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Mackane Vogel:

Welcome to the No-Till Farmer Podcast. I'm Mackane Vogel, associate editor of No-Till Farmer. In today's episode, come along on the road with me as I travel across parts of Maryland and Pennsylvania to visit three different farmers who are working with cover crops and no-till in unique ways. Our first stop in part one of this journey took us to Jim Hershey's farm in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. Last week, we met Cecil County, Maryland farmer Bryan Racine, who is relatively new to the no-till and cover crop movement, but is learning and innovating at a rapid pace. Now that we learned a bit about his background, let's hop in the truck with Bryan and head out into the field to see what he's been working on this year.

Bryan Racine:

So we have a 243 acre farm and 140's tillable, so it's pretty small compared to most, especially as soon as you go over the canal. Hope you don't mind sitting in an old truck?

Mackane Vogel:

I don't mind.

Bryan Racine:

I got to get the spare keys. Fortunately, most of my stuff's pretty old that we have, so just regular upkeep on things. I mean, you can see my "tillage shed."

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

Letting that one go to waste. But yeah, the barn's from the sixties and feel free to put the window down because that's the closest thing I have to AC in the old girl. When was the last time you had a cranked window?

Mackane Vogel:

I had an old beater in high school that had windows like that, so.

Bryan Racine:

Yeah, I just like the old... wherever the heck I want to drive through what field and don't care kind of attitude.

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

I wouldn't want to do that with a nicer thing, so [inaudible 00:01:57] same thing.

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

So here was zero rye, three bushels an acre. Planted it heavy and then planted green into it with corn planter and the beans with the brush meters on thirties, just because I felt like it could move the rye out of the way better than the drill and the give it a whirl. So, I rolled some here earlier when it was just kind of coming up because I'm still learning when to roll it and when not to roll.

Mackane Vogel:

Right.

Bryan Racine:

And here I didn't roll it to see if there is a difference in weed management or soybean yield or anything really. Is the ground more covered, less covered if it falls over on its own compared to me rolling it?

Mackane Vogel:

Right.

Bryan Racine:

And then up here, I rolled it after it was sprayed so it would lay down a little better. So here I did it at an angle, at a 15 degree-

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

Because I don't have auto steering and stuff and I can't see those soybeans through all the rye, so I did the angle thing to see... you can see here where it kind of... definitely, you could see where it hurt the beans some-

Mackane Vogel:

Sure.

Bryan Racine:

... but they say sometimes if you hurt them at the right time it can help you. But I feel like that's pretty good compared to just bare dirt sitting there growing.

Mackane Vogel:

Right, no doubt.

Bryan Racine:

So it was sprayed once, but I'm going to try to go all year or better without it, which it's very hard to run over your crop, you know what I mean?

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

Everything you learn, "You stay out of the field, stay out of the field," and here you are driving over your soybeans with a roller crimper that you don't know what the heck he's doing. At least I don't, but I'm sending it anyway because I'm going to find out.

Mackane Vogel:

[inaudible 00:03:40] your feelings. Is this right?

Bryan Racine:

Yeah. I didn't sleep for two, three weeks because I don't know when to do it, how to do it per se. You just read about it. But that's different than-

Mackane Vogel:

Sure.

Bryan Racine:

They've been doing it. I'm just starting. So here, I just did a couple passes on the outside and then I did it again at an angle because this field's a contour-

Mackane Vogel:

Sure.

Bryan Racine:

... so I rolled it, but now you can start to see the beans coming up, so you feel a little better. Before they were just-

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

Oh, man, I was ruining everything, but beans aren't expensive, so-

Mackane Vogel:

Sure.

Bryan Racine:

... let's go get some more. But I can plant through that.

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

There's too much there. So this was summer cover crop last year, the summer mix after the wheat. So then I planted into it pretty good for what we'd usually average. So this was a lot of crimson clover that was left and a lot of turnips. You could see the turnips sticking up, the big bushy tree-looking structures. So Maryland Public Television was here and did an interview for the Bonus Cover Crop Program.

