Vertical Tillage
The hot term in tillage is vertical tillage. Ironically, those who buy vertical tillage tools are generally practicing no-till or reduced tillage.
In the ag world, vertical tillage is hot. If it were Hollywood, this up-and-coming piece of iron would be akin to the latest power couple’s forbidden romance. Everyone is talking about it.
Four years ago, Neil Skiles noticed he had a problem. The Industry farmer was running a ripper in the fall, followed by a field cultivator in the spring.
With higher yield goals, higher plant populations and aggressive fertilization, growers need to manage increased amounts of crop residue to establish productive stands the following year.
In the ag world, vertical tillage is hot. If it were Hollywood, this up-and-coming hunk of iron would be akin to gossip on the latest power couple’s forbidden romance. And Pennsylvania’s Carl Shaffer points out, not everyone greets it with open arms.
After seeing November’s vertical tillage, or v-till, articles, Karl Hess of Conestoga, Pa., shared his own experience. He purchased a used 14-foot disk harrow for $1,200 and converted it for vertical tillage in May 2008 — all for $3,300 to $3,500.
If you attended the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Ky., you likely noticed that vertical tillage tools are a hot commodity. How can the tool that at first glance looks like a highly over-priced disk help you do a more effective job of getting planting off to a good start this spring?
"Vertical tillage is just a fad,” a neighbor said recently. “It won’t be around long.”
Iowa conservationists with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service are disturbed by the number of row crop farmers using vertical-tillage tools. Vertical tillage often leaves the soil covered with crop residue, but it is not the same as true no-till.