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Strip-till gains adoption among Michigan farmers looking to cut costs

A Michigan farmer says more producers are interested in using strip-till to reduce management costs.

Luke Gentz tells Brownfield, “We’re slowly moving more and more towards strip tillage for anything that’s in 30-inch rows because it’s saving us not only some time in passes, but it’s saving a lot of fuel per acre, and diesel fuel has really gotten out of hand,” he shares.

He says spring planting can make the application window tight, but fields can dry out faster.

“We are applying dry fertilizer in the strip as a prescription by each field and what the crop plan is,” he says. “It’s helping us with our efficiency of our fertilizer. It’s helping to improve soil structure, and it’s just cutting a lot of costs for us.”

Gentz recently hosted a field day with his local conservation district to help demonstrate the practice after two years of trial and error.