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

And I planted this for him that day to see how it worked. It's good enough. We don't get anywhere near perfect stands, so if the corn's up, that's a win. It's there. It'll give me something.

Mackane Vogel:

Right.

Bryan Racine:

I'm not the guy that's going to get 350 bushel of corn, for sure. But you can just see how there's still... there was probably five or six different kinds of crops that were there. That one we sprayed [inaudible 00:05:24] had survived the winter.

Mackane Vogel:

Right.

Bryan Racine:

And then this is the same thing, but we had the pasture around the field for the most part. So you could see here... I mean, this is all the same, but this is where they were mostly.

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah. Right.

Bryan Racine:

You know what I mean? They were in here a lot more, so there's less residue than over here. But they were in over here for a couple of weeks. They have calves out there, which I thought was pretty cool because we haven't had that in 30 some years, a cow born on the property. But there's some residue, but not quite as much. And then, there's another field over there. It's a little different, but I feel like this was harder. The ground was harder for sure because they were on it more, whether it was raining or dry. But I feel like the corn came up better almost. I don't know if it was because there was less residue or because the ground was a little harder. It was a little firmer per se-

Mackane Vogel:

Right.

Bryan Racine:

... or just because I had better contact with the closing wheels. It's hard to tell, but that's kind of like what... that's why I just do it and see what happens. Instead of trying to do too much because I already do enough. That's pretty good and standard, not exactly the greatest. There's a bunch of residuals. It takes the clover a while to die, so sometimes I feel like it's weeds, but is what it is. These turnips here, I had the field over there. I mean, I'll show you a picture. I mean, it was just yellow and bushes. I couldn't plant into it-

Mackane Vogel:

Right.

Bryan Racine:

... because they would break off and clog up the row cleaners and the actual... the row units themselves, they would clog it up and start pushing. So I had to get the wife to roll the under roller crimper using my marker. And then, I had to follow her with the next row marker out for her to roll it because all I had to do was just roll it down so that I could get to plant in it because it would just... I couldn't make a pass or two and I had to stop. You had to watch it too much. So that was something you had to learn the hard way.

Mackane Vogel:

Sure.

Bryan Racine:

Hey, I probably should have got... I don't know if I need to put less in the mix because they didn't come up until the spring, but I didn't have that issue before, so it's like... I don't know.

Mackane Vogel:

What kind of weeds do you guys deal with the most out here?

Bryan Racine:

Mare's tail is pretty terrible. I mean, you can see a whole bunch of it out there still. And foxtail, this had a lot of foxtail in it, giant foxtail last year, so that's why the cover crop didn't go great. This, it grew great in, I don't know why. Same thing, same day, same spray program, everything's the same, but it's just... yeah, giant foxtail got started I guess because it didn't get a good rain or maybe this field holds moisture a little better and it allowed the cover crop to get going. And over here, maybe it wasn't quite as moist and the foxtail came up sooner. It's always a guess. Well, those are probably the two worst ones for me anyway. And the beans will get a lot of bur cucumber in them and you got to go out there and pull that so the combine guide will actually go through it because he doesn't quite care for that. You can see some of the crimson in here and the red clover. There's some, I don't know, there might be volunteer wheat or some rye, [inaudible 00:09:01] kale.

Mackane Vogel:

So that's all part of that big mix?

Bryan Racine:

Yeah. And then this is where we ran... like I said, the fence was over here, so this was our chute to run between me and the neighbors and to check the fence lines and stuff. So I was like, "I'll just keep it," because it is nice to be able to-

Mackane Vogel:

Sure.

Bryan Racine:

... drive around with one pass. The 500 foot of corn puts me under [inaudible 00:09:20] I've got bigger problems, but it's cool to see... none of this was here.

Mackane Vogel:

Right.

Bryan Racine:

And then it all just came up after... basically after I started planting it for the most part. But nothing was here for the most of the spring, I guess just because whatever reason. And it's still growing, but it's just cool to see what does what when, so then more. Like, see there's no cover crop. I see all that mare's tail growing now. Now, is that mare's tail grown because there's nothing else growing? You know what I mean? So that's what-

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah. It's probably a good indicator.

