Tool creates optimal planting zone, applies fertilizer

PEORIA, Ill. — Using a ZoneMaster in the spring will work the ground enough to create a good seed bed while not disturbing the ground more than necessary.

“This equipment is designed for the spring and we only work the ground 1.5 inches deep,” said Mark Slagel, salesman for Vulcan Equipment.

For farmers who have made strips in the fall, the ZoneMaster can be used to dress up those strips. “If you have highly erodible ground you can make strips in the spring with this tool,” Slagel said at a booth during Greater Peoria Farm Show. “There was a farmer here today who quit strip-tilling because he had too much erosion but he was doing the strips in the fall.”

Vulcan Equipment’s ZoneMaster tool is made in Forrest, Illinois. “My brother and I farm and about 13 or 14 years ago we came up with this idea,” Slagel explained. “Then a couple years later a neighbor wanted us to make one.”

In addition to preparing the seed bed, starter fertilizer or liquid fertilizer can also be applied with the ZoneMaster.

“You can get the tool in any size from 6 to 32 rows,” Slagel said. “Our most popular size is 16-row and 24-row is getting a little more popular.”

Farmers started strip-tilling fields quite a few years ago. “It’s really important to get your corn planted where the strip is tilled and that was a lot tougher to do before GPS,” Slagel said. “But because of GPS, it is coming back.”

A lot of no-till farmers, Slagel said, are interested in the ZoneMaster. “Farmers keep planting earlier but if you go out in early April, it’s really hard to get a good seedbed,” he explained. “They can go out in their bean stubble with this tool, till the ground 1.5 inches deep, clean the trash off and the soil warms up enough to get even emergence.”

It is important for farmers to be more aware of conserving the soil, Slagel stressed. “I think we’ll all be strip-tilling some day. We’ve been doing this for quite a few years and our organic matter has increased a lot.”

Slagel, together with his three brothers, farm about 1,800 acres where they grow corn and soybeans. “I am sold on strip-tilling,” he said. “When you go past fields where they have chiseled, there are big frozen clumps of dirt that are chunks of dead soil.”

Last spring, Slagel pulled out a stalk of cover crops from his field. “There was a little ball of dirt and three earthworms,” he recalled. “We didn’t use to see that but now we’re not disturbing their habitat so I get excited because we’ve seen a huge improvement in our soil.”

Slagel also has seen improvements in his crop yields.

“In 2019, we were 40 bushels better in our corn yields according to the FBFM records and last year we were about 25 bushels better than comparable farms,” Slagel said.

“That’s because farmers went out when it was too wet to field cultivate and there were tracks,” he explained. “Those wheel tracks showed up all summer.”

However, with the ZoneMaster, Slagel only worked the ground in the strip 1.5 inches deep. “We’re not packing the soil and we give the soil time to dry out before we plant,” he added. “This year I don’t expect as much of an impact on yields because we weren’t as wet when we went out in the spring.”

For more information about Vulcan Equipment, call 815-688-3051 or go to www.vulcanequip.com.