Strip-till
Strip-till is a conservation system that uses a minimum tillage. It combines the soil drying and warming benefits of conventional tillage with the soil-protecting advantages of no-till by disturbing only the portion of the soil that is to contain the seed row. This type of tillage is performed with special equipment and can require the farmer to make multiple trips, depending on the strip-till implement used, and field conditions. Each row that has been strip-tilled is usually about eight to ten inches wide. Differences in the equipment used No-till planters have a disk opener and/or Coulter (agriculture) that is located in front of the planting unit. This coulter is designed to cut through crop residue and into the hard crust of the soil. After the coulter has broken through the residue and crust, the disk opener of the planting unit slices the soil and the seed is dropped into the furrow that has been created and then a press wheel closes the furrow. With strip-tillage systems more precision is needed. At the same time the field is strip-tilled, the fertilizer or chemical may be applied. If the meter of the chemical or fertilizer applicator is off slightly, an accurate rate