No-Till Farmer Blog

Here on our farm, we have been blessed with some pretty good weather — except for the May 9 frost and ensuing cold snap. Crops were planted in very good soil conditions and are progressing rapidly. The tallest corn is probably to my shoulders and we had soybeans flowering on June 14.

The last week to 10 days, however, have been a little trying with the rain showers we have been getting. Fortunately, we have missed out on some of the bigger rains (some nearby locations have had 4-to-5-inch rainfall events), but we have had steady rain for the last 5 days of around 1/2 inch per day, including yesterday.

This morning, I went out to look at some fields that we are spraying for a neighbor who conventionally tills. No way could I have sprayed there without making a terrible mess, so I moved on to our no-tilled beans. Still a little sticky on top, but firm.

I sprayed the better part of the day today before we get hit with another week of forecast high winds and daily rain. Meanwhile, the conventional-till guys stayed in the shed or made a mess of their fields. This is a normal thing to happen here.

In general, in the spring, we are a day or two ahead because we can get on the dirt. When it’s time to spray, we go because we have to and we can. Harvest time? No problems.

The moral of the story is, we get more done and utilize our time and equipment more efficiently because of the no-till system. We keep with it and it gets better every year.

Greetings from a soggy Iowa. Our snow cover is basically gone now, with the exception of drifts and piles, and we are anxiously awaiting some fieldwork. We have a couple of new exciting additions this spring.

The first is a new employee. My brother, Brandt, will be joining the farm next week. He has had a desire to join the operation and now seems to be a good time to get him up to speed. The extra help will be greatly appreciated.

The second is the purchase of a Gold Digger tile plow. We know that one of our major limiting factors in yield and profitability is drainage. There were two main reasons driving this purchase. One is the availability of tiling contractors; the other is the cost of tile to our landlords.

Being able to tile on our own schedule and exactly where and how we want it done will be a major advantage. We will also be able to offer land improvement to landlords at a lower cost than hiring it out. This will not only benefit them with the added value to their farms, but it will help us by getting everything that we know good drainage accomplishes.

Like everyone, we are getting equipment ready for the spring season. Planters will be in the shop soon, some fertilizer still needs to be spread and we have about a day and a half of strip-till left. Of course, there is the tiling we want to get started on with no end to the list of “wet spots” to start with.

Good luck to all this spring and please remember to stay safe.

Many of us have just returned from the National No-Tillage conference that was held in Des Moines this year. It was another great meeting put on by Frank, Darrell and the crew.

I try to do two things when going to a meeting or a conference, and I think it’s a good strategy you can employ to make sure you get value from your effort.

1.  Try to learn something new. I can sit at a conference for 3 days and if I bring home one or two new things to try, I figure that is a success. Not every session can be all things to all people. Pick out an idea you think will work for you and run with it. If it works, great; if not, chalk it up to experience and move on to the next experiment.

2. Confirm what you are doing is not crazy. What is great about meetings like the National No-Tillage Conference is that there is bound to be others there that have a similar management program. Find these people and talk about what works, what doesn’t and all the in betweens. It’s the fine tuning that makes our farm better.

Remember, it’s not possible to absorb everything that’s presented at a conference, but coming home with one or two good ideas can really help your no-till system.

Our year started out with very good conditions for our no-till/strip till 0peration. Perfect corn planting conditions were followed by a 4- to 6-inch overnight rain that did a lot of damage to area fields. No-till fields really seemed to take the water much better than our full-tillage neighbors.

The summer was cool, which again set the stage for a later, wetter harvest. It also made for some good corn yields and average bean yields, even with lower-than-normal test weights.

We were thankful to finish in a timely fashion after a very challenging October, and we got most of our strip-tilling done. The rest will have to wait as our first winter storm arrived Tuesday.

On our farm, we do our best to do many side-by-side trials within each field, which we can measure with the yield monitor and later analyze on the computer. These trials show us what works for us in east central Iowa and what to focus on next year to build on our successes.

Things such as nitrogen rate, timing and application techniques; starter fertilizer, planting populations, dry spread formulas, fungicide and insecticide applications; and the list goes on. All of these things make us better at what we do and are easy to do and analyze with today’s technology. At times the cost of these technologies seems a little high, but one good decision based off the facts that we collect can pay for the entire investment.

Good luck to those who are still finishing this year’s field work and be safe.