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“I think that’s where the no-till part has been the biggest change in our operation. Our water-holding capacity is incredible versus what it was 15 years ago.”
-Karl Dirks
Karl Dirks farms about 1,000 acres of Pennsylvania ground near Mount Joy, Pa. He faced better-than-usual precipitation conditions and higher pest pressure to accomplish no-till success. In 2021, Dirks grew a yield of 294.6 bushels per acre, enough to claim second place in the Pennsylvania No-Till Non-Irrigated category for the National Corn Grower’s Association Corn Yield Contest.
Dirks, a past recipient of the Responsible Nutrient Management award, uses networking, data, and many, many trials to push his yields as high as they can go.
Dirks’s story is one of several found in the pages of a new special report “No-Till Corn: Pushing the Boundaries of Yield Potential” issued by No-Till Farmer in October, and included as an insert in the October edition of the magazine, which profiles high-performance no-tillers in the National Corn Growers Association Annual Yield Contest.
Lead Content Editor Brian O'Connor spoke with Dirks about fertility, drainage, seed selection, and more.
No-Till Farmer's podcast series is brought to you by Yetter Farm Equipment.
Yetter Farm Equipment has been providing farmers with residue management, fertilizer placement, and seedbed preparation solutions since 1930. Today, Yetter equipment is your answer for success in the face of ever-changing production agriculture challenges. Yetter offers a full lineup of planter attachments designed to perform in varying planting conditions, multiple options for precision fertilizer placement, strip-till units, and stalk rollers for your combine. Yetter products maximize your inputs, save you time, and deliver return on your investment. Visit them at yetterco.com.
Full Transcript
Brian O'Connor:
Welcome to the No-Till Farmer Podcast, brought to you today by Yetter Farm Equipment. I'm lead content editor, Brian O'Connor. On the podcast this week, we're speaking to Karl Dirks, who finished second in Pennsylvania for the National Corn Growers Association annual yield contest in the no-till, non-irrigated category. Dirks is one of several growers profiled in the No-Till Farmer special report, No-Till Corn: Pushing the Boundaries of Yield Potential, available on our website. Here's my discussion with Karl Dirks.
Karl Dirks:
Yeah, my name is Karl Dirks. I'm associated with Wolgemuth Farview Farms. We're from Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, which is south-central Pennsylvania. We also have a seed business called Lancaster Seed Sales, so we sell corn, beans. We grow our own barley wheat. We have our own brands. Plus, we license for a couple other companies as well, so we grow some AgriGro, some KWS. We have a bunch of varieties of wheat that are our own, that we license. So we grow seed as well as farm.
We used to have layer chickens. It used to be part of our business, a pretty major part of it, until about five years ago. We got out of that, and we still have about 8,000 finishing hogs that we grow, so we're about 15,000, 16,000 finishing hogs annually, so [inaudible 00:01:20]. Our farm is located within the Chesapeake Bay watershed, so we are [inaudible 00:01:25] with the amount of animals we got, so we've got to deal with that as well. We have a history of high fertility and function. Everyone thinks high fertility is great, but it's something we fight, actually, on the other side of it, because we do have some crazy process rates, and stuff like that.
Brian O'Connor:
If I recall correctly, you are the second place finisher for Pennsylvania for no-till?
Karl Dirks:
Yeah, I've had a few seconds, I've had a first. I think we've placed first or second the last four years, but we're all no-till. We've been all no-till for about 15 years now. We are no-tilling for these last 20. Yeah, we've been true no-till for about 15. We also cover every acre. Every acre, we plant a cover crop, usually just a wheat or a barley, and we've found that works really well for us, just to cover it up so we have something there in the spring [inaudible 00:02:18].
Brian O'Connor:
What does your rotation look like?
Karl Dirks:
We grow the same amount of corn and beans. We have a lot of small grain, so about a quarter of an acre every year is small grain, and that's all seed production at this point, so it's split between barley and wheat; mostly wheat. We've got some ground that just isn't suitable for small grain, just the location, and the hills, and stuff, but it is just basically corn and wheat, or corn and beans, or something like that. We're traditionally pretty heavy corn, because we used to grind all our own feed for our chickens, so we used to grow probably 70% corn, and that's changed a little bit in the last few years, but we can typically do pretty good with corn here; full season being a little harder to justify locally, just because we can do that sectioning [inaudible 00:02:59] that we have the small grain. We can do 70 bushels full, so you can go on the back side of that. We can 45 to 55 bushels of other crops behind the barley and wheat. So the numbers in our very specific little region worked out pretty well for us.
Brian O'Connor:
Okay. We're talking about the 2021 crop; I should be clear about that, because the 2022 crop's still in the ground, but what was the key to the high yield that you accomplished?
Karl Dirks:
Yeah, last year, we had a good amount of rain at the right time, which isn't always our case. We tend to get dry over right now, which we are, so we're at end of pollination, and we really haven't seen a significant rain in two weeks, three weeks, and [inaudible 00:03:43] we have ground that was very good; the water-holding capacity was great. It's a plus/minus there, so we barely have any tile. We don't really have anything tiled. We've got limestone about two to three feet below the surface, and it's natural draining.
