Ashmore, Ill., farmer Curt Elmore spent 2020 delving further into conservation farming, planting hundreds more acres of cover crops, experimenting with strip tillage and moving into no-till soybeans.

For corn, he’s still using a finisher in the spring, but he’s reduced fall tillage.

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“We used the disk ripper on a couple fields where I sprayed when it was pretty wet and had some ruts. But as a whole, the ripper is not getting much exercise anymore," Elmore says.

He’s weighing the costs and benefits of buying his own strip-till bar, so he had a neighbor strip-till some of his ground in 2020. In 2021, he intends to test two different rates of phosphorus and potassium in strips to compare strip fertilizer placement to broadcast application.

Last year, he took his broadcast rate and applied it in the strip. He plans to keep testing that for the next couple of years.

“I haven't seen yields drop off or be hurt by planting into a stale strip or anything, so I feel pretty confident about it,” Elmore says.

The experiments will continue in 2021, as he plans to put on ammonium sulfate at planting, and compare that to broadcasting sulfur in the spring ahead of the soil finisher.

“2021 is going to be another year for experimenting,” Elmore concludes.

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