One of the most crucial management decisions any no-tiller faces is deciding how to handle stalks, cobs, fodder, root crowns and straw from ever-increasing crop yields.

Some growers have soil biological activity that is robust enough to break down copious amounts of residue with little or no trouble.

Other farmers aren’t so lucky and are using strip-till or turning to their planter, combine or other tools to handle residue and potentially give themselves a better chance of success at planting and seeding time.

No-Till Farmer editors recently surveyed readers about their biggest residue challenges and how they’re addressing them. Dozens of no-tillers and strip-tillers responded, and their answers are varied and diverse.

Headers, Combine Tweaks to Tackle Residue

Knife Skills

We’re utilizing spreader technology to help distribute straw evenly (above photo). This allows us to cut through the straw with the help of floating row cleaners.

Before we had a problem with the straw being so thick, and we had a hard time getting the row cleaners to move the straw out of the way to place the seed. So we changed the knives and choppers on our combine to make the straw finer and found this to be more efficient.

The residue from the cereal rye eventually becomes an organic compost, breaking down and…