A. Weatherproofing your crop begins with fall tillage and harvest.

Get as much soil plant residue contact as possible regardless of tillage system used.

Work residue into the soil no deeper than you have oxygen in the soil.

Control traffic patterns to reduce compaction. When possible, drive on only one side of a given row.

Unload combine at end of field or on turn rows. (Seriously re-evaluate "catching on the go".)

Avoid harvesting when soils are wet. Compaction does not freeze out in one year.

Speed decomposition of crop residue.

Get residue into contact with soil right behind combine while plant saps are present and carbon nitrogen ratios are narrow.

Add nitrogen and/or a carbon source on fields where decomposition has been slow in the past.

Spread manure when soils are dry. Consider adding fine lime to manure. Spread manure evenly over as many acres as possible.

Use a dry fall to deep till a part of your acreage. Do not attempt to deep till under wet conditions. Tools that lift the soil and fluff it are better than those that bring subsoil to the surface.

Use shallow fall tillage or no fall tillage under very wet conditions.

Use fall cover crops (especially rye) only on severe erosion areas. Consider using oats especially when they can be seeded early.

Only apply limestone and gypsum in the fall. They tend to dehydrate soil when spring applied, especially at higher rates.

Consider leaving bean stubble untilled unless herbicide carryover is likely to be a problem.

Spread crop residue evenly over the entire width of the combine.

Ridge tillage operations need to make special efforts to increase residue soil contact.
Use I-Beam or Feurst Harrow during first hard frost.

When moldboard plowing, plow shallow to avoid creating sandwich of anaerobic without oxygen) soil on both sides of your aerobic (with oxygen) soil.

Under dry conditions a para plow may have real merit even under a ridge till system.

B. Spring tillage practices are critical to weatherproofing your crop.

Do not haul manure on wet soils.

Avoid working soils under wet conditions. Compaction impedes root growth.

Work soils only enough to get good soil-seed contact.

Newer planters need less soil preparation
Over-worked soils increase weed pressure
Save extra trips for mechanical weed control

Work soils shallow in the spring.

If soil is very rough after fall tillage, work soil as soon as dry enough to avoid compaction.

Soil mulch breaks capillary action and reduces soil moisture loss.

Rough soil surface worked late will have dry pockets and cause uneven plant emergence.

Soil conditioners such as Ammonium Lauryl Ether Sulfate, or A.L.S., may be beneficial in creating a good rooting environment.

C. Planting must be done with precision to weatherproof your crop.

Plant as early as soil conditions permit. Usually better moisture conditions.

Plant shallow, but place seed in moisture. Planting depth should account for moon phase and secondary tillage tool.

Approaching Full Moon - moisture will tend to dry away from seed.
Approaching New Moon - moisture will tend to migrate up in soil.
Field Cultivator - soils will tend to dry a little deeper.
Disc or Cultipacker - soils will dry out less than above tools.

Ridge tillage practices provide excellent moisture at planting but create special fertilizer placement and weed control problems.

Do not apply all early nitrogen on soil surface.

Control all perennial weeds and early emerging annual weeds before crop emergence.

Use a "T" band for soil corn rootworm insecticide where necessary. Use crop rotations where at all possible to eliminate the need for an insecticide. Moisture is necessary to activate all soil insecticides.

Place row support beside seed and below seed (2"X 2") rather than directly in contact with seed. We use fertilizers to create ionization in the soil. Under certain stress conditions almost any fertilizer can cause germination damage.

Do not overpopulate. Adapt and vary planted populations to the specific variety.

Keep plants spaced evenly in the row. Avoid high-speed planting and replace worn planter parts regularly.

D. Weed control is an essential part of weatherproofing your crop.

Move toward contact herbicides and away from soil herbicides. It is essential here to treat weeds while they are small and growing rapidly.

Use the right herbicide for specific weeds present. The weed species will change, as your soils become more biologically alive.

Contact herbicides usually use smaller quantities of active ingredients and have a shorter half-life than soil herbicides.

Move toward banded herbicides and away from broadcast herbicides to reduce costs and the amount of chemical applied to the soil ecosystem. Some of the herbicides, especially triazines, tie up phosphorous in the soil.

Buy a good rotary hoe and use it. Use it early and use it often. Don't look back when you are operating it!

Cultivate early and relatively deep to create a loose soil mulch. This will conserve moisture and create deeper early rooting so roots are not pruned so severely on second cultivation.

When cultivating corn the second time, throw enough dirt to cover the sites on the plant where brace roots will develop. This will help increase feeder root mass as brace roots develop. It will also reduce the impact of root pruning by a rootworm or "iron worm".

Modify cultivator to leave a loose soil mulch behind large sweeps in center of row, particularly behind tractor wheel tracks.

E. Deep rip or aerate your growing crop to enhance root growth.

Deep tillage should only be done under dry conditions. Under moisture saturated conditions roots will grow slowly every day.

Bring no soil from the anaerobic zone to the soil surface.

The anaerobic zone must not be disturbed to the extent that platelets slide and shear plant rootlets. Narrow rows require more care here than wider rows.

In early years of a deep ripping program, anhydrous knives work better than a sub-soiler to fracture the plow pan during the growing season. There are deep tillage tools available such as the Blue Jet sub tiller and the Strohm no-till aerator that are a compromise between the two above tools.

You may need to rip every other row because of power requirements. If so, skip the tractor wheel tracks and rip at least one side of each row.

Consider modifying your cultivator so that you can deep rip and cultivate at the same time.

Apply side dress fertilizer with the deep ripping tool in a dry year. Place fertilizer in moist soil 6-to-7 inches deep, preferably not at the bottom of the slit.

If you attempt to deep rip behind the tractor tires you will probably need to build shields to keep slabs from covering the crop.

F. Fertilizer placement must be varied in response to soil moisture conditions.

Fertilizer must be placed in moist soil or worked into moist soil with tillage equipment.

In a moist year, shallow application of fertilizer will give a better response.

Roots do not grow deep when soil pores are saturated with water.

Nutrients, especially nitrogen, may leech out of the rooting zone before roots can reach it when applied deep.

In a dry year, fertilizer should be placed in moisture. This is essential for ionization to take place.

Set up side dress equipment with the flexibility to vary the placement of fertilizer with moisture conditions.

Side dress with cultivator in adequate moisture conditions.
Side dress with deep rip tool in low moisture conditions.