Manure Incorporation and Reduced Tillage Corn Trial

Timely manure incorporation can reduce nutrient losses to the atmosphere and surface runoff. Keeping valuable nutrients, like nitrogen, in the soil can help reduce the purchase of expensive commercial fertilizers. Reduced tillage corn is becoming more common as growers recognize the benefits to soil health and water quality. There are many options to implement reduced tillage including no-tillage, striptillage, and vertical-tillage, as well as a plethora of strategies and technologies to implement these techniques. No-tillage planting uses metal coulters to cut a slot for the seed, rather than tilling the soil. Strip-tillage opens a strip 8-10” in both directions from the seed slot, warming and drying the soil to aid in corn germination. Vertical-tillage lightly tills the top 2-3” of the soil, as the implement is pulled quickly across a field to produce a uniform seedbed without deep tillage