Residue Management and Seeding Product Engineers have been working on new concept designs to condition and incorporate the residues from todays higher yielding corn crops for nearly two decades now.Good examples of such tried and true performance units is this 22 ft RTS unit from Salford working in the residue from a 200+ bu/acre Ontario corn crop.The concept with a Residue Tillage Specialist ( RTS ) Unit is to allow gangs of fluted coulters to cut,incorporate and help condition stalks.Some growers have found a single pass of an RTS unit in the fall followed up with another in the spring can be sufficient enough for creating excellent seedbed conditions for planting while other growers use the RTS unit to condition residue ahead of their primary tillage tool - not to provide clearance but to provide faster decomposition as it greatly reduces the risk of having layers of buried partly decomposed residue keeping the soil wetter and cooler in the spring.
The objective of the Residue Management Engineer Specialists at Salford over 20 years ago was to create a series of Primary Tillage Tools that would either match or exceed the yield performance of the mouldboard plough. They recognized 3 important things from the beginning : 1)They would need to create tillage units that would better help growers manage crop residues.Their concept was that of creating tillage tools that would not only condition the soil much like a moldboard plough but create a soil environment that would improve upon the ability of the moldboard plough to regulate the soils temperature, water and aeration balance.
2)They recognized that their units would need to manage the soils Carbon /Nitrogen ratio better than the mouldboard plough if they were to ever equal or exceed its performance and
3) if they could achieve their above two objectives they knew they could accelerate the adoption of their new residue management units because of the improved efficiency they would deliver over the moldboard plough for eliminating headland travel,back furrows and lifting the primary tillage speed limit.
The 9800CTS ( Conservation Tillage Specialist) Unit above behaves much like their 9700CTS unit other than that it comes with heavy duty spiral rolling harrows on the front and rear.The front roller acts to crimp and condition stalks while the rear roller acts to help level,distribute and further condition residue.The intent of these additional heavy spiral duty rollers on the 9800 is to help growers better manage the crushing , crimping, breaking and incorporation of massive amounts of corn residues.
The 9700CTS unit shown above behaves much like the 9800CTS in that both disrupt all the soil much like a mouldboard plough.They both have optional points ( from 2.5" to 4" mounted over a 17" share mounted on 16" spacings. As you can see the 9700 unit has no front or rear spiral rolling harrows like the 9800 unit does.
To better accomodate the needs of growers preferring the soil conditioning of a mouldboard plough and to allow them to proficiently handle the increased residues of todays higher yielding corn crops Salford Engineers lengthened out the gang spacing of their mouldboard ploughs as well as increased their throat clearance.It was discovered that by making these two engineering changes there was almost no limit to the amount of residue that could flow freely through their new units.It was even discovered that there was no longer a need for plough coulters.
As you can see its the ability of these units to help growers speedily manage heavy amounts of residue that is most appealing.They are gaining greater and greater popularity.Their appeal lies in their ability to condition the soil much like a mouldboard plough as well as leave residues crushed and crimped, with sufficient incorporation and soil levelling, to allow one pass seedbed preparation in the spring.
With these Heavy Duty Residue Management Units growers no longer need to concern themselves with the extra residue left remaining in their fields after harvesting todays higher yielding 200 + bushel corn crops. On the contrare, growers can now embrace the extra residues remaining after harvest and begin enjoying the increased opportunity that these higher residues can have in enhancing the yield performance of future crops.
The above photo shows how one fall pass in 220 bu/a corn residue can provide a well mixed soil with crushed, crimped and sufficiently incorporated residues to allow good soil bacterial action in achieving a desired 10:1 Carbon Nitrogen ratio. It also shows how a single tillage pass in the spring is all that will be needed to prepare this field for spring planting.
Its just amazing how good a pot of baked beans, roast beef on a bun,oatmeal and peanut butter cookies as well as a hot cup of coffee tastes on a cool fall harvest day. It truly makes growers recognize the value they play in the food chain.
