Who uses a salford rts?

I am interested in hearing if anyone has used a rts on corn and soybean stubble. Does it help when notilling into corn stalks? I want to improve emergence with out chisel plowing.

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Permalink Reply by peasant62 on February 1, 2011 at 10:19am

Hi Roadrunner,

I have some experience with vertical tillage but not salford. I went for the home assembled unit, a very old Nobel Chop and Chisel plow. The front "chop" was lowered and GP turbo till blades installed in stead of the flat blades. Wil-rich hubs and blades on the shanks and buler harrows on the back. With some effort it works. It does take extra maintenance as it is not a cultivator where you knock the sweeps off and tap on the new ones. The unit has a gross weight of 2800kg for 29 blades.

Being new to it I went over the corn stalks twice one spring, (let me tell you one thing not to do). This created a mat of stalks, it probably would have shaded the ground and kept it cold for germination but.... there was a very strong wind and blew them over to my neighbours. There were many other things changed hands that day in the neighbourhood, even some buildings damaged also.

I am thinking that if you do the tillage in the spring, once is enough (on corn stalks, I NT wheat into the soy stubble). The spring tillage should it be shallow or deep? depends on the weather after. The way that I have used it is once over in the fall and I will probably continue this way untill we run into a wet one. My thinking with once in the fall it breaks the surface and lets the moisture in for some frost action, then in the spring the sun will find the soil and warm it up faster.

The price of the tillage will give you better soil seed contact and hopefully more bushels.

peasant62

ps. I hope that you have lots of horses under the hood and smoooooooth fields.