Strip-Till Farmer Podcast

On this episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Montag Mfg., 3 successful strip-tillers share some of their top strategies and lessons learned from their strip-till journey. Paul Dubbels of Fergus Falls, Minn., Larry Tombaugh of Streator, Ill., and Jon Stevens of Rock Creek, Minn., take questions from the audience at the 2023 National Strip-Tillage Conference in a workshop-style session.

On this episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Montag Mfg., a trio of experienced strip-tillers talk with a first-time strip-tiller who’s making the switch after years of conventional tillage.

On this episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Montag Mfg., a trio of experienced strip-tillers talk with a first-time strip-tiller who’s making the switch after years of conventional tillage.

On this edition of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Sound Agriculture, Elora, Tenn., native Eric Reed shares the keys to his high-yielding success. “Our dirt is the kind they build racetracks on,” Eric Reed says. Reed grows corn, soybeans and cotton on the Tennessee/Alabama border. Despite limited resources and soil that’s “as red as can be,” Reed increased his yields dramatically over a couple years, including a 100-bu./acre bump with corn.

On this edition of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Sound Agriculture, Purdue University cropping systems and tillage specialist Tony Vyn reacts to results from the 2023 Strip-Till Benchmark Survey. Strip-Till Farmer’s 10th annual benchmark study of strip-till practices conducted in early 2023 shows that strip-tillers continue to have the upper hand over their counterparts when it comes to corn and soybean yields.

On this edition of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Sound Agriculture, Kuhn Krause marketing director Curt Davis examines the evolution of the strip-till equipment market and why the conservation practice is becoming an increasingly popular option for farmers.

On this edition of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Sound Agriculture, Jason Webster, Precision Technology Institute (PTI) Farm manager, discusses the biggest strip-till lessons learned from years of research at the 400-plus acre research farm.

On this edition of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Sound Agriculture, Otwell, Ind., strip-tiller Chris Perkins discusses the impact of hybrid selection on banded fertility, the key to a balanced nutrition plan below the root zone and how manipulating kernel weight can impact the yield equation.

On this episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Sound Agriculture, we go 1-on-1 with Blakely, Ga., strip-tiller Caleb Traugh, who accumulates ideas from across the country and finds a way to make them work on his farm. Traugh, who also works as a crop consultant, placed second in Georgia’s 2021 NCGA Corn Yield Contest with just over 270 bushels per acre in the strip-till, minimum-till, mulch-till, ridge-till irrigated class — a remarkable accomplishment considering he’s still in his 20s and didn’t grow up on a farm.

On this episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Yetter Farm Equipment, Ron Schilling talks about the motivation behind their switch to strip-till, how they incorporate cattle into their system, why they build strips in the spring and more!

On this edition of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Yetter Farm Equipment, New Prague, Minn., farmer Greg Entinger shares his economic-based strategy for managing his 900-acre strip-tilled corn operation. Entinger switched from conventional tillage to strip-till in 2015 to save money and reduce soil erosion. He bet the farm on the practice and it paid off almost immediately.

For this edition of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Yetter Farm Equipment, a trio of strip-tillers discuss their plans for 2023. Jon Stevens of Rock Creek, Minn., Ryan Nell of Beaver Dam, Wis., and Ryan Shaw of Snover, Mich., joined Strip-Till Farmer’s Noah Newman on stage at the 9th annual National Strip-Tillage Conference in Iowa City. Listen in as Stevens, Nell and Shaw cover a variety of topics including the challenges in their operations, nutrient management strategies, cover crops, equipment, how they plan to approach the upcoming growing season and more!

On this edition of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Yetter Farm Equipment, Ben Kron shares the keys to his record-breaking success. The Evansville, Ind., farmer won the National Corn Growers Association 2021 National Corn Yield Contest’s strip-till, minimum-till, mulch-till, ridge-till irrigated class with nearly 391 bushels per acre. He also broke the state’s strip-till, irrigated corn yield record that same year.

On this edition of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Yetter Farm Equipment, Dr. Fred Below, researcher and crop physiologist at the University of Illinois, joins managing editor Michaela Paukner for a conversation about ideal plant populations in a strip-till system.

For this Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Yetter Farm Equipment, we chat with Jeremiah Durbin, independent crop consultant, Sustainable Legacy Consulting; soil health specialist and Tennessee Association of Conservation Districts, about those physical, chemical and biological aspects of soil health and how he uses his mechanical background to help trouble-shoot issues in the field.

On this special edition of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by the Pluribus Lite from Dawn Equipment, we’re revisiting the top 3 most listened to interviews of 2022.

For this episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by the Pluribus Lite from Dawn Equipment, we head out to Tipton, Calif., to catch up with west coast strip-till pioneer Tom Barcellos. Barellos was the first in his area to switch from conventional to conservation tillage in 2000. He farms about 1,800 acres, primarily growing feed for his dairy operation. Listen in as Barcellos shares his nutrient management plan, equipment choices and lessons learned from 20 years of strip-tilling. He also talks about the challenges of farming in California and how strip-till has helped deal with skyrocketing fuel costs, water regulations and labor challenges.

