On this episode of Conservation Ag Update, brought to you by Sound Agriculture, No-Till Innovators Allen Berry, Barry Fisher, Ray McCormick and Loran Steinlage share 4 tips for the upcoming growing season.
East Amwell, N.J., no-tiller Jeff Bowlby takes us inside his planting green trial and explains how he gained 30 extra units of nitrogen from crimson clover.
In the Cover Crop Connection, associate editor Mackane Vogel catches up with Olivia Caillouet, soil health program manager at University of Missouri’s Center for Regenerative Agriculture, for the inside scoop on the Women Landowners Leading Regeneration program.
Later in the episode, no-tillers from Pennsylvania, England, Michigan and Indiana weigh in on the future of no-till and what it will take to increase adoption rates. Plus, we go Ahead of the Curve with precision specialist Dave Thompson for a look at a row guidance system that’s drawing rave reviews from no-tillers. And finally, Parker, S.D., no-tiller Desmond Miller introduces us to his modified ridge-till system, which he says is perfectly compatible with no-till.
This episode of Conservation Ag Update is brought to you by Sound Agriculture.
Sound Agriculture delivers bioinspired solutions that enrich soil and improve crops. Our synergistic products empower growers to achieve success while minimizing environmental impact.
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TRANSCRIPT
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- 33rd No-Till Conference Delivers Practical Advice for Growing Season
- Planting Green Trial Results in 40-Bushel Corn Bump
- Women Landowners Leading Regeneration
- No-Tillers Weigh in on Future of No-Till
- Precision Specialist Spotlights Combine Row Guidance Tech
- Video of the Week: No-Tiller Creates Modified Ridge-Till System
33rd No-Till Conference Delivers Practical Advice for Growing Season
Welcome to the first episode of 2025. We’re coming off an exciting week in Louisville, Ky., where not even 2 snowstorms could stop the 33rd annual National No-Tillage Conference.
In attendance were more than 600 farmers, researchers, educators and industry experts from all over the U.S. and countries like Australia, Canada, Hungary, Italy and New Zealand. There were 14 general sessions, 24 classrooms, 34 roundtables and hours of networking. And what a grand finale — the Innovators & Experts panel gave the audience plenty to think about with some advice for when Mother Nature throws them a knuckle curveball.
“You need to have a general plan that you want to follow but have that equipment and everything ready to go and have alternative plans. Don’t get caught with having to make changes that you hadn’t anticipated. Always figure the weatherman is going to throw some changes at you.”
– Allen Berry, Nauvoo, Ill.
“You’ve got to have a soil that’s resilient to dry. That goes back to organic matter. Either you’ve got to be really good at selecting your grandparents who knew where to find that high organic matter soil and that’s where you farm. Either that or you’ve got to have an intentional management plan to build organic matter.”
– Barry Fisher, Putnam County, Ind.
“April 25th, I had some of the best-looking rye I ever had. Was set up for a relay crop. We’re out there fixing tile. We’ll wait a day or 2 to plant, we figured, and get the tile fixed. 30 inches of rain later, I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth and butcher it. We decided we’re growing rye that day. I called the insurance agent; ‘Well, I guess we’re going to grow rye this year, can I put some hail insurance on it?’ The next day, the feed lot guy comes and says, Hey I need some rye, I need forage.’ Two days later, we’re planting beans in that field because he took the rye off, and we could plant beans in there. Learn to adapt to whatever Mother Nature is throwing at you. I always used to say lemons-lemonade but learn how to throw a little vodka with it when you get the chance.”
– Loran Steinlage, West Union, Iowa
“I’m growing annual ryegrass on every field, year after year, and quite frankly my corn roots are down there where they’ve never been before. Nutrients and water availability with deep root systems – I don’t see hardly any impact on my corn. In these wet fields, I don’t have drowned out areas. I have crops very resilient to drought. Resiliency — so your farm can take a wet rain, but your crop can take what is statistically there — longer more intense drought periods — and that’s just a fact. If you have a system that’s resilient, then you’re going to come out ahead.”
– Ray McCormick, Vincennes Ind.
We’ll have lots of coverage from the event in the coming weeks. And we have some breaking news to pass along — next year’s conference will take place in St. Louis, Jan. 6-9. Super Early Bird registration is underway.
Planting Green Trial Results in 40-Bushel Corn Bump
During the conference, North Jersey RC&D was honored as the No-Till Innovator of the Year in the organization category. They recently worked with 25 farmers on cover crop termination methods.
Jeff Bowlby participated in one of their planting green trials with crimson clover, which he usually plants in late August or early September. One field, he terminated before planting. The other field, he let the clover grow another week-and-a-half before planting into it. The East Amwell, N.J., no-tiller estimates he gained 30 extra units of nitrogen by allowing the clover to reach its maximum potential.
“I upgraded a lot of my equipment so I could do the planting green practice or at least try it. The idea is to let the vegetative growth go as long as possible, so you don’t have a lapse in life cycle on my ground. I was nervous the first time I did it and there’s a lot of people I make nervous doing it. Some of my crimson clover stands that I plant through, you come to the end of field and the only thing you see is all your vegetative knocked down. They say, ‘How do you know it’s working?” Just sit in the seat and look forward, don’t worry about what’s behind you. It’s scary. Until the seed comes out of the ground, I don’t sleep very well. Even though you’re planting through what looks like a jungle, it will work.”
In the first year of the trial, Jeff’s planting green field produced 40 more bushels of corn per acre, and in the 2nd year, 15 more bushels of soybeans per acre.
