Comments on the Forums

[Dyke Shaffer]

Jim.

As I educate myself about the soil profile and living organisms in the soil the Curse buster is looking more like the tillage tool that I am looking for. It looks very versatile for my type of operation. I am not one to deploy my working capital on tools that I can not use to better my farming operation.



KBTW I really like the new forum style on the web site. keep up the great work on educating us farmers on the finer points of soil management. Also being brave enough (to tell us the truth about what is happening with gmo).



As always thanks for getting back to me.

[Jim Martindale]

Hi Dyke.
Thanks for the kind words of encouragement about the website. The Lord has made so many opportunities to work with so many great folks around the country and overseas; I just love to share our experiences together. Probably not very good business sense. For sure our family has never been blessed with high finances from my efforts to be a blessing to God and my fellow man. But we have always had what we need.
If you would tell me more about your operation as you think would be important for me to know I will be glad to entertain your questions about the technology and what would seem to make the most sense for you.
We do have some used units as you have seen on the website that are available and one or possibly two more later this fall after fall work. Guys are moving quite quickly after three years or so to the newest designs. Quite a compliment to our progress in design refinement and to the performance of the first machines as well. Being blessed.
For the next step:

The usual info that I need would be acres to be covered……
Crops grown……………
Tractors available……………
Terrain (which I am a little bit familiar with)…..terraces?
Soil types…… ?rocks?……….
Other idiosyncrasies………….

Thanks again and God Bless.

[Dyke Shaffer]

Jim,

Crops Corn and soybeans

In front of the corn I line ripper the bean stubble in the fall, then one pass field cult in the spring and plant,( managing the build up of trash and stubble is becoming more difficult. The eco-system seems not to be able to digest all the fodder.)

Soybeans are no-tilled ( either planted at a angle to the corn rows or between the old corn rows.)

Both are planted in 20" rows

case ih 7140 at 225 hp   

Flat to slight roll. I take lots of water from neighbors that crosses several farms.

No terraces and not many rock most are small.

Soil types are: Ipava, Sablem, Drummer, Plano, Harsburg, Edginton, Harpster, Elburn, Proctor, Sawmill, Dana, Otherents, Wyant, Raub, Odell, Brenton, Thorp,

Several of these soils have high CEC's

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you fall harvest season is fast approaching.

The Half Centry of Progess show is in Rantoul, Illinois this weekend and it will be a great weekend to seem them harvest!!

Proud to be an American Farmer
Dyke Shaffer

[Admin]

Hi Dyke.

Thanks for the info. I really like working with 20 inch rows. Been doing it with a grower in northern NY for about 15 years. The crop rotation could probably stand to have cereal rye in front of the beans. To do the rye as a rolled version to go into beans will be a stretch maybe for you but I am increasingly convinved by the experiences of CurseBuster owners that it really works well to increase the bottom line: unlike a lot of other covercroppping strategies.

I hasten to say that the cereal rye is not the do all or end all of advancing your soils. But the history of ripping behind beans on 20 inch centers I assume everyother year is hopefully going to be a thing of the past if you start running the CurseBuster. How deep are you setting the shank on the ripper? Is it a minimal disturbance shank? Are you RTK's to get the corn row over the ripper mark or are you not trying to do any of this type of thing?

I am concerned about the use of the field cultivator in the spring following the fall ripper pass. esp. in light of some of these soil types. One of the things which may be happening with the cultivator (esp. if it is running a sweep) is a smear which is adequate to stall corn root systems way short of the zone the ripper point made in the fall. This does not ever happen with the CurseBuster in the spring even though the tine may be running in some soil you would never touch with a sweep on a cultivator NOR WANT TOO!!! Have you spaded up some corn plants on some different soils to see what the roots are looking like? I think it could be very instructive in this regard. It is very easy to negate the ripper effect with a cultivator sweep.

Have you pics of the root systems under the no-till beans?

Residue disappearance in the system you are using will continue to be a problem I fear if the no-till sequence in the program continues. The lack of fall tillage following the corn is setting the cornfield up to be waterlogged fairly frequently until the next tillage operation after the beans is performed. You are correct in your statement concerning the "eco-system of the soil" is just not digesting all the stalks fast enough.