So our ground has got great fertility, great tests, but it dries out fairly quick, and I think that's where the no-till part has been the biggest change in our operation from 15 years ago. Our water-holding capacity is incredible versus what it was 15 years ago. We can maintain [inaudible 00:04:19] throughout this. I mean, last year, we went through a pretty significant dry spell right around now, and we still had one of the best, well, I think it's our best average on record to the farm.
We had some good rains later, in August, which also brought in some other issues. We saw a significant amount of tar spot for the first time ever. I know Midwest guys have been dealing with that for a while. That's the first touch of it of we've had. We've always dealt with gray leaf, and we get more of the corn [inaudible 00:04:45] four or five ears will get a touch of that. The tar spot came in here and just wreaked havoc last year. It even stopped what we sprayed late, mid-pollination, still had significant issues [inaudible 00:04:56]. I mean, just the lower parts of fields, where it should've been the best yield, got drug back [inaudible 00:05:02].
It was actually interesting, in our [inaudible 00:05:06], where we had that high yield, I was actually pretty disappointed. It should've been better than what it was, because [inaudible 00:05:12] there, and it should've been 27% yield on harvest, and it was 23%, 24%. We were going through there, and the monitor, it's getting three, three and a quarter; "Eh, this looks pretty decent," but it should've been higher, considering some of the averages. We had been pumping some 275, 265 farm averages out, which is good, considering the trees, and all the stuff [inaudible 00:05:33], and [inaudible 00:05:35].
9300? That's great, but it should've been more, and as we've crawled out of the valley, where we have the best soil, and up on top of the hill, the monitor actually went up. We could've ended in the 300s, and I think the reasoning for that is that corn got greener up on top, where it should've been drier. With disease, you can see the fog [inaudible 00:05:54] every morning in August, and that tar spot just took out the bottom of that field, and that's been our big [inaudible 00:06:00] when we grow corn on corn, and even some of the rotating ground. The disease late has been pretty rough, and last year was the worst year we've ever seen.
Brian O'Connor:
Okay. So in other words, if I can summarize, it sounds like you had the right weather at the right time, with the usual amount of, and even slightly higher than average, pest structures. Okay.
Karl Dirks:
Yep.
Brian O'Connor:
All right.
Karl Dirks:
And we've done a lot better job of kind of honing in on our fertility plan. We've honestly backed stuff off pretty significantly, and I had started doing high yield plots, and we started playing around probably six years ago, and the notion is throw more nitrogen on it, and it's going to [inaudible 00:06:40], and that's not the case. I mean, we tested [inaudible 00:06:44], and I think that's one of the biggest [inaudible 00:06:46] of playing with the high yield stuff; we know what it works, but more importantly, we know what doesn't, and we have so many beneficials we get naturally from [inaudible 00:06:56], so most of our ground gets a light coating [inaudible 00:06:58] every year, just to kind of keep [inaudible 00:07:00] and everything else in check.
That kind of ground, we're testing every year or every other year, and we have honed in on the fertility. We actually backed the nitrogen off. We're stopping since we only had about 250 pounds applied [inaudible 00:07:18]. We actually figured out our applied rate versus threshold, the average was we had 0.75 or 0.8 pounds applied per bushel harvested on the average for the farm. The plot was actually very similar to that, and that's impressive, because we've all been taught that 1.1, 1 pound per bushel of grain, and we've gotten significantly below that, and we actually plan on that now.
Some of that has to do with our fertility. I think some of it has to do with no-till. We're not really losing a whole lot of stuff right now, which I have been incredibly happy with. We've taken that down even further. We've started using [inaudible 00:08:01]. We started using some Pivot, and some other products similar to that, and we're just continually trying to pull that back now, especially with the time [inaudible 00:08:10] right now. So I think, yeah, this is probably the lowest year I've ever been a part of. This current year, we'll actually apply it.
Brian O'Connor:
Was it a cost-saving measure, or was it something in the data that you saw that led you to think that this was the right decision to make?
Karl Dirks:
It was domination, and it's always been really easy to just add nitrogen; it's cheap, 30 cents per pound, or whatever it was, and then we're talking $1 plus a pound now, but we saw the data. I mean, we saw it year in and year out. We harvest some pretty high yielding stuff where we shouldn't have been able to, because there wasn't enough nitrogen, and we did it. We thought, "Oh, maybe one year, it was leftover from the year before," but then we did it the following year, and then we did it the following year on some of our ground that is continuous corn year in and year out, and that's kind of where the light clicked on to, "Hey, maybe we can [inaudible 00:09:03] back down," and some of that might have to do with our fertility levels traditionally, and we might get to a point where that starts going the other way.
Brian O'Connor:
What have you learned from doing these kinds of high yield things, and I guess participating in the contest, what have you learned about your crop and land's potential?
