Vertical Tillage

Vertical tillage is newer trend that is getting a lot of attention. There are many manufactures building equipment designed for vertical tillage. Most of these tend to look like a disk in that they have a series of blades in a gang on a tool bar. Some models have individual blades mounted on spring shanks similar to a filed cultivator.

The big difference is that the blades on this type of tillage equipment are a straight or fluted blade, more like a coulter. It runs 2 to 3 inches deep and is designed to cut crop residue and not move soil like the offset or tandem disks.

Leaving the residue on top off or mixed in the top few inches of the soil helps speed up decomposition and speeds the cycling of nutrients when compared to conventional tillage systems.

The main objective of using vertical tillage is to break up surface compaction, and take out rills or wheel tracks from harvest equipment.

Planting corn in fields that have been worked with Vertical tillage equipment can be tricky, and usually requires selecting hybrids bred to handle these soil conditions and the increased trash present. Trelays team has many years of experience and can help you make the right seed selections to match your tillage and filed conditions.