No Till Notes: 'Stripper head'

Back in October when we were getting started combining our dry land corn crop I visited with a neighbor about the value of wheat residues and residue height in dry land corn production. My neighbor thought he should purchase a stripper head for combining his winter wheat crop to leave more standing residue.

The year before he had combined his dry land wheat with a conventional head and had baled the straw for his cattle. He then planted his dry land corn into the wheat residue left in the field. Right beside his dry land corn field was a field of our dry land corn where we had used a stripper head for our winter wheat harvest. We also planted dry land corn into our stripped winter wheat stubble.

My neighbor combined his dry land corn crop prior to our combining of our dry land corn crop. My neighbor had walked out into our field to look at our corn crop compared to his corn crop where there was significantly less residue. He saw firsthand the value of more residue left in the field when it comes to dry land corn production in western Nebraska.

Our dry land corn did yield significantly higher than his corn crop. I would guess our field out yielded his field by roughly 20 percent. I’ve looked at research data over the years which have shown similar responses to leaving higher residues in the field for dry land corn production.

The University of Nebraska research has shown improved water savings by leaving wheat stubble taller when planting a dry land corn crop the following spring. Their research showed increases in yield of up to 20-25 bushels per acre comparing dry land corn yields in fields where more residues were left standing compared to wheat straw that was baled from the field. The higher the wheat stubble is left standing, the higher the corn yields. The worst case scenario in planting dry land corn is to bale the wheat straw off the field prior to dry land corn planting.

The value of increased residues in the field is the reduction of soil moisture evaporation which saves more moisture for grain production. Improved water infiltration into the soil along with improved soil structure allows for additional water savings for the dry land corn crop.

Additional value in leaving higher amounts of residues in the field come from improved weed control, less erosion on steep slopes, improved soil nutrients, improving organic matter levels over time, and improved wildlife habitat. There is a lot of value in leaving winter wheat residues in the field and leaving the residues as tall as possible.

A friend of mine from Kansas also sent me some research data from the USDA Agricultural Research Station in Akron, Colorado. The researchers at ARS conducted a no-till study of a winter wheat-milo-proso millet- fallow rotation in which half the research plots were combined with a conventional head and half the plots were combined with a stripper head.

The yields in the milo and proso millet were 20-30 percent higher where the previous crop was combined with a stripper head. The winter wheat yields were about 15 percent higher where a stripper head was used. I would guess the winter wheat yield difference was less significant due to the long fallow period prior to winter wheat planting.

We’ve known about the value of combining our winter wheat fields with a stripper head for quite some time.  I have always liked the added value of using the stripper head for improved combining efficiency and maintaining standing residues in our fields.