Karl Dirks:
We learned a lot about it's more about the starts sometimes than the actual finish. We've learned, and we've learned again this year, that we have to be a little more patient sometimes. We get a tendency to get a little excited to do that stuff, and maybe a little too wet, and our ground is very punishing on that side, and I think no-till is more forgiving than it used to be when we're working ground, but there still is kind of that sweet spot that we need to find, year in and year out, and a better overall balance on fertility has been very important to us.
The last generation, we had [inaudible 00:09:57] as close to the building as you could get it, and the outer lying stuff didn't get it, and I mean, that's us spreading stuff around, and actually pulling fertility back on certain farms has benefited us immensely, and cover crops have been some of that as well. We used deal with a lost of crusting, a lot of hard ground, and compaction, but we've eliminated a fair amount of that. A lot of that is timing, a lot of that is the [inaudible 00:10:24], and it's just the [inaudible 00:10:25] in general, but they've seeded our ground phenomenally well, and I'm not saying it's going to do it everywhere, but our ground set, it works unbelievably well, and it's been the most beneficial thing we've had in farming in the last 25 years, no doubt.
It has allowed us to do things that we didn't dream of, and maintain yields that we didn't think were possible [inaudible 00:10:48]. I mean, a lot of people have viewed this area as always lush and green. We're on the side of the county where we get stiffed on that; we're in a little bit of valley. We tend to get a lot of rain, and that has helped us maintain yields unbelievably well for what we've been through, so...
Brian O'Connor:
So you talked about the sweet spot; do you think that sweet spot varies farm to farm, or is that something that there's a set of practices that they all share? And I guess are there any things, specifically, that you have learned, that could be takeaways for other farms?
Karl Dirks:
Yeah, it varies farm to farm, depending on the soil type. We've got certain soils that we are planting [inaudible 00:11:28]. We've got our heavier plains, and some of our [inaudible 00:11:32] ground, you better stay out of it [inaudible 00:11:34] a bit of a blip on the map. I mean, we had some cold weather early, and we've got some corn out, and I've got some other people, some customers pulling out, that was [inaudible 00:11:47] related. [inaudible 00:11:48]. We've had some stuff that when it warmed up, that it was still too wet, and we had some issues with it. We had some issues with cover crops that got too big because of the spring we had. We couldn't get stuff killed, we couldn't do what we wanted to. That was a really rough balancing act.
We know we should've had maybe another week of patience, but that sweet spot changes year to year for us. I mean, we have years where we average an April 15th planting, we have years where we average a May 15th planting, like this year, and we vary considerably every year. We're waiting until our soil dries out, probably [inaudible 00:12:27], with no-till, versus you used to go work it, and you'd just work it one more time, and it would be fine, it's good, and that's not the case anymore. Having a little bit of patience [inaudible 00:12:37], and controlling our cover crop [inaudible 00:12:40].
We've learned that to be that if we don't get it killed early, we're going to have issues. We tried planting the green in the past. Personally, for us, it doesn't work. There were some other issues. One of our biggest issues is I can't let anything go anywhere close to head, because I can't have a carrier recede for a small grain crop, because we need to maintain purity. So that's been an interesting one for us.
Brian O'Connor:
What's your process on figuring out what to try next?
Karl Dirks:
Ooh, what to try next? Got a lot of friends in the industry that I talk to. I've got a lot of friends that are out of the area, and we talk to, which [inaudible 00:13:15] I realized talking to other farmers has been probably the most beneficial part. Early on, I attended a lot of no-till conferences, when we were really learning about it, and you get a lot of benefits from that. I've learned from the [inaudible 00:13:28] meeting, and I remember 12, 15 years ago [inaudible 00:13:31], and everyone thinks he's just this high-end [inaudible 00:13:34]. He's got some really interesting no-till stuff. He's taught for 15 years, because I remember, I think it was Indianapolis, and we're sitting there, and this guy's talking about putting seed wheat behind 300 bushels of corn stalks, and he was like, "This guy is crazy," but he made it work, and he does a really good job at it.
I mean, it's impressive, and now, even more, I have a fairly large customer base for all the seed stuff we do. We're talking to these guys all throughout the year, and watching different management practices, from your low-end guys to your high-end [inaudible 00:14:08] guys, and watching everything that they do, and pulling little bits and pieces out from everybody, it is very interesting, and I think as farmers, we get a little bit uptight about a lot of that. We're like, "Ah, we don't want to share and build the competition," et cetera, et cetera. They did not have that [inaudible 00:14:23], but it's interesting learning from all your peers, and your friends, and customers in the industry, and just pulling little bits and pieces, because we're in a county in a state that our ground varies drastically from one end to the other.
I mean, we have a completely different soil type than the western side of the county, and the eastern [inaudible 00:14:41], and the southern end, and watching them farm versus how we farm, versus how guys in the north farm in the red mud, it really varies, and pulling a little bit from every one of those has been good. And adding to one of the things I said is, I got caught up in making it a little too complicated, and I have pulled some of that back, so basically, to a certain degree, it does help in all this, and we are very fortunate, where fertility usually isn't our issue. I mean, we can go apply nitrogen [inaudible 00:15:10], and may not do anything else [inaudible 00:15:12].