Bryan Racine:

You could see the... it was just outside of here. I don't see as much mare's tail out there, even though it was sprayed.

Mackane Vogel:

Sure.

Bryan Racine:

Yeah. I mean, some people would cringe seeing all the stuff that's out there, all the residue and other things growing. But we don't know if you don't try, like I said, say that field does pretty good. Say it does terrible. I'll know pretty good. There's a lot more... this has a lot more manure in it. All the little worm castings.

Mackane Vogel:

Yep.

Bryan Racine:

That's what I'm looking for.

Mackane Vogel:

So is this all you too, or-

Bryan Racine:

This line here is a property line and that's the neighbors and his chicken houses.

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

I'm sure the end rows aren't going to look great because I tried to turn around. I had to hang weights off the front of the tractor to pick it up.

Mackane Vogel:

Oh, yeah.

Bryan Racine:

I mean, it would do it, but it was like if you're on a little bit of a hill, it didn't really want to turn a lot.

Mackane Vogel:

Sure, yeah.

Bryan Racine:

And if I wanted the wife to drive it, I got to have the front end down because she is not trying to play... hold the brakes and turn thing. And then see here where I didn't plant some rye?

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

So here's no cover crop, just beams into corn stalks compared to leaving the rye all the way there to see the...

Mackane Vogel:

Try and test it. Yeah,

Bryan Racine:

Yeah. Because where it starts over there, we did [inaudible 00:11:38] variety trial, so they planted it all the way down to there. So I was like, "That's a good stop to there."

Mackane Vogel:

Right.

Bryan Racine:

So I just left a couple gaps to see what's the difference.

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

Rye, no rye, all that kind of fun stuff.

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

And then, they got a variety plot out here this year. So this was more residue here. There might still be something out there, but this is where I had to have her roll it. I planted two passes and I was like, "I can't." You can kind of see it coming down the hill where the corn looks real terrible and then it starts to look good.

Mackane Vogel:

Right.

Bryan Racine:

That's where she started rolling it before me-

Mackane Vogel:

Okay.

Bryan Racine:

... because it was just too much. It was just too much stuff. It was like trees out there. So I had to have her roll it. And then when we planted that variety plot or yield plot over there, the neighbor, I had him roll it for me as I made the passes because I couldn't.

Mackane Vogel:

Sure.

Bryan Racine:

But planting through the crimson and stuff's fine, but man, these turnips were killing me because they were full bloom, three, four foot tall, fighting me. But I would get a rain like an inch and I could plant the corn the next day. If that was tilled up dirt, I'd be-

Mackane Vogel:

Right.

Bryan Racine:

I'd have to probably almost disc it.

Mackane Vogel:

And [inaudible 00:12:57]-

Bryan Racine:

Yeah, soft. I'm not saying I should have been out here planting, but in the morning it was a little soft. By the end of the day or middle of the day, it was perfect almost. And then by the end of the day, it almost was getting dry again. The sun was out.

Mackane Vogel:

Right. Wow.

Bryan Racine:

So it's like you got to play that game of what's good enough. Because I only need a day to plant the beans and then I could worry about rolling them later, but the corn... I have a field across the street where I was planting it last because I almost forget about it sometimes through either rye. As I make my first pass, I could see the pollen coming off of it.

Mackane Vogel:

Oh, man.

Bryan Racine:

So I'm like, "Man, this is what they tell you is the perfect time to roll it." So I planted it all up and then came back over, got the crimper and rolled it and it... flat, like carpet, hardwood-floor smooth.

Mackane Vogel:

Wow.

Bryan Racine:

Like, "Yes, this is exactly what they tell you." They started to come up just a little bit because we don't have that nice flat land per se, and I got... You could see the rivets and everything, the compounds-

Mackane Vogel:

Sure.

Bryan Racine:

... and manure spreader, but it laid it down. Yeah, I tried rolling this and you could see how much of it came back up.

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

I mean, it really didn't go down great per se-

Mackane Vogel:

Right.

