D6-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 5, 1994
To Chop Or
UNIVERSITY PARK, (Centre
Co.) Now is the time when farm
ers are considering options for
postharvest management of leftover
cornstalks and other crop residue.
And the question many are asking
is, ‘To chop or not to chop?”
Before deciding whether to chop
cornstalks or leave them intact, sev
eral factors should be considered,
said Lynn Hoffman, senior research
associate in Penn State’s College of
Agricultural Sciences.
Proper management of crop
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the American Dairy Association
and Dairy Council, Inc. (ADADC).
College students pursuing de
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ing New York, northern New Jersey
and northeastern Pennsylvania, are
eligible.
The Leo Briggs Memorial
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The applicant must have completed
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must be pursuing a career in dairy
Not To Chop? It’s The Question For Residue Management
residue has become widely accept
ed as a means to reduce soil erosion.
To keep as much residue as possible
on fields, Hoffman generally rec
ommends leaving cornstalks alone.
If chopped he says, the smaller
pieces may be blown or washed
away by wind or rain.
But there are circumstances in
which chopping may be the best
option. “If you plan to use sec
ondary tillage equipment, such as a
field cultivator or harrow, after
product marketing, dairy manufac
turing, home economics, ag com
munications, or journalism.
The scholarship is offered in
memory of several ADADC staff
and board members for their contri
butions to dairy promotion.
Both college scholarships are
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planting in the spring, you’ll proba
bly want to chop the cornstalks,”
Hoffman said.
“A lot of secondary tillage tools
don’t have enough clearance to
allow those uncut stalks to pass
through without plugging up the
machinery. But if the stalks won’t
present a problem with secondary
tillage, I’d recommend you leave
them alone.”
If you use a corn-picker to har
vest your com, cutting the stalks
also might help to distribute the
based on grade point average,
extracurricular activities, future
plans, and a 400-word essay dis
cussing the applicant’s commitment
to a career in the dairy industry.
Application deadline for both schol
arships is Wednesday, Nov. 30.
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material more uniformly over the
field. “But if you use a combine,”
said Hoffman, “it usually will shred
the stalks enough to give you rea
sonably uniform distribution with
out chopping them.”
Some farmers who chop their
cornstalks in the fall perform some
type of tillage operation to partially
cover the cut stalks and keep them
in place. But Hoffman says there
are risks in that practice. “You have
to be careful that you don’t violate
the conservation plan assigned to
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the farm or to that particular field,”
he said. “You have to be aware of
and follow normal erosion control
measures.”
Hoffman says some farmers
chop cornstalks thinking that it will
help control insects, such as corn
borers. But he says that’s not neces
sarily true. “We’ve never been able
to demonstrate that chopping the
stalks reduces the number of insects
enough to have an effect on next
year’s production.”
If you plan to use a no-till drill to
plant alfalfa or oats in the early
spring, then you are better off not
cutting leftover cornstalks, accord
ing to Hoffman. “When there’s still
a little frost and the stalks are stuck
fast to the ground, you get less plug
ging of the grain drill when the
stalks are left intact,” he said.
For additional information on
managing crop residue, contact the
Penn State Cooperative Extension
office in your county.
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