[inaudible 00:15:12]. There are some complications with that. Because of our [inaudible 00:15:18], and then some of our other stuff, we end up [inaudible 00:15:21]. So finding that balancing act of applying them when needed has been [inaudible 00:15:26], and for me, [inaudible 00:15:27]. I mean, that's still a learning curve for us. Balancing that fertility has been a big curve that we're still getting over, but yeah, learning [inaudible 00:15:40] has been the number one by far, because everyone's got a different idea, and they're not all wrong; I mean, some are, but there's a lot of right in there. It's just a matter of letting people [inaudible 00:15:53].
Brian O'Connor:
Kind of what to keep and what to leave, basically, it sounds like.
Karl Dirks:
Yeah, and I go through planter attachments, too. We've built our own. I mean, the couple we've tried, everyone was all planters 15 years ago, [inaudible 00:16:11], but they were bad, and then we figured out in our ground, [inaudible 00:16:16] the greatest thing in the world. They were, but they can't be unit-mounted; they got to be frame-mounted. So we got custom-built frame-mounted planters, and we ended up building frames for the [inaudible 00:16:27] on front, for the planter we had, and I think I've built, I don't know, I got 20, 25 planters out there for people I know, and we work with the local dealership, where we actually build parts for now, because they are adapted better to our climate, that no one else builds for us, so we get out and build it ourself.
Stuff like that has been part of the journey, too, and understanding that we are in a unique area. Really, every area is unique. We can't just lump them all into one; we're going to [inaudible 00:16:59], but going through all those steps, and modifying the little things every year. We used to modify big things every year, and the jobs were too big. Little steps or changes year to year [inaudible 00:17:16] something else has been big for us, and that's how we've grown the most. I will say, [inaudible 00:17:23], we do a lot of trials; an insane amount of trials. When you're growing 600 acres of corn a year, and I don't have a field without trialing it.
I mean, we do lot of variety trials, as far as our seed corn. We do a lot of side-by-sides. We do a tremendous amount of variable rate trials; we've done that for years. We're honing in on that. We're planting all our corn at a variable rate at this point. We're starting to look at variable rate fertility trials, looking at biological versus synthetic nitrogen trials. We've got fungicide trials. We've got started trials. The starter hasn't been a big thing around here, but we're starting to look at that again. So we're looking at everything every year, and making little adjustments along the way. With a couple planter passers and a couple of sprayer passes here and there, we can learn a lot for us, and what the paybacks are on it.
Brian O'Connor:
In the last three years, what have you most pushed the envelope on? What are you looking at for the biggest changes?
Karl Dirks:
Last three years? Honing in on nitrogen rate is probably the number one, figuring that out. When we [inaudible 00:18:36] variable rate, that was a process, and we collected data from the earth to figure that out, and we kind of looked at different programs, and that has helped. I mean, it's not a lot. I mean, it's six, seven bushels, but that's six, seven bushels we didn't have before.
Brian O'Connor:
Right.
Karl Dirks:
And then we kind of decide plant health. We grow way too much corn around here, and everyone else does, too, and fungicides have been probably our biggest gain. I mean, last year, we were seeing 30 bushels of corn on corn, and we were seeing 15 rotated; we had never seen that before. And that's a Hail Mary sometimes, because you look at our fields now, we're clean, and we shouldn't be spraying right now, and we are. The problem is, stuff looks too clean, and then in three weeks, it can go very, very different, and then it's too late, but yeah, I've seen those three, honing in nitrogen, [inaudible 00:19:31] population, and then fungicide, and even properly placed [inaudible 00:19:37]. I do that so much with the business side of things, but I don't really think about it anymore.
And that has been [inaudible 00:19:46] biggest [inaudible 00:19:47] when you do your own research, and that's what I recommend to guys. If you don't have a guy to trust to recommend where to put stuff, you need to figure that out on your own, because guessing on that can cost you more than anything else. Now, we've seen some crazy [inaudible 00:20:05], 30, 40, 50 bushels hybrid-to-hybrid, and that shouldn't have been there. That was a matter of recommendation. You can have one of them, but when you have four or five of them on a farm, you'll have some pretty big issues.
Brian O'Connor:
We'll get back to my discussion with no-tiller Karl Dirks in a moment. First, I want to thank our sponsor, Yetter Farm Equipment. Yetter Farm Equipment is your answer for success in the face of ever-changing production agriculture challenges. Yetter offers a full lineup of planter attachments designed to perform in varying planting conditions. Yetter products maximize your inputs, save you time, and deliver return on your investment. Visit them at YetterCo.com. And now, back to my conversation with Karl.
You talked a little bit about custom-making your own equipment. What other equipment changes or set ups have you tried, and I guess I'm looking particularly in the context of the 2021 crop? Was there anything you tried differently, or that was a little bit outside the unusual for you?
Karl Dirks:
No. I would say that one, we were about the same, and that was the first year we had put a yield plot field with variable rate. We'd always just straight seeded it, figuring we can just feed it so hard we don't care about the varied population. We did VRQ that one. I may have stepped it up a little bit, but we did variable rate that one, but now our planning, and set up, and equipment has been pretty consistent the last three or four years here. We've kind of found our sweet spot, and really haven't changed much. We've done really good.
