RECENTLY, FOUR strip-tillers from three farms sat down for a roundtable session sponsored by AgroLiquid. The farmers chatted about benefits they’ve seen from various nutrient management strategies as well as challenges they’re facing.

Participants in this discussion included Ryan and Melissa Shaw of SKS Farm in Marlette, Mich., Joey Hanson of Elk Point, S.D., and Jeff Herrold of Wanatah, Ind. They brought their years of experience and insights into strip-tilling practices to the table for a candid and informative conversation.

Q: Let’s start by having everyone share a bit of background information about your operation and your strip-till nutrient management system. 

Joey Hanson: Here in the southeast corner of South Dakota, we started strip-tilling in 2013. Also in 2013, I launched Diversified Agronomy, a crop consulting business and a custom strip-till business. This  year we’re looking to try to get 8,000-9,000 acres covered this fall. We only use dry fertilizer right now, but we’ve debated setting up a liquid machine.

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“I’m blessed with high phosphorus levels, but I have to get it into a form that’s available to me. Using zinc to do that helps a lot…” – Jeff Herrold

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Melissa Shaw: We farm in the thumb of Michigan. We have 1,400 acres split into thirds — sugar beets, corn and soybeans. We’ve been strip-tilling since the fall of 2014 and it’s all dry fertilizer.

Jeff Herrold:  I farm with my brother in northwest Indiana. We’re 75-80% under irrigation. We farm seed corn, field corn, soybeans, wheat and rye, and…