Another highlight from that event included a planter 101 session with Chuck Gruenberger of Deere dealer Riesterer & Schnell, during which Chuck compared an empty field without covers to a rebellious teenager.

“An empty grain field is like a teenager. We all have teenagers or had them. If you leave that teenager on its own with nothing to do, what happens to your teenager? It will run away on you. It will go bad. It will grow weeds — marijuana, drinking, causing trouble. That’s a teenager. If you keep your soil with something in it all the time, busy, something to do, you give your teenager something to do all the time, they don’t cause any trouble, or less anyhow, at least manageable trouble. Same as no-tilling and cover crops. You put the seeds in the ground, you plant it, it grows up somewhat manageable. If you get your teenager wild, you can’t manage it anymore.”

Watch the full version of this episode of Conservation Ag Update.