Bought new land with corn stalks on it.....now what.

[littlestarterfarmer]

I purchased some ground this fall that had corn on it that was harvested last week. I no-tilled wheat into some of it but not sure what to do with the rest. I was thinking about going in with soybeans next spring but the ground is so rough with washouts due to continuous no-till for 10 years with no maintenance done to terraces. And apparently it was wet this summer when they sprayed it, now there are sprayer tracks every 100 ft or so. It needs to be tore up, disked to get everything in good shape. Should i disk it this fall or wait till spring. Or should i consider something else. They ripped it this last spring so the ground is really mellow hardly any compaction except for the sprayer tracks.

[Blacksandfarmer]

I bought ground a little like yours last year. I didnt have time to do much to it until the ground froze for the winter. I just used a chisel plow on the rutted compacted spots and disked the rest. Good luck

[nwobcw]

I have a similar field.   If it is prone to washouts/erosion fall tillage will only worsen the situation.  From what you've said I would let it winter out and smooth out the rough spots next spring and no till it.  How does no tilling wheat into corn stalks work?  I've never seen it done.

[centralillinois]

I would only disc or chisel where the wheel tracks are in the fall.  A spring discing doesn't work very well on my soil types so I'd no-till the beans next spring.  Last year we didn't get done combining corn until December and no-tilled into areas with tracks.  The  tracks don't take up as much ground as what you might think.  We tried discing some but the beans still made close to 60 bushels an acre.  Beans after ten years of corn won't need much to be successful. 

[centralillinois]

If the previous operator had corn for ten years, the first think I'd do is get the soil tested.  In my neighborhood most farms that are sold need lime if the operator knew a few years back that his time would soon be over.  The tracks might only show up on 1% of the farm, but 100% of the farm could need lime. 

[littlestarterfarmer]

It worked pretty decent, guess we will find out next summer how well it worked.

[littlestarterfarmer]

No this wasn't a retiring farmer, this was a BTO in our area that spent 3,500 dollars an acre on some ground that was closer to them, then found out that perhaps they had stretched themselves to thin so they had to sell this piece of ground to make up for it. Nutrient wise i think they have done a good job, but yes i do plan on doing some soil testing. The biggest thing about doing no tillage at all is its going to be pretty tough trying to combine those beans, even with a flex head.

[Jim Meade / Iowa City]

Do you need to disk?  A disk compacts the soil.  Would a field cultivator or soil conditioner do enough to knock the worst of the ruts down?  Might have to chop some stalks first where you run the machine.   Maybe something that wouldn't bury your residue and would thus help keep erosion down over the winter.  If you disk, do you need to disk the whole field or just parts?

Did it work well to no-till the wheat?

[littlestarterfarmer]

Problem with trying to cultivate would be the continual plug up as the stocks are still pretty solid and werent chopped well, we dont have a chopper or a mower big enough to do 170 acres. Ive thought about going in this fall with our coulter cart first, perhaps going once and then again cross wise to help chop up the stalks, even thought this might help with some of the wheel tracks. There is enough washouts that by the time you start disking you might as wells just disk the whole thing, Im worried about getting a good stand with our soybeans if we just no-till them into the stalks, with the wheat i wasnt so worried because we were putting close to 90 pounds on, but with soybeans i cant afford to increase my seed rates for hopes of a better stand.

[nwobcw]

If you use the coulter cart I would suggest going at an angle, maybe twice at opposing angles.