Yeah, going forward, our setup now, we've put a starter back on the planter. We just did our nitrogen out the back and the side, and that was for the purpose of mainly putting biological down. We're running mostly water as a carrier, but trying to balance its fertility out now, it can form to nitrogen [inaudible 00:22:15] at finding out.
Brian O'Connor:
Got it. So more on the fertility element; less, maybe, on the equipment variability. I mean, do you feel with okay with? You're kind of dialed in?
Karl Dirks:
Yeah. Okay.
Brian O'Connor:
Have you tried anything, in the past or recently, that was a complete and utter failure, and why?
Karl Dirks:
[inaudible 00:22:36] fertility [inaudible 00:22:40] application on some nutrients. We spent a lot of money on some pretty expensive stuff one year, and we didn't get nothing out of it. Our yield check trials were crap. I mean, we had $80, $90 bucks an acre [inaudible 00:22:53], and it did absolutely nothing for us.
Brian O'Connor:
Yeah.
Karl Dirks:
Same product on a friend of mine's farm gave an unbelievable return, but again, that's balancing fertility, one farm to another, and I've got ground where it probably would've made a crazy difference, but around here? No. So yeah, we've done that. It was a sore subject for a little bit. We thought we could really do stuff. We bought a dry applicator, and it was a vegetable market tool; actually, the old John Deere planter boxes, where the dry fertilizer would come out. We bought a four-wheel version of that so we could spoon-feed corn when it was [inaudible 00:23:33].
We thought we could get a boost from dry fertilizer end of season. We didn't get squat out of it, and I have no problem admitting that. That was another failure, and I got a pretty good equipment investment in that one, but I was convinced in my head this was going to be the greatest thing in the world, but it did not work. [inaudible 00:23:51] just started. [inaudible 00:23:53].
Brian O'Connor:
I can tell you about a Pontiac car that I bought one time, so...
Karl Dirks:
Yeah. We [inaudible 00:24:01] two years in a row and get nothing, but a cool idea. It didn't work, and we have no problem admitting that. Fertility has been some of our biggest [inaudible 00:24:09]. We're just thinking, "Hey, if we put one more thing on, or getting something like that, we can just go nuts," and it hasn't worked, but [inaudible 00:24:20], and then we're going to do it again, I can guarantee it. We'll come up with something that will work, and I think that's the greatest payout, but I mean, that's [inaudible 00:24:32]. Don't always jump on the next bandwagon, don't always believe what your [inaudible 00:24:36], or your corn seeds, or someone tries to sell you [inaudible 00:24:39] right after it. It might work somewhere. It might not work on your farm, but the only person that can really figure that out is you, and that's been a hard lesson to learn.
I've figured that out now, 15 years into my farming career, and when I was 20, man, you could tell me anything, and I was going to try it, and buy it, and this corn looked really good, and then that was a hard time for me, because we got it in the biological market [inaudible 00:25:06] something revealing, and that was a really hard pill to swallow, because I've been burned so many times, and then we found something we believed in, and then we're looking at it, and we'll be honest about it, and we'll do third party, a lot of research, and stuff like that, and it's a tough one [inaudible 00:25:26]. We've been burned, and we've had successes, but yeah, there's a lot of stuff on the market that might be good for somebody, but it might not work for you, and that might have to do your climate, or your soil type, or rainfall, or whatever, but those are the biggest fails, definitely fertility.
Brian O'Connor:
What year, specifically, did you get into no-till, and how did you get into it, and how'd you learn the system? I mean, is it something that was handed down to you, or do you make the switch yourself?
Karl Dirks:
Yeah, to a certain degree. So somewhat, you need farmer [inaudible 00:26:00] first-generation, technically, but I work with a family that's fourth or fifth generation, and they've down their whole farm for, what, 125 years now? So I work with a family, and it's an interesting [inaudible 00:26:13], because I work for the father, and his son, which is about five years younger than me, has come back in the business, and we've worked together. We have one farm together, and I have my business, they have their business, and we all kind of work together, so my farm, including with them, started when I was about 20. I mean, that was my real first introduction in no-till, and seeing some in the Midwest.
I had worked in Western Kansas for about two years in the dry plains, and they tinkered with no-till out there. Certain parts, you would get a lot of corn and a lot wheat no-till. So I had gotten the concept there, and it was pretty neat, because at where I had came from before, it was just solid hard ground. I mean, [inaudible 00:26:56], and when I came here, we were in a transition phase from fully working around the no-till, and I remember the first year I worked here, everybody, I'd say probably 75% no-till for about 4 or 5 years, and the first year I worked here, it was the year that we got 6 or 7 [inaudible 00:27:19], back in '05, '06, maybe. '06, and I remember the first year I was here, we were like, "You know what?" He was like, "I don't trust [inaudible 00:27:31], so we're just going to go work the snot out of [inaudible 00:27:32]."
