How much residue to remove with row cleaners?

[Murray_KS]

My questions today are:

1.  What are you planting into (ie. no till corn; strip till etc.) and how aggresively do you like to set your row cleaners when planting corn?

2.  What are the advantages/disadvantages of moving too much residue and plowing up a trench with the row cleaners?

I am intererested in getting some responses on the topic.  I know the Precision Planting crew says to set them so they are moving most of the residue, but they are not spinning most of the time.  I have heard from other people that don't like to use a row cleaner at ALL, and some people that like to have their row cleaners turning 100% of the time and even moving an inch of soil.  So, what is optimal, and why?

[Jim Meade / Iowa City]

I set the row cleaners to not move any soil normally  and to move trash only enough to get it out of the way of the disk openers.  I plant no-till corn and soybeans into corn and soybean residue that has not been otherwise distrubed.

[Pupdaddy]

I plant corn most often in untouched, drilled soybean stubble. I try to get my row cleaner to leave a fairly clean strip behind the planter..that doesn't have much residue in it (the slot) or on top of it. The problem with setting your row cleaner too deep..is if you have a period of excess moisture following early emergence....the water will lay right down the row on the emerging seedlings. Not something you want to have..I know from experience. In your instance..planting in the dry conditions of Kansas...you might even want to remove some of the soil from the strip..just to get your seed into moisture when planting.  Just be wary of doing that on your end rows..or you're going to bounce a lot making your turns...LOL

[JAS#17]

You dont want them moving soil...just residue which means they may not  be turning all the time.  Last year I planted a field of corn on corn that had ALOT of trash from the 2009 corn crop.  I set the row cleaners a notch deeper to move the trash out of theway but it was too much.  They were down in muck which was causing the seed disc openers to create side wall compaction.  Thats one thing that happens when you run the row cleaners too deep.

[matt hagny]

Move as little as possible!   Unless you like the headaches of crusting, mud clogging the row unit, poor brace root development if soils get too warm/dry, and erosion along the row if planting on any terrain with more than 0.5 degree of slope.

My rule of thumb is to move no more than 1/3 of the residue from the row for dryland conditions in KS.  And an increasing number of no-tillers are running without any row cleaners at all in those conditions.