Corn OBSERVATIONS
Tools of the Trade
Strip-till was conducted in March of 2018. A compacted layer was determined to reside at a depth of 8 inches in the test plot area. Shank depths 8 inches were selected to alleviate any soil compaction efforts. Row unit shanks depth appropriately shattered the field’s existing compaction layer. This was verified through excavation and assessment of plant uniformity. While no yield benefits were reported, several items were noted to affect plant growth throughout the growing season.
FieldView™ Drive The FieldView™ Drive collects operational data through the CAN port. This enables the producer to record data such as machine analytics, yield data, planting data, application data, and many other forms of ag data.
Planter Downforce RTX level correction was used to ensure planting occured in close relation to the existing strips. Ample nutrients, water, and lack of yield limiting factors contributed to the high production. Minimal variability between treatments was observed.
SUMMARY • No significant yield benefits to utilizing different downforce control settings. • Highest downforce level achievable did not over compact the soil. • Planter performance for strip-till treatments required less over all downforce to maintain a consolidated seed bed. • Compaction was not induced on corn regardless of high downforce levels.
PROJECT CONTACT Monitoring of row unit downforce during planting revealed trends in as-planted data that showed previous field traffic patterns.
For inquiries about this project, contact Trey Colley, Precision Agriculture Program Manager, Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering (digitalag@osu.edu).
Moisture (%)
Yield (bu/ac)
Optimal No-Till
13.7
195 a
Optimal Strip-Till
13.8
195 a
Heavy Strip-Till
13.5
196 a
Light Strip-Till
14.1
192 a
Treatments
Treatment Means with the same letter are not significantly different according to Fisher’s Protected Least Significant Differences (LSD) test at alpha = 0.1.
LSD: Not Significant CV:4.58%
2018 eFields Report | 87