The wrong herbicide used at the wrong time, or impacted by the wrong environmental conditions, can limit — or even destroy — a costly cover crop seeding.
Sometimes cover crops fail. This is especially true as no-tillers navigate the trial-and-error years of determining what species, seeding methods and timings work in their region and on their farm.
In South Central Washington, you'll find one of the driest wheat-growing regions in the entire world. Receiving only 6-8 inches of rain per year, many farmers in this area rely on no-till to conserve water, maximize yields and earn better profits.
This year, we had a slow soybean planting due to high rainfall in June. This was followed by below normal temperature for the whole growing season, which delayed soybean growth and development of this major summer crop.
Protective residue, proper soil management and a better understanding of how plants use water could help no-tillers and strip-tillers survive today’s extreme weather patterns.
Continuous no-till is an uncommon practice in southeast Kansas, where tight clay soils can hinder nutrient distribution and the growing environment causes rapid breakdown of residue.
Properly applied fall burndown herbicides can control quick-hitting winter annuals and provide some residual protection, making for cleaner no-till fields ahead of planting next spring.
Due to some late-summer rainfall and an early harvest this year in many states, no-tillers who aren’t seeding cover crops may want to beef up their fall weed-control program to help keep fields clean for next year.
After years of helping countless farmers make a lot of money, I finally decided to try and make a go of it myself. In 2007 I bought 7,000 acres of farmable ground in northeast Morawa, Australia, and am now officially a no-till farmer and consultant.
Source: USDA, Journal of Soil and Water Conservation
Wheat farmers in eastern Oregon and Washington who use no-till production systems can substantially stem soil erosion and enhance efforts to protect water quality, according to research by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists.
Source: By Jason Warren, Oklahoma State University
Terraces are protective infrastructure that should be maintained regardless of tillage, because they provide a layer of protection from large rainfall events.
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On this episode of Conservation Ag Update, brought to you by Martin-Till, find out how several no-tillers are handling a wet month across parts of the Corn Belt. Central Illinois no-tiller Dave Brown is patiently waiting for Mother Nature to cooperate before he can finish up planting several hundred acres, while Wisconsin no-tiller Tyler Troiola deals with a tractor glitch and a 2-inch rain event in one day.
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