Strategic tillage

Dan Powell said:

I seem to remember Frederic Thomas has moved towards strip-till for maize and OSR whereas he used to be no-till.

It would be interesting to get his views on why this is the case.

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It's not exact. He use to do some min-till and some no-till.
He is still doing no-till where the soil structure is good enough on some fields.
On some others he prefers strip-till, especially to place urea deep, so it will be available even with no rain. (he does not have irrigation and summer can be quite dry in his part of France)

As a strip-till manufacturer we do have clients who found strip-till can improve their result in row-crop (maize, rape, sugar beet, sunflower) over no-till. Some faced stratification or compaction even if they have been no-tilling for several years. In that case strip-till is just here to break that pan without disturbing the whole profile. Then the roots will hold it.

Stratification can occur even with a lot of worms ! even after the years of "transition". Trafic is an issue for northern Europe, the lack of diversity in the rotation too and the lack of organic matter.

It is possible to have a very alive soil and strip-till or subsoil once in the rotation if it's necessary. If it's necessary, why should'nt ?

imho strategic tillage on heavy land is best carried out using a mole drainer where under drainage has been done

if there are no drains then either drain the land properly or alternatively the land is not as heavy as claimed

if land is too wet the the only option is to wait till it is dryer mole drain then drill and if that is april a dry summer will not be a problem as heavy land will sustain a crop in a drought

yellow belly said:

imho strategic tillage on heavy land is best carried out using a mole drainer where under drainage has been done

if there are no drains then either drain the land properly or alternatively the land is not as heavy as claimed

if land is too wet the the only option is to wait till it is dryer mole drain then drill and if that is april a dry summer will not be a problem as heavy land will sustain a crop in a drought

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Totally agree with your lincolnshire view.

Here we do not have a drain across the entire country. Nor a mole drainer. We do in some places have ditches which take surface water away on inclined slopes. But generally are prepared to loose some area to flooding and maybe the next year get it back to growing something.