vertical tillage

[stevehink]

I am a no till farmer. I want corn stalks to be mixed in with upper soil, yet I don't want to loose soil saving of no till, due to water wash off. I have lots of hills, so I want the soil stable. Will vertical tillage give me what I want and not disturb the soil to the point I have to worry about run off.

[James22]

If you desire a lot of mixing,  it requires loosening enough soil that erosion will be a factor with a heavy rain.  If you can work with the results from a vertical cut implement that primarily sizes the residue and follow (either separately or in combination with the vertical cut implement) with some type of rolling basket/harrow which is run shallow and mixes the small amount of loose soil with the residue, erosion will not be a big concern.   Obviously running across rather than up-down hills generally results in less erosion.

[nwobcw]

   If the hills on your ground are made up of harder ground like they are on ground I farm the tillage tool won't go in as deep resulting in less chance of erosion.