Ultradog: As for what you can buy that will help. Gypsum will help with the soil structure. Plus the type we get from out at Fort Dodge, Iowa has a fair amount of sulfur in it. This is NOT dry wall gypsum. That has been processed and does NOT work for building ground. It actually binds the nutrients in the soil.
The bulk gypsum is around $100 a ton here. 500 pound to the acres is good shot. So it is not too bad in price.
You really need to have a soil test done. That will give you a base line on where your at and where you need to go.
I disagree with coonie minnie on notil in this type of soil. The cover crops will not even grow in this tight type of soils until you get some nutrients incorporated into the soil. In more of a loam soil the notil he talks about will work.
I have seen notil tried in the type of soil your talking about. The PH is in levels in the ground. The tow few inches will have nutrients in it but under that there is not much movement. notil depends on the root system of a plant to move the nutrients down into the root zone as they decay. When you do not have root down then it does not work.
I have done this type of rebuild on several different type of ground. Two of these where old railroad beds and the others where old road beds. I actually DEEP ripped them first and then disk in lime, fertilizer and manure. Sowed a cover crop and then plowed them under. By plowing I was able to mix the nutrients into the top 6-8 inches of the soil. After doing this a few times then the plants started to go deeper into the soil. Then something like the turnips or radishes for a cover would work.
I do not think you have the equipment to deep rip that is way I said to moldboard it.
I no tilled for ten straight years, 100%. My yields never where what they should have been. Especially in the more tight clay soils. I went back to a reduced tillage and some notil an my yields JUMPED up in the FIRST year. I have found you need pretty good ground to make pure notil work with corn.
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