The strip-till tobacco is in the ground.

We have been no-tilling all of our row crops for years.  I have written in other posts about the benefits of no-till farming.  We try to pick the very best ground for our tobacco crop.  We then work the ground up and destroy the soil structure and reduce the organic matter we have built from no-tilling other crops.  It releases the stored carbon into the atmosphere when you work the ground too.  It bothered us to see soil eroding out of the tobacco fields when it rained.  We studied up on the strip-till practice and made the commitment this year on roughly half of our tobacco acres. 

The strips are laid off using the "Ripper - Stripper" machine pictured above.  This machine rips the ground about 2 feet deep.  This loosens the ground up where the row will be so the roots from the plants can get to water and nutrients more easily.  When it heaves the ground up the 4 offset coulter blades size up any chunks of dirt that may blow out from the side of the trench the ripper is working in.  The roller on the back breaks down clods and levels the strip out.  The accuracy of the RTK GPS signal helps to lay the rows off perfectly straight across our tobacco fields. 

After the ripper lays off the rows a tiller called a Multivator is used to finish the strips off where the rows of tobacco will be planted.  This tool works like a rear tine garden tiller.  It leaves a perfectly tilled spot about 16 inches wide for each row.  The picture below shows the finished rows with the residue from the previous crop still in the middles.  This residue will help keep moisture in the ground this summer and help to prevent erosion when it rains this spring. 

Once the field herbicides are applied to the ground we start setting.  We used the "tracks" from the RTK system on the ripper tractor in the setter tractor.  The sub inch accuracy of RTK allows us to run the setter on auto steer to help maintain travel in the strips. 

Both pictures here are a good representation of how the ground is firm in the row middles but loose in the rows where the plants are.  The decision to change our production practices was difficult.  It would be easier and cheaper to do it the way we have always done it.  We feel like this change is one that will pay for itself over time.  Hopefully, we will get to 100% strip till in the future once we get the weed control program fine tuned.