In this week’s Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by the Pluribus Lite from Dawn Equipment, editor Frank Lessiter speaks with early strip-till adopter Dean Fehl about how he got started strip tilling, his current role as a retiree helping his sons work the family farm, and more.

For this episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by the Pluribus Lite from Dawn Equipment, we're riding in the combine with Putnam, Ill., strip-tiller Jay Riddell as he completes corn harvest on one of his farms.

In this episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by the Pluribus Lite from Dawn Equipment, you’ll hear Jim Lappin, AMVAC director of SIMPAS product portfolio & Alliances, and Caleb Schultz, AMVC retail channel precision ag services lead, break down the basics of SIMPAS technology and why strip-tillers are excited about it.

In this episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by the Pluribus Lite from Dawn Equipment, we speak with Dan Berning, Pioneer agronomy manager, and Scott Walker, Pioneer marketing manager. Berning and Walker explain how to manage drought conditions and share tips on what to do in the fall to set yourself up for success in the spring.

In this episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by the Pluribus Lite from Dawn Equipment, we speak with Sam Taylor, RaboResearch’s executive director of research for farm inputs in the North American market. Taylor explains his projections for high seed prices in 2023, plus gives us his analysis of the potash, nitrogen and broader fertilizer markets.

Brian Ryberg, who farms 5,200 acres in Buffalo Lake, Minn., was the first farmer to strip-till sugar beets in Minnesota, the nation’s largest sugar beet producer. His award-winning strip-till, cover crop and soil health practices — in addition to his commitment to educating other farmers about strip-till — make Ryberg a deserving winner of the 2022 Strip-Till Innovator Award. In this episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, meet the 2022 Strip-Till Innovator Award winner Brian Ryberg and learn about his award-winning practices.

In this episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by the Pluribus Lite from Dawn Equipment, Precision Planting’s Dale Koch and Doug Wright discuss the components of Radicle Agronomics, how Radicle Agronomics works with the company’s existing products, what farmers can expect from Radicle Agronomics and much more.

In today’s episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, editor Brian O’Connor talks with Parker Cohn, CEO of California-based Performance Resources Management (PRM), about how PRM designs biological management programs for growers, new technologies he’s putting to use to improve soil health and much more.

In today’s episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by the Pluribus Lite from Dawn Equipment, Oneida, Ill., neighbors Andrew Bowman and Charles Martin explain the experiment, the benefits of strip-tilling into a living mulch, how to make a clover polyculture work for cash crops and much more.

In today’s episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by the Pluribus Lite from Dawn Equipment, John Leif, a regional agronomist at AgroLiquid, explains the basics of soil testing, some common mistakes farmers make when soil testing, when to apply nutrients, how to determine if you should band vs. broadcast and much more.

Ben Pederson runs a 100% strip-till operation in Lake Mills, Iowa. He takes a holistic approach to strip-till and encourages out-of-the-box thinking to keep his operations on a pathway to profitability. One such example is he’s started using ion technology and the physics of thunderstorms to increase his yield potential and ROI without increasing inputs.

In this episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by SOURCE by Sound Agriculture, Jodi DeJong-Hughes an Educator with the University of Minnesota Extension gives us a preview of her lecture for the 2022 National Strip-Tillage Conference, discussing what you can do to deal with compaction in your fields, improve your soil health, make money on soil-saving practices and much more.

In this episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by SOURCE by Sound Agriculture, author Robert Paarlberg talks about the research that went into his book, his advice to commercial farmers and farm organizations about advocating for sustainability, what those groups need to do to combat the myths surrounding sustainable agriculture and more.

In this episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by SOURCE by Sound Agriculture, Indiana strip-tiller and consultant Chris Perkins introduces what to look for in a corn hybrid, shares how to develop a plan for success with corn, explains why he doesn’t believe in fall fertilizer and much more.

Soil health specialist Jim Hoorman is joining Strip-Till Farmer for an exclusive pre-conference workshop July 27 ahead of the 2022 National Strip-Tillage Conference, and he’s giving us a preview of his presentation in this episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by SOURCE by Sound Agriculture.

In today’s episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by SOURCE by Sound Agriculture, Illinois farmer Rock Katschnig talks about how strip-till has benefited his 3,500 acre operation in northwestern Illinois, the equipment he uses to strip-till, what changes he’s making this year to his fertilizer program amid an expensive fertilizer market and much more.

In this episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Terrasym by NewLeaf Symbiotics, associate editor Sarah Hill talks with Steven Mirsky, Research Ecologist, USDA Agricultural Research Service, about adopting covers with site-specific management, how growers can quantify the benefits of cover crops, how cover crop genetics have improved in the last decade and more.

In this episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Terrasym by NewLeaf Symbiotics, Mark Stock, co-founder of BigIron Auction Company, explains what to consider when deciding to sell your equipment, his advice for getting it ready for sale, insights on the current used ag equipment market and more.

In today’s episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Terrasym by NewLeaf Symbiotics, Michelle Miller aka the Farm Babe, shares her advice for building your farm’s social media presence, monetizing your social media content and effecting change in your local community and beyond.

