Strip Tillage of Vegetables with Livestock Integration: Eric Williamson Video

This video features Eric Williamson of Williamson Farms Inc. near Quincy, Washington, describing how his family’s irrigated vegetable farm shifted from conventional tillage to strip tillage and direct seeding to reduce soil loss and crop damage from high winds and blowing sand. Williamson explains that the farm strip tills sweet corn, lima beans, edamame, and canola, while direct seeding green peas into previous cover crop residue. He describes how residue cover reduces the need to irrigate ahead of windstorms, protects young crops from sand damage, and has not reduced yields compared with conventional tillage.

The video also highlights how strip tillage has created new opportunities, including faster field turnaround and double cropping peas and corn in a single growing season. Williamson explains how integrating beef cattle helps use vegetable residues as feed, creates another marketable product, reduces residue loads before future strip-tillage operations, and supports the farm’s broader high-residue system. He also discusses using aged feedlot manure before potato rotations to add phosphorus, potassium, and organic matter. Together, these practices have increased soil organic matter, improved water-holding capacity, reduced erosion risk, and improved irrigation management.