You need to adjust the tillage system so that you minimize the number of occasions when soils are anaerobic. Further you need the soils to be percolating water as rapidly as possible esp. with the help you are getting from the neighbors. Are they no-Tilling too? You might offer to run your CurseBuster on their fields that are responsible for loading you up. That could easily include old pastures and woodlots that slope toward you.

I strongly advise that every possible effort be made to run the CusreBuster on every acre of every field on plant earth at least once a year preferably in advance of the normal water recharge seasonal events. MOST SOILS IN THE REGION WHERE YOU ARE LOCATED WILL BENEFIT FROM THE CURSEBUSTER TILLAGE OPERATION EVERY 30 INCHES OF RAINFALL OR IRRIGATION APPLIED. By the time this much water has been conducted downward in your soils the silt particles that have been moving with the water have clogged the macro-pores sufficiently to prevent effective and efficient air and water exchange in a discrete location. As this condition develops over time the rate of water percolation through your soil decreases. You can readily observe this condition on long term no-till farms. Watch those low spots after a rain event. Watch for the water to appear on the surface after about two days or so. In fact you may very well watch the water get deeper in the low spots every day AFTER THE RAIN has stopped for several days.

The whole purpose of the CurseBuster is to prevent this situation. This problem can be addressed with lots of other approaches to breaking the silt layer that forms in our soils. Strip-tilling does it in a narrow zone. A deep discing (over 7 inches) will redistribute the silt to eliminate the problem. A moldboard plow will address the problem. The one thing which will NOT address the problem (announced by God in Genesis 8:21) is doing nothing. We deceive ourselves if we think we can disobey God's command to till and experience the blessing of God.

That is not to say that the disc and moldboard or strip unit are necessarily going to bring forth the blessing of God. We have lots of choices today when it comes to tillage tools to use. Fortunately I have blessed to live long enough to see the results of the rather simplistic approach which the CurseBuster embodies. The improvement in the soil and the crops that it produces are unprecedented.

If I had a USPS address I would love to send you a DVD we made back in 2008 from a field day we had on a farm with Class IV soils in northern NY State. That was on the 24 anniversary of doing no other form of tillage on the farm. Virtually everything else in the entire farming operation remained unchanged over that period and is still after 30 years.

Enough. The 7140 tractor will handle a 15 foot machine. I think 20 foot would be over the top. This series of tractors is under-rated but it would be a stretch to pull something that typically takes 300 horses. Besides if you can pull the machine at 8+ mph you will get as much done in an hour with the 15 as you will with the 20 at 5.5. The machine works better at speeds around 7 anyway.

Have a great time in Rantoul. Have always wanted to get our machine down there sometime but have never made it. Let me know how I can help further. God Bless.

[Dyke Shaffer]

Jim,

When line ripping I do not rip with the row I use a slight angle. 2-4 degrees. I run the ripper approx 12" deep. The shank is a mrd or 3/4 inch wide shank.

You ask if the neighbors or not till no they are not, Chisel corn stalks and either chisel of vt disk the beans stubble. That seems to be a common practice around here.

I do not have any pictures of corn roots are beans roots I will try to get some soon. So you can see what they look like.

I have a copy of the DVD. That is what has peaked my interest. I hope to get to see a curse buster in the field this fall.

Dyke

[Jim Martindale]

Dyke.
So I think I can assume that the ripper is leaving the field pretty flat and the residue largely on the surface and relatively undisturbed. It this is the case then I suspect that the root system is going to show us something significant. I'll be most interested in your pics of them.
I think the neighbors who are upgrade from you are definitely causing extra run-off issues for you when they are running the VT Discer. These tools never get deep enough to disrupt the silt or machine made compaction layers so that water will move rapidly through the plowlayer. In fact I suspect quite the opposite is taking place. Do you much evidence of the bean residue moving toward the road ditches and your shared field boundaries?

I might be able to help guide you to a location to observe a CurseBuster this fall near East central IA at Keota or west central IN at Linden. Which is better for you? Some in Wisconsin too but way up north or way east near Oshkosh. and a bunch in Western Ontario Canada.