Residue Management Solutions

Uniform distribution of chaff and chopped residue is important within conventional farming systems, but it’s critical in no-till rotations. Streaked residue leads to many problems, including streaked nutrients which are contained within the previous crop residues. The table to the right illustrates the percentages of individual nutrients contained within different crop residues (Source - Canadian tables of feed composition, 3rd revision, 1982).

Percentage of nutrients contained in different crop residues N P K S Ca Mg Wheat 0.63 0.05 1.42 0.19 0.32 0.12 Corn 1.06 0.10 1.45 0.17 0.57 0.40 Soybean 0.83 0.06 0.56 0.26 1.59 0.92 Sorghum 0.83 0.13 1.20 0.15 0.52 0.28

Poor soybean residue distribution		Poor wheat residue distribution

Problems caused by poor residue distribution

• Nutrients contained within the unevenly distributed previous crop residue are also streaked on the soil surface. This commonly results in uneven emergence of future crops.
• Soil under the bands of heavy residue are slower to warm up in the spring (compared to areas with less residue). These cooler soils frequently result in delayed emergence of crops, together with reduced availability of nutrients as a result of the cool temperatures (so these strips get hurt twice!)
• Heavy residue bands commonly cause hair-pinning with disc seeders or plugging of shank style seeders. These problems are commonly compounded because the soil beneath the residue has a higher moisture content, further hindering the performance of seeding equipment.
• Heavy residue bands commonly lift seeding equipment out of the ground if they are not adequately ballasted, plus they reduce the seed to soil contact standards of drills, air-seeders and planters.
• Areas without any previous crop residue may be more prone to soil erosion.

Heavy bands of soybean residue behind combine passes reduce a no-till corn stand by lowering soil temperatures under the residue by as much as 10oF, (see inset image). Cooler temperatures slow emergence and make the seeds more susceptible to soil borne insects and diseases.	Conventional tillage operations do not effectively spread combine residue, it only camouflages the problems. The residue must be chopped and spread evenly at harvest time with the combine or the same nutrient banding and soil warming/drying problems will occur in the following crop.	Heavy bands of soybean residue, again behind the combine take their toll on a no-till winter wheat stand. Many seeds were found within the residue, as the no-till drill could not cut through the heavy residue to position seeds into the soil below.

The solution

Needham Ag Technologies, LLC is a dealer for Redekop. Redekop manufactures the most effective and advanced straw choppers which can be added to most brands of combines. Some combine manufacturers (including AGCO and Claas) incorporate Redekop straw choppers to their new combines.

The most advanced Redekop straw chopper is called a MAV. A Maximum Air Velocity (MAV) chopper rotor was retro-fitted to a 9650STS John Deere combine in the photo above and this resulted in significantly improved chopping and spreading performance (compared to the factory system). The Redekop MAV helps producers attain more uniform stands crops following harvest, especially within no-till systems.	The Redekop MAV chopper rotor. This is an excellent residue management system because it incorporates both strait blades to size residue and fan blades at both ends of the rotor. Wind velocities of up to 110mph are created by the fan blades and they assist spreading residue evenly across the header width.	Wheat straw finely chopped with the Redekop MAV system equipped on the 9650STS combine pictured left. Farmers will appreciate the even distribution of residue, even following 36’ wide headers.

A Caterpillar Lexion 480 equipped with a Redekop MAV straw chopper. The fan system incorporated into either end of the MAV chopper provides wind speeds of 100-110 mph, which helps distribute residue evenly across a 36’ header, even on windy days.

For more information on Redekop Straw Choppers, contact Phil by phone on (270) 315 0111 or by email at phil@needhamag.com.