We got the [inaudible 00:27:32], we got the [inaudible 00:27:32], we [inaudible 00:27:32], and I was 20, and I liked riding the equipment. It was the greatest day of my life, [inaudible 00:27:40], and we got dry, and man, did we [inaudible 00:27:46]. It was bad, and that was the last we really worked with a significant amount of dirt, and after that, we got into no-till, and that's when kind of my level of cropping, it kind of stepped over my level of equipment. As I followed the year through, I started to get making some of those decisions on planting, and harvesting, and everything else, but it became a bit of a competition within myself.
I mean, we watched the news. I mean, it was a big success, and some great crops. So we started making small adjustments; adjustments to the planter, and buying a new sprayer, and then better weed control. We started looking at hybrid placement a little more, and that's about the time we also started looking at cover crops. We are somewhat hilly, not crazy, but our ground is mostly [inaudible 00:28:38]. Anyway. Hey, we got gutters, and we should have some little waterways, and stuff like that, and we started putting a cover crop down. We got a bigger drill, so we have the ability to cover crop all the acres in a hurry. We bought a new corn planter, and we made some adjustments to that. With [inaudible 00:28:57], we learned what didn't work.
We removed a couple things, and we had tremendous issues for a few years, got rid of that one, got another one. Built some attachments for that that worked a lot better, and then we went away from it. A couple years when we had [inaudible 00:29:13] planter, too, we put way too much fertilizer up front, and were losing it throughout the year, and we made some adjustments, and we got a new sprayer, we started side-dressing a lot more. Traditionally, around here 20 years ago, there was a pretty good amount of anhydrous nitrogen. Locally, anhydrous does not exist. [inaudible 00:29:34]. We really haven't seen any significant use in like 10 years now.
Brian O'Connor:
If I might ask, what's the cause there? I know some guys won't use it because they say it's the most harmful chemical that you can put on for biology, basically; you're killing it-
Karl Dirks:
The structure, mostly.
Brian O'Connor:
Okay.
Karl Dirks:
It just doesn't. There is basically no infrastructure happening, and there is no new investment in it. The other stuff, for us, is just too easy to use, but yeah, I don't know any anhydrous anywhere close to [inaudible 00:30:10] in Maryland on the shore. There is not, unless I don't know all of it, but they're pretty much... We're almost all liquid at this point; maybe a little bit of [inaudible 00:30:20], but yeah, it was more an infrastructure thing. It's such a thing to deal with, and they're working the grounds, kind of, as in add that one away, but it wasn't needed. That's kind of the reason anhydrous [inaudible 00:30:33].
Brian O'Connor:
What are you going to try next, 2023, 2024? Any big plans or things you're looking at?
Karl Dirks:
Biological, a little bit more of that; kind of figuring that fertility question out. Equipment-wise, we're looking at [inaudible 00:30:55]. I mean, our equipment had pretty much flat-lined for the last little bit. I mean, we're going to keep honing in on that variable rate part. I can't think what else. We're pretty content at that point. I don't really see any major changes coming [inaudible 00:31:17]. We're going to figure it out, what works for our area, and it's really hard to change the map now. I'm not saying we shouldn't, but we've really gotten pretty good with that. Fungicide use, looking at that a little more. We're doing a lot, and that's a little scary to me, because we are doing so much to maintain a property. There are ways to kind of change that, and I don't know if those answers are here yet; I hope they're coming, because we're using a lot of fungicide right now.
Brian O'Connor:
Well, and the other thing, too, I've heard, now that there's a fungicide resistance out there that's starting to creep in, in some places, so...
Karl Dirks:
Yeah, I heard. I haven't seen it in person yet, but I mean, we got corn, and our corn and wheat are both getting two shots [inaudible 00:32:05] best way to receive treatments and stuff. We're assuming you've still avoided that, and we tried [inaudible 00:32:12], but it didn't get much of a response, and we've done pretty good ever since. We had fortune on that front, but yeah, I'd say fertility is where we're really honing in on stuff. Currently, we have [inaudible 00:32:23] right now. Currently. [inaudible 00:32:24] I'd like to meet, and we'll get to the point where we have variable down pressure.
I mean, we're still just [inaudible 00:32:36]. I'd like to get [inaudible 00:32:40] control. [inaudible 00:32:41]; we just haven't made an investment yet, because this side of the farm, it's a bit of a platform as well, but we're getting there. [inaudible 00:32:48] probably the variable rate of fertility with that thing, which kind of [inaudible 00:32:55]. I haven't found a good [inaudible 00:32:55] that I like for it to be justifiable [inaudible 00:32:57] some of that data collection through all of this, because you need [inaudible 00:33:02] all the data you've seen. [inaudible 00:33:02].
Brian O'Connor:
What do you do that's unique from other no-tillers, I guess, especially in your area? Who looks to planting seeds, sampling tissue, soil? you mentioned biologicals. Did you use Y-drops? What are some techniques that you apply that kind of make you stand out a little bit?
