This is the sugar beet report, bringing you the latest information from NDSU throughout the sugar beet growing season. Strip till or not to strip till? This is the question today as we explore the good and bad of each. Here to guide us is Lindsey Pease, nutrient and water management extension specialist with University of Minnesota and Northwest Research and Outreach Center in Crookston, Minnesota. Lindsey, what are the pros and cons of strip till?

With any crop, but especially with sugar beets, one of the big pros of strip till is you are still creating a tillage pass to get really good seed soil contact, but you are leaving the spaces in between the rows untouched. That creates some soil stability. And, you know, when we think about soil erosion, having more structure, you know, in between the rows can really be beneficial from that soil health standpoint, you know, building those systems up and trying to, you know, make those soils resilient. If you're only doing a tillage pass right where you need it, applying the seed, and actually applying your phosphorus if you're doing, in furrow applications, you know, those can all be really big positives. You're getting the fertilizer where you need it. You're still doing the tillage where you need it, but you're also leaving a little bit of that soil structure untouched to help preserve it. Some of the cons, though, it's definitely slower. You're not just sending, you know, a speed disc out to do the whole field. It's a little bit more precise. You've gotta make sure you're getting the tillage in that row. Right? It's just a slower process. We also have been applying fertilizer in our strips too, and that's another process that you do want to be making sure, you know, that you're getting the fertilizer down and and adding that extra component of doing the tillage and the fertilizer at the same time. It's really just slower. It's a slower process and not as easy as broadcasting everything and tilling it in after the fact. I would say that's probably one of the big downsides. The other downside, of course, is weed control. Right? You're not gonna be getting that full scale weed control all across the field. You know, this year, in particular, you know, is a scary year to say less weed control.

You've been doing research on strip till. What have you discovered?

In addition to just figuring out, does this work in the sugar beet growing areas, especially we've been looking at this up in Crookston. In addition to just figuring out, does it work? We've also been trying to look at management aspects of this, you know, especially when you start changing up your tillage practices, you know, how the soil might be functioning. We're also potentially leaving more residue on the soil surface, which, you know, if you think about the microbes in the soil, they need carbon and nitrogen. So you're starting to play around a little bit with the balance of the nutrients that they can access. So we've really been tracking all through the growing season how much nitrogen we're seeing at different points in the growing season. This year, we actually added petiole sampling along with that. So we have some August and September petiole sampling that we are kind of in the process of analyzing. Of course, we don't have yield numbers just yet from this year. But in terms of the nitrogen tracking and what we've been seeing, I think what we are seeing is you get a really big boost of nitrogen early in the growing season in the soils regardless of what management system you're doing, and this we would expect. Right? You've applied your fertilizer in the fall. You're coming in. You're planting the beets, and you are getting these soils all spiking in nitrogen at the right times. And regardless of what tillage system you're using, they draw down pretty evenly. So we don't see any evidence that these sugar beets are short of nitrogen once you reach this time of the growing season. We're hoping to dig into that a little bit more over time, but I would say those are kind of the big picture messages. Some of the trial and error that we've seen with the sugar beets is that probably getting a good sugar beet stand, clearing the ground surface of residue is more important than how much nitrogen you're putting on. And what I mean by that is some of these plots, we had some cover crops with, and some of them we didn't. And those years where the rye got out of control on us and started to overshadow those beets, the sugar beet seedlings had a really hard time recovering if they were kind of covered up by the rye, which makes sense. You know, they need a nice clean seed bed. Definitely term if you're doing a spring cover crop, even a spring oat or a fall rye that you've let over winter, getting those terminated in a timely manner before it has a chance to overcake the sugar meat seedlings is gonna be much more important than how much nitrogen you're putting on.

Lindsey, at this point, what's the big takeaway?

We are seeing that they have the potential to reach equal yield as conventionally tilled beets. And, really, it's that residue management piece that as long as you're keeping those seed row clear, those beets are gonna be okay at the end of the season.

Thanks, Lindsay. Our guest has been Lindsay Pease, nutrient and water management extension specialist with University of Minnesota and Northwest Research and Outreach Center in Crookston, Minnesota. This has been the sugar beet report, bringing you the latest information from NDSU throughout the sugar beet growing season.