How often do you subsoil?

I have a rotation of two years corn, one year soy beans. I subsoil my bean stubble, so each field gets sub soiled every three years. Some say that's too often, some say not often enough. What do you think?
(My hardpan averages 8", so I sub soil at 12".)

Switched to no-till don't need to subsoil.Even on my tuffest jumbo I get better yields.

Your hardpan may soon be at 12". Tillage destroys organic matter.

Annually. Houston Black Clay has no memory. On destroying organic matter I find that a confusing statement. If you are talking about removing topsoil, subsoiling has little to do with it. On conserving water and nutrients, especially on my hilly soil, using contour plowing techniques which I see a lot of folks don't practice, it has a profound effect.

Mark

I see different techniques in different parts of the country. No till or low till is dominate in Iowa, but I do see sub soiling on the end rows quite often.

Depends on the soil.

When I was farming our family farm, I chiseled half the farm every fall, so the entire farm got chiseled every two years. This is river bottom ground prone to compaction. My theory was if the soil is loosened up, moisture will soak down deeper and then if you get a dry spell the soil will be loose and plant's roots will be easily able to grow downward to seek moisture.

When I quit farming and leased the farm ground to a friend on shares, he was enamored with no-till and refused to chisel, on the theory that the more often you opened the ground, the more moisture you lost.

We got into a big argument about it after a couple of years. I told him, "Let's try an experiment. Make two rounds with a chisel plow across the middle of one field. Then next summer we'll see if we can notice a difference". He refused to do even that.

I then told him I'd cash rent it to him and he could do whatever the hell he wanted with it. So we did.

One fall four or five years later, with no further conversation, he suddenly chiseled the entire farm, and then went onto my rotation.

The bottom line is, there's no "one size fits all". You need to know your own soil and what works.

In my loam,, every 5 years,,

in my sugar sand, never,

in my red concrete clay, every year or nothing grows,, not even weeds.

With my rotation I do it 2 out of three years. So. central Mn. Really makes a difference in water holding capacity of my ground. We have been in near drought conditions for last 4 years. It is not beneficial in wet years.