Jerry Hatfield, the retired director of the National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment, says farming is not rocket science. Farming, with all of its interactions and inputs, is much more complex than a physics problem. At an event held by Iowa’s Southfork Watershed Alliance, Hatfield explained how water, tillage, nutrients and weather fit into the puzzle that is today’s ecological and industrial agriculture system. In this episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Terrasym by NewLeaf Symbiotics, Hatfield shares data indicating how strip-till increases soil organic matter, what’s an ideal water infiltration rate for soil, his advice on when you should get into carbon markets and more.

What would you do if the axle on your strip-till bar snapped in the middle of a field while you were planting? Davenport, Iowa, farmer Robb Ewoldt turned this very problem into an experiment — one that ended up proving the difference in yield that strip-till can make compared to no-till. In this episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Terrasym by NewLeaf Symbiotics, Robb shares the bushel-per-acre results of his unintentional trial, the other lessons learned over his years of strip-tilling, how he’s incorporating cover crops on some of the 2,000 acres he farms and how he’s teaching his nearby city neighbors about conservation agriculture and soil health.

This week, we’re revisiting Strip-Till Farmer’s top 5 most played episodes of 2021 to share highlights from conversations that resonated most with other strip-tillers. Some are even among the most listened to episodes ever since we started this podcast in 2016, including our #1 episode of the year, “Biological Farming with Gary Zimmer.”

In this episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Yetter Farm Equipment, associate editor Sarah Hill talks with Daniel Kaiser, nutrient management specialist at the University of Minnesota about the range of pH values needed for optimum crop performance, how liming works in the soil, what factors to consider when applying lime and more.

In this episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, you’ll meet Iowa farmers Landon Brown (New Providence, Iowa), Chris Blome (Alden, Iowa) and Glen Hodnefield (Radcliffe, Iowa). Landon and Chris are just a few years into strip-tilling, while Glen’s been doing it for 25 years. Listen in as they discuss their successes and challenges, the equipment they’re running, their planting and fertilizing techniques, and more.

For this No-Till Farmer podcast, we caught up with Paul Mikesell, founder and CEO of Carbon Robotics, a new company that is tackling weed control with a combination of artificial intelligence and lasers. This past year, in 2021, the company released its first production units of a machine called the LaserWeeder, which has the potential to eliminate the need for herbicides or tillage for weed control.

For this Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Yetter Farm Equipment, we chat with Wolcott, Indiana, grower Jason Federer, whose transition to 100% organic production on his 4,000-acre operation is nearly complete. Utilizing a diverse rotation that includes approximately 10 crops each year as well as cover crops, Jason is also implementing a modified strip-till system that involves planting corn between strips of alfalfa.

There are any number of reasons a farmer might adopt strip-till as a management practice — from reducing soil disturbance to targeting nutrient management to improving soil health. Independent crop consultant Dorian Gatchell of Minnesota Agricultural Services says these motives all have a common purpose: to improve plant health and therefore boost yields.

For this Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Yetter Mfg., we chat with Jeremiah Durbin, independent crop consultant, Sustainable Legacy Consulting; soil health specialist and Tennessee Association of Conservation Districts, about those physical, chemical and biological aspects of soil health and how he uses his mechanical background to help trouble-shoot issues in the field.

In this episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast series, we caught up with Mike to talk about some Ecdysis research on insecticidal seed treatments and what becomes of them after planting. He’ll share some of his findings about how neonicotinoids are metabolized as well as background info on the Ecdysis Foundation and how they’re working with farmers to develop strong ecological systems that will stand the test of time.

Gary Zimmer is known as the “father” of biological farming, a system in which farmers work hand-in-hand with nature to create healthy mineralized soils to produce pest- and disease-resistant crops while reducing chemical inputs. Zimmer operates Otter Creek Organic Farm in southwestern Wisconsin, following a rotation of 1 year of corn and 1 year of soil building using a cover crop of cereal rye, alfalfa and four types of clover. For this Strip-Till Farmer podcast, we caught up with Gary to talk about his system of biological farming. He explains why he avoids disturbing what he calls the “middle zone,” where most root growth takes place. He also explains why he focuses on soil building before anything else, how feeding soils is like feeding cows, the differences between green carbon and brown carbon, why it’s important to use neutral pH fertilizers, and much more.

In this episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Sound Agriculture, we caught up with Riceville, Iowa, strip-tiller Eric Hawbaker to hear about how strip-till has helped him improve soil health and achieve better emergence, even on corn-on-corn acres.

Finding ways to improve farm profits without taking on more acres is one of Zack Smith’s goals. In fact, the Buffalo Center, Iowa, strip-tiller has a name for it – biohacks. With his mindset of finding natural, vegetative solutions for farm problems, he recently started developing a unique autonomous structure he calls the Stock Cropper that integrates strip-cropping with mobile grazing.

Jon Stevens no tills and strip tills about 700 acres in rock Creek, Minnesota, moving from years of conventional tillage practices to no till and strip till starting in 2013. Stevens embraces a systematic approach to building soil health while understanding that farm profitability isn't necessarily dependent upon having the highest yields.