BRANDON – Most people who have operated vertical tillage implements use the word “vibrate” to describe the action of the wavy coulters in the soil.
Chris Claeys takes the description one step further.
“I’d say the word ‘fractures’ is a better term for what happens,” said the farmer from Deloraine, Man.
He said that the tips of the blades, when they roll into the soil at high speed and with deep waves, create a shock that goes straight down to fracture the shallow hardpan.
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Claeys bought a new 40-foot Sommers Super Coulter in 2010 with eight-wave notched blades front and rear. They were the most aggressive blades he could find.
Claeys had previously tried vertical till implements on his farm and had decided that vertical till would become a standard part of his field operations, with or without the mud problem.
His farm has been 100 percent zero till for a decade, which is approximately the length of time the Prairies have experienced wet weather.
“Every spring we struggle with too much water to get on the land. We’re always a week or two late because of mud,” Claeys said.
He thinks zero till can sometimes be too efficient at spreading residue uniformly across the land and sealing up the surface. As a result, no black soil is left to absorb sunlight to warm and dry the land.
“We have neighbours who still cultivate the way they always have. Last year they were on some of their fields three weeks before us,” he said.
“I’d never go back to black soil again, but I think this vertical tillage implement is a good compromise if you’re in zero till.
“It gives us just enough black soil. It allows evaporation upwards into the atmosphere, but it also lets water soak down, deeper into the soil. The water moves both ways. That’s a huge advantage.”
Claeys has also had good results running his Sommers through standing water, which he said can be held on the surface by the smear layer.
“We’ve got areas where the water doesn’t usually sit but it was sitting last fall. We went through with the vertical till implement and the water disappeared.
“We had that happen halfway up the hillside. There are spots like that where the smear layer is definitely holding water.
“If that’s the case, if it really is hardpan, you can definitely break it up and get rid of standing water with your vertical till implement.”
He said an implement can’t do much if water is standing because the surface water table is too high.
Claeys ran the coulters about two inches deep last fall, depending on field conditions. Most of those fields will be ready for seeding with just that single pass.
He will also run a shallow pass this spring on fields that are still too wet.
He’s left his canola stubble alone to ensure he doesn’t lose the residue. Those fields will also get a shallow pass in the spring.
He said he was surprised at how well the implement handled flax straw last fall.
“We went in right after the combine chopped and spread the flax straw. I told myself I’d try it until I had to stop to unwind straw four times.
“Just four chances, then I’d quit and go home. Well, it never wrapped up once. Never wound up. So I kept going until I finished.”
He’s been running at eight to 10 m.p.h., despite knowing that higher speeds are possible and might give him a better finish.
Claeys bought the machine with the idea that it should last him a long time and is hesitant to work it too hard.
Claeys figures his cost per acre pencils out to $13 to $15 per acre.
He said vertical tillage isn’t just for wet conditions. He thinks zero-till farmers can also gain something in more normal conditions.
“All that organic matter is just laying there on the surface, and it’s gassing off into the atmosphere. Our crops are losing some of the nutritional value of that organic matter.
“It would be nice to get it worked into the soil so we get the long-term benefit from it. And it’s good to get a little bit of soil movement in the top two inches.
“So I think we’ll start doing vertical till on the whole farm from now on.”
