Crop residue on the field… Money left on the table?

Trash, stover, residue — while post-harvest debris has taken different names throughout the years, it is now posing new threats and challenges. Growers will agree today’s higher plant populations, conservation tillage practices and better yielding, more-resistant stacked hybrids can benefit profitability, productivity and crop performance. However, these progressive practices create more field residue than ever before. Farmers are all too aware of the frustration this causes at planting. Mounding stover is not the answer because it is detrimental to overall soil and plant health.

Humi-Till BLog Photo

Residue blocks and locks crop potential
Excess residue blocks surface soil from both sunlight and air. This lowers soil temperatures, which keeps soils cool and wet —delaying planting and hindering germination and early growth. Rolling in deep stover damages tires and equipment and hinders seed-soil contact and inconsistent stands — all costing growers time and money.

There’s also a fertility opportunity loss: The residue contains substantial locked-up nutrients. Residue left over from a single acre of 200-bushel corn, with a 1:1 grain/stover ratio at 15.5 percent moisture, can contain more than $32 of nitrogen, $10 phosphorus and $36 potassium (totaling more than $80*) — nutrients which are only available to crops as the stover decomposes. Without microbial activity to digest the residue, nutrients sit unavailable for months (even years).

Keep the yields, lose the residue
To maintain profits, growers cannot sacrifice the advantages that come with stacked hybrids. Fortunately, growers now have options to help overcome the disadvantages that come with heaping stover. Humi-Till, a new crop residue manager, is a specific blend of Monty’s activated humic technology – combined with microbes which digest lignin and cellulose. When applied to residue, it works with soil enzymes and other soil biology to expedite crop residue decomposition — unblocking the residue barrier on surface soil and unlocking valuable nutrients.

Humi-Till can save potential nutrient loss, equipment damage and inefficient planting — supporting performance and profitability and improving overall soil health. Additionally, it offers growers flexibility and a low application rate of three to four quarts per acre. It is ideal for fall, postharvest application and can be used with liquid nitrogen and herbicide application — both fall and spring.

To learn more about Humi-Till click here. To learn more about other natural soil enhancement and plant fertility products — including Monty’s activated humic technology click here or call 1-800-978-6342.

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