Women Landowners Leading Regeneration
Mackane Vogel here with this week’s Cover Crop Connection. Well the Cover Crop Strategies Podcast is officially back for the start of 2025 and we are going to have lots of great interview guests on the show in the coming weeks. But to start off the year strong, here’s a clip from the first episode of the new year with Olivia Caillouet. She’s the soil health program manager at the University of Missouri’s Center for Regenerative Agriculture and she’s currently working on several cover crop related projects, including what’s known as the Women Landowners Leading Regeneration program.
“This project, Women Landowners Leading Regeneration, has really two components. The first being we are going to train women conservation professionals to implement these practices. Women caring for the land to help women landowners engage in conservation practices. About 25% of the US farmland is owned by women. A lot of it is rented, so we're focusing specifically on non operator women landowners who are renting out their land. And then that second component is going to be directly supporting our women landowners hosting trainings in Missouri, Kansas and Iowa to bring together women landowners to idea share, build networks and continue to empower them to implement conservation practices on their land …Cover crops — definitely a strong component of it and the exciting part about this project is we are getting to pull in those other synergistic practices no-till and reduced till riparian buffers and we are going to be offering resources to the conservation professionals as well as women landowners to find funding for those diverse conservation practices.”
Olivia says the project is still waiting for final approval, but you can find any and all updates on the University of Missouri Center for Regenerative Agriculture website, as well as an interest survey which is live right now. And be sure to head to Cover Crop Strategies to check out the full podcast episode and to hear lots more about what Olivia is working on.
No-Tillers Weigh in on Future of No-Till
Let’s fire up the question of the week. As we turn the page to 2025, we asked, “What do you see as the future of no-till and what will it take to increase adoption?” Let’s see what you said.
“Herbicide-free, pesticide-free, selective min-till, strip-till and no-till seeding into cover crops is the future — working with the biosphere instead of against it. Farming needs to change from dominion, productivity and efficiency to cooperation.”
– DC Johnson, Undisclosed location, Pa.
“There’s a growing debate around whether the reliance on herbicides, pesticides and fungicides might be more harmful to soil biology than occasional tilling. This has made us rethink how we manage our system. If our goal is to build soil life, we need to critically evaluate practices that might harm or disrupt the natural systems designed to feed plants…Removing or reducing inputs that kill or suppress soil life is becoming a key part of this conversation, and it’s shaping how we approach soil management going forward.”
– Martin Caunce, West Lancashire, England
“We farm in the Western Lake Erie Basin (WLEB). Our county has been a leader in conservation for many years. Much time, energy and money has been spent to encourage no-till to no avail. With input costs rising, one would think more farmers would switch to no-till. With a savings of $30-$50 per acre, you’d think more farmers would try it. Looking at the millions upon millions of dollars spent in the WLEB with little success of resolving the problem, I along with other area farmers feel regulation is eventually going to happen. When it does, you’ll see an increase in no-till.”
– Blaine Baker, Clayton, Mich.
“Those that work their ground will simply not be able to compete in the future. Higher yields with lower costs will make healthy soils that come from no-till with cover crops the high profit acres of the future.”
– Ray McCormick, Vincennes, Ind.
What say you? Join the discussion at No-TillFarmer.com. We included a link to sign up for the Email Discussion Group in the article for this episode.
Precision Specialist Spotlights Combine Row Guidance Tech
We’re going Ahead of the Curve today with Dave Thompson, precision farming specialist for Case IH dealer Johnson Tractor in Amboy, Ill. I tagged along as he installed a TrueSight row guidance system on a corn head. He says it’s been a hot seller lately for a variety of reasons.
“This right here — the sensor I’m putting in— I’ve had customers hesitant thinking they didn’t need this. In 2022, we had a tremendous amount of downed corn in this area here from storm damage. Guys who were hesitant, at the end of that year they were happy they had that because once again it took the fatigue level out. You might not need that to drive across a perfectly straight row of corn, but when you get into some adverse conditions it’s very helpful.”
Video of the Week: No-Tiller Creates Modified Ridge-Till System
Let’s check out our Video of the Week, from our interview with Parker, S.D., farmer Desmond Miller at the No-Till Conference. Desmond talks about his modified ridge-till system, one that he says is perfectly compatible with no-till.
“The first thing I did was I bought a Buffalo planter and cut it up into a million pieces, and rebuilt it, first of all, by lengthening the distance between the ridge cleaner and the planter so that all of this material, copious amounts of residue, can pass through without plugging up. I think that’s one of the big frustrations early ridge-tillers had was it just plugged up and couldn’t handle the residue.
“The other thing I did was I just totally threw away that little bulldozer shovel in front of the Buffalo planter and put on my own big 24-inch concave coulter, single coulter in front of the machine. It acts as a row cleaner, gets rid of all the residue and about one inch, no more than one inch of soil, so it just carefully scrapes off the top. Those two features made the mechanization of ridge-till work for me very well.”
Miller does very little tillage — just once every three years he tosses soil and residue from the valleys to the ridge tops.
That’ll wrap things up. Story idea? You know where to find me — Nnewman@Lessiter Media.com. Thanks so much for tuning in, see you for our next episode, Jan. 31.
And that will wrap things up this edition of Conservation Ag Update. Until next time, for more stories visit no-tillfarmer.com, striptillfarmer.com and covercropstrategies.com. Before we go, let’s send it out to Dave Hula for a preview of his upcoming presentation at the National Strip-Tillage Conference. Thanks for tuning in! Have a great day!
Of course, I’m sure not everyone was so lucky with the weather. Shoot me an email —nnewman@LessiterMedia.com — let us know how harvest is going in your neck of the woods.