Karl Dirks:
We do a lot of tassel applications of fungicides, mostly because we have a sprayer that's capable of doing it, and not a lot of people do. We adapted that like 10 years ago, and we've had very good luck with that. [inaudible 00:33:34]. What else makes us unique? That's a good question. We all kind of farm the same, to be honest. We're very fortunate and blessed that we do have big enough equipment to get stuff done in a really big hurry. [inaudible 00:33:51]. A lot of [inaudible 00:33:54] we can get done in a week with most of our stuff. We [inaudible 00:33:59]; I have no problem admitting that. I mean, we have built ourselves to the point where we can do the equipment side of things in a really big hurry, and not all that is crop-based either, right? It's more time management to do the other side of the business.
Because of where we live, and our land situation, [inaudible 00:34:21] is not that great of a payback, so we have all of these side businesses to keep the farm going. So our time and priority, in all honestly, is really usually in the [inaudible 00:34:32], or something like that, and farming, a lot of times, gets chucked to the side, but the faster we can get it done is a benefit to us in a couple different ways; some of it so we can actually get our work done, or it could be home, or getting between those weather patterns that keep us out, because we get some of the nation's highest [inaudible 00:34:53], and that's a tough one to deal with, so...
Brian O'Connor:
You mentioned biologicals; you mentioned Pivot, in particular. Are there any others that you're trying? Do you care to give a list of what and how much you use?
Karl Dirks:
Yeah, so Pivot's been the number one [inaudible 00:35:13], so that's a pretty easy one to pick for me. [inaudible 00:35:18] believe in it. I had some rather good luck with it, and the drone casting we had done this year was phenomenal. The thing that excites me about it is it's [inaudible 00:35:30] like this, and as much as we all hate these high nitrogen prices and drill prices; they suck, don't get me wrong, I'm as pissed off as the next guy; it is going to help us in the long run, I believe. It makes us all [inaudible 00:35:43]. We can really get stuff like this. Some guys are going to cut corners, but a lot of guys are going to figure out [inaudible 00:35:50].
So as much as nitrogen prices suck, they do make us better managers in the end, and I really truly do believe that, and I'm not an environmentalist; I'm not going to go hug a tree or anything, but I do believe that the goal is to leave farming better than I found it, and no-till has been one of those things, and I think the next step, really, for all of us, is the fertility, as we are, especially here, being scrutinized in the Chesapeake Bay, and I do believe a lot of that is we're getting blamed for stuff that urban sprawling is much more to blame than what a farmer is. It's still something we need to deal with, and we are accountable for, and I think as we find replacements for synthetic nitrogen, it can be beneficial in a lot of different ways. It just costs. If we can get away from the cost of synthetic-
It'd be great; infrastructure. I don't know a farmer that likes to haul liquid nitrogen or dry fertilizer; it is miserable in all shapes, ways, and forms. It's miserable on equipment, it's sticky, it's not fun, it's corrosive. If I could eliminate that tomorrow from my operation, I'd be smiling ear to ear, because it sucks.
And you look at companies like a Pivot, or some other ones that I can't name right off the top of my head, but if we can develop the technology to reduce, or possibly even eliminate synthetic nitrogen, it's a win-win for everybody.
We'd look better as a farming community. We've done something to help the environment, and we get a lot of bad press at this point for greenhouse gas emissions, carbon, everything. A lot of that is very undeserved, and we've been the scapegoat just because we're easy to look at. It's not the mom sitting at Starbucks in line for 20 minutes to get her coffee; it's some guy growing your food, and he's the jerk, and I've got a big problem with that, and I'm not a real vocal one. I'm not the guy getting on social media and talking about it, but I think that leading by action is also important, but the biological thing, I think that's where we can really change the way we farm, and how agriculture is viewed, as well, and I'm hoping that this is the next step, and that this pushes us over to kind of the next step of things, and [inaudible 00:38:21] modifications are going to be huge, too.
I know that's scrutinized a lot, but you look at it, and you talk to some of the scientists, and the experts; there's a lot of modifications we can do within the plant that are going to help us be more efficient with nitrogen, and be more pest-resistant, and use less pesticides, and all that stuff. That's going to be huge, and a lot of that, it's all going to come from science, and I think being on the cutting edge, and being willing to try a couple of new things every year is very important for everyone's operation, and like I said, use it on a small percentage; don't just blanket the whole farm; figure out what works for you before you get there.
Brian O'Connor:
How do you select your hybrids?
Karl Dirks:
Ooh. We-
Brian O'Connor:
I would imagine you've got an inside track on this because you deal seeds, too.
Karl Dirks:
Yeah. Yeah, so we deal with three out of the four main genetics suppliers in the country, and we deal with a lot of stuff. We look at recommendations from the agronomist, and say, "Hey, these are the 20 things we think that are going to work," so we go test plot it the first year, and we probably take five of them home a year; we're going to cut that down by a quarter. Once we get to that point, we're going to throw some [inaudible 00:39:39] around and say, "Hey, this is the next thing. Let's try it." For us, personally, we do a lot of side-by-sides, and how that works is we have a 16-row planter, we are harvesting with an 8-row corn head, and we split that planter everywhere we can, and we do that with our own stuff, we do that with competitors, because I believe you need to know as much about your competition as you know about yourself. I forget what my total hybrid count was. I think we've got 30, 35 hybrids on the farm this year.
