News editor
There is a new option for farmers looking to get the benefits of both traditional tillage and no-till farming, Marlin Bartel at Straub International said Thursday.
It’s called vertical tillage, and it works by cutting vertical furrows without displacing or turning over the soil, he said.
“It’s a compromise,” he said. “There are two extremes.
“They’re trying to get something that would make everybody happy,” Bartel said.
He said the equipment leaves more crop residue on top of the soil than traditional tillage. That crop residue helps protect soil.
One downside of using vertical tillage is that all tilling equipment used in a field needs to be vertical tillage, or the benefits are lost. That means replacing plows, discs, and sweeps, Bartel said.