 This is the Sugar Beet Report bringing you the latest information from NDSU throughout the Sugar Beet growing season. Today we're talking about Spring Tillage with Joe Hastings, agronomist for the American Crystal Sugar Cooperative. Joe's Sugar Beet planting is right around the corner and you're here to talk about Spring Tillage. What is the goal of Spring Tillage? Well, Spring Tillage is the mechanical manipulation of soil for the purpose of growing a crop and I will say it is as much of an art as it is a science just to get it right. And for Sugar Beets we're only tilling about three inches deep in the soil surface with the goal of having a firm uniform seed bed to create good seed and soil contact to promote even rapid germination and emergence. So having a uniform seed bed helps the planter work better and facilitates that consistent seed placement in both depth and spacing. And for Sugar Beets we're looking for that depth to be about one inch deep and four and a half to four and three quarters inches wide. What are some other things Spring Tillage does? Well, it helps to incorporate residue from the previous crop. It also incorporates fertilizer for this year's crop. You might have some soil plated herbicides out there so it can distribute those. It also can help incorporate a spring seeded cover crop. Another aspect it does is it controls the merged weeds by cutting them off. And this is extremely beneficial for early emerging weeds like kosha, common lambscorter, and ragweed. And I'd say a shovel tape implement kind of can do that better because it has that horizontal cutting effect versus a vertical tillage which is more up and down. It doesn't have that cutting effect. So there you might need an application of grimox when a roundup ahead of time to finish them off. Tillage can also help warm up the soil. It also helps speed up germination and emergence as well. At what temperature can Sugar Beets germinate? 38 degrees Fahrenheit in soil temp is when we'll start seeing them start to sprout and germinate. Of course, the warmer it is, the faster they start to respond, the faster they germinate and start to emerge. So an example would be at 52 degrees. We might see those Beets come out of the ground in 7 to 12 days. What tillage tools do growers use in the Spring? That can be dependent on the field conditions based on the soil type, soil moisture, maybe what was the previous crop, etc. The main thing is growers need to be flexible and pick the right tool for the field conditions. And most growers have multiple options when they're looking at those tillage tools. They have at their disposal that they can choose to do it right. They don't use every one, but they pick the right one or combination to get that done. So this could be a cultivator with a harrow, maybe a triple K with Danish tines and rolling baskets, a multi-weeder, refreshing strip till strips, vertical tillage, etc. And they all can be followed with a pack or a pack or harrow to help facilitate that firm seed bed. Well, sugar beets love a long growing season and having that correct soil tillage preparation is critical for them to capitalize on getting in the ground as fast and also in the right condition for rapid emergence. What are some things to look out for with Spring tillage? Well, our Red River Valley soils have extremely high clay content in them, so you really only have one chance to get it done right. So if it's too wet, if you go in there too early, it can create little pebbles, you know, almost like a gravelly seed bed, which isn't good for seed to soil content. Patience is really required in those situations. What you might see growers do is go out there with a very, very light tillage application to crack that soil open, let it dry off or gray off about a day, let it lay and then come back in and do another tillage pass and then start planting. Conversely, if it's a dry spring, it's very important for that tillage equipment just to stay right ahead of the planter because we want to maintain that soil moisture. We want to be right behind it with the planter just to capitalize and get the seeds germinated as quickly as possible so we don't dry out the ground too much. Thanks, Joe. Our guest has been Joe Hastings, agronomist for the American Crystal Sugar Cooperative. This has been the SugarBeat Report, bringing you the latest information from NDSU throughout the SugarBeat growing season.