Brian O'Connor:
Wow.
Karl Dirks:
Some of them only have a percentage or two of the farm, but they're there. A lot of test plots, kind of looking at lineage, too, you kind of know a hybrid's going to be yay or nay before you really even put it in the field sometimes. Getting to know the agronomists that are in charge of all this stuff is important for us, and looking not only at yields for us, but stress tolerance our bigger factor for us. "Is this thing going to handle stress?" Because we've got a hybrid or two that I'll openly admit could be the best thing two out of five years, and it could be the worst thing three out of five, and that's where we are very cautious, because I have learned one hybrid placement that's wrong will get you kicked off of a farm, and making sound decisions has been pretty big. The fact that we touch everything before we ever ship it out; there's nothing I'm going to sell you that I probably haven't grown, or understand, or have seen on another farm that I really trust. So just continual testing has been huge for us.
Brian O'Connor:
How many acres are in the high yields management program, versus other acres that are in the regular? And this question is important because a lot of people, when they look at the NCGA results, they have it in their mind of, "Well, yeah, you can get 300, 200 acres of corn if you just plant one acre." They have minimums and things like that, but if you could give an idea of where do you keep your high yield stuff, versus what are the acres for the other things?
Karl Dirks:
50% of our acres are probably in that high yield kind of management style, where we push a little harder the ground we know is capable of those yields, and then the other 50% is ground that we know has a ceiling, and then we back off a little bit. We kind of understand those acres, and there's some years I think the ceiling is lower than what it is, or higher, or vice versa. So yeah, I'd say we're probably a 50/50 blend of what know our ground is pretty good, and I don't consider any of our ground exceptional, by any means. I have got a lot of customers and a lot friends with far better dirt than what we farm, and I have no problem admitting that, and some of it's luck, some of it's good management, but there is definitely better ground than what we handle, and I'm sure every farmer's going to say that. There is no farmer that won't say that.
Brian O'Connor:
Okay, one last question that's substantive, and then another question after that that's kind of record keeping: what micronutrients are you using, and when and how are you using them? I've heard boron is really good for corn. People are talking that up, but if you could just talk a little bit about your experience, is there something that you can talk about?
Karl Dirks:
Yeah, yeah, we've chucked-
Brian O'Connor:
Oh, okay.
Karl Dirks:
We've chucked boron, and we've chucked other stuff around in small grain and corn, and I'll be blatantly honest: we haven't had much of a kickback. That is because of our manure. I mean, everything kind of falls back to that. It's a blessing and curse, but if you go analyze that manure, it's got everything you can imagine in it, and that has been... Yeah, we almost don't apply any micros, and when we do, it's been some of our least profitable decisions.
Brian O'Connor:
Oh, wow. Okay.
Karl Dirks:
Yeah, and I don't think that's the case for most farmers; it's just what we have to deal with here. We get a lot of benefits from the manure. I will say, the biggest fertility, and I haven't really even touched on this at all, one of the biggest fertility things we've seen in the last decade has been sulfur.
Brian O'Connor:
Yeah.
Karl Dirks:
As we lost, the pollution side, the acid rain, and all that stuff, we started [inaudible 00:44:27] the corn, and where we'd see it was our manure-skippers. That has probably been one of our biggest paybacks, fertility-wise, adding kind of the right amount of sulfur, and trying to figure out where that is. That's been pretty big for us, because we didn't use to use hardly any, and now we use tons.
Brian O'Connor:
Yeah, we to get it for free from the coal plants.
Karl Dirks:
It was so cheap before.
Brian O'Connor:
Yeah.
Karl Dirks:
[inaudible 00:44:53] all the fuel.
Brian O'Connor:
Okay, and you might've mentioned it in your introduction; how many acres do you have again?
Karl Dirks:
Total we farm?
Brian O'Connor:
Yeah.
Karl Dirks:
We farm right around 1,000.
Brian O'Connor:
That's it for this week's episode. We'd like to thank our sponsor, Yetter Farm Equipment, one more time for helping to make this No-Till Podcast series possible. If you liked today's discussion, the full take on Karl Dirks's approach to high-yielding no-till corn is available on our website as part of the No-Till Corn: Pushing the Boundaries of Yield Potential special report. It's all about no-tillers who participate in and win the NCGA annual yield contest. Just visit our store tab for a description, and to consider purchase. A link can also be found on this episode's webpage.
More podcasts about no-till farming are available over at www.no-tillfarmer.com/podcasts. A transcript of this episode will be available there shortly. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. If you have any feedback on today's episode, please feel free to email me at boconnor@lessitermedia.com, or call me at (262)-777-2413. You can also keep up on the latest no-till farming news by registering online for our No-Till Insider daily and weekly email updates and Dryland No-Tiller E-newsletter, and be sure to follow us on Facebook or Twitter. For our entire staff here at No-Till Farmer, I'm lead content editor, Brian O'Connor. Thanks for listening, and keep it no-till.
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