that some of that is directly related to stand loss. A couple thousand plant loss per acre is hard to see from the combine, but the plants in those areas, were able to handle the heat better, and hang on longer- but not necessarily yield more.
The yield bump from the tillage is likely directly related to you moving your nutrients deeper in the root zone. All season long, those plants had access to higher levels of fertility, and when it got dry, those plants were able to uptake higher levels of nutrients longer and yield more. You effectively got part of the strip til bump from doing your tillage pass. I am pretty confident that if you are any where near university recommended levels of P and K, that the same fertilizer put in the strip vs broadcast is gonna bump your yield 15 bushels. Their recommendations are just too low for the hybrids and populations planted today. If you raise your P and K levels in the soil high enough, you will see that yield bump diminish from P and K in the strip, but only because you have shifted your yield limiting nutrient from the majors, to the secondary, micros and their relationships.
Take care and be safe |
Can you make no-till act like tilled?
