A LONG-TIME strip-tiller, Marty Weiss has been conservation-minded for years. But he’s taken inspiration from the recent widespread focus on soil health and in the past few years tackled several new practices, including no-till, strip cropping, interseeding cover crops in both 30-inch and 60-inch corn, planting green and even seeding covers for regenerative grazing. 

Weiss has farmed 250 acres in Beaver Dam, Wis., since 1987 and began reducing tillage shortly thereafter. 

Co-chair of Wisconsin’s Dodge County Farmers for Healthy Soils & Healthy Waters, Weiss’ land hasn’t seen a plow since the early- to mid-1990s. He’s been strip-tilling with zone tillage on the planter, then a strip-till bar since about 2004 and this year (2020) went 100% no-till.

Harvesting Sunlight

Traditionally, strip cropping has been used in areas with rolling ground to combat soil erosion. In those situations, farmers usually alternate cash crops with cover crops, such as closely-sown small grains or forages. 

Weiss took a slightly different approach by alternating corn and soybeans in strips of 8 30-inch rows apiece, not to control erosion but to capture sunlight and sequester carbon in search of better soil health and reduced inputs. 

“Every 1% of organic matter contains 1,000 pounds of nitrogen (N), of which approximately 20 pounds are plant-available, 100 pounds…