Bryan Racine:

... but it's at least better than being straight up, I would maybe guess. I don't know. That's why I got the half-and-half mix. I like that. I feel like that stands better where the cows were, which most people say you can't have cows out there and plant too, and then there it is.

Mackane Vogel:

Right.

Bryan Racine:

I mean, look at the simulation for what I got. That's pretty good.

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah, it looks good.

Bryan Racine:

But it'll be fun to see what the no nitrogen, nitrogen-

Mackane Vogel:

Compare it all. Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

... this field compared to that field or it's the same. This is more of a racehorse hybrid in it, so it's kind of per field, but it's still good to see heights-

Mackane Vogel:

Sure.

Bryan Racine:

... because this is slower. This is the 114-day mix. Most of my stuff I plant's like 102 to 105.

Mackane Vogel:

Okay.

Bryan Racine:

I plant short so I get covers on it sooner.

Mackane Vogel:

Right. Makes sense.

Bryan Racine:

I'm going to try to get the combine in here so I'm not fighting... because if it gets cool like it usually does in the fall, you got to wait and wait and wait and then my covers are later. Then you talk about missing your plant dates. At least for the Cover Crop Program. After the corn up there is rye with red and crimson in it, but it's after red... the clover dates are part of the Bonus Cover Crop Program.

Mackane Vogel:

Oh, okay.

Bryan Racine:

They let me do it, see if the dates are good, if there's a reason that they need to have them or is it... kind of bogus.

Mackane Vogel:

Right.

Bryan Racine:

And I told them, "You're not going to get anything in the fall. And if you do, it's going to frost off."

Mackane Vogel:

Yep.

Bryan Racine:

But in the spring, if the moisture is good, the rye's not terrible, you'll get it, and it'll come up. This is the [inaudible 00:15:48] variety plot.

Mackane Vogel:

Okay.

Bryan Racine:

That's what I use it as my basis for what my corn's supposed to look like.

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah, okay.

Bryan Racine:

And then, I compare it to what my junk look like. There's deer. See, look at them.

Mackane Vogel:

Oh, yeah.

Bryan Racine:

Thing's right there. I feel like I grow all these covers. There's always something growing, so I'm giving them food.

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

They're like, "Hey, this guy grows shit all year long. Let's live here." But at the same time, it's killing me because they just come and eat everything, but it's like... I mean, it does help being in a smaller farmer.

Mackane Vogel:

Right.

Bryan Racine:

I can drive it pretty quick, mush them along, but you can't have one without the other. It could be worse. It could be hundreds of them.

Mackane Vogel:

Sure.

Bryan Racine:

I've had groundhogs clear a lot of soybeans off, but just from their whole... but that's not really a huge issue, but it is for weeds. So this is 30 acres of corn I planted and I was trying to wait for it to be [inaudible 00:17:00] thing, and I got scared on the first two passes and I said, "I'd rather not run it over." Because it looked to me like it was crimping it, or not crimping it, but knocking it over and kind of crushing it some.

Mackane Vogel:

Right.

Bryan Racine:

So the stand's not the greatest anyway, but I got nervous. Because like I said, I can't see it with the tractor. So then here I am with extra weight on the front and 150 horse tractor running over my three-inch tall corn. I couldn't.

Mackane Vogel:

No.

Bryan Racine:

I couldn't do it. So I was like, "I'd rather just let it be tall and stringy and have it fight that fight of being around green."

Mackane Vogel:

Yep.

Bryan Racine:

Because it was probably three or four before they sprayed it because I didn't get to rolling it in time because I was doing other fields and by the time I got to it, I was like, "Ah, I don't like it." So there's whole pieces, chunks missing, but it's still growing.

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

It's better than me rolling over 50% of it because I'm going to get nothing there.

Mackane Vogel:

Right.

Bryan Racine:

Some of that looks kind of good.

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

Some of it like here where I ran over it a little bit more, you could see where I made it in between these rows here better.

Mackane Vogel:

Sure, yeah.

Bryan Racine:

But it's hard to run over corn with a roller crimper and not lose sleep and just being nervous per se. So we'll see what happens. So this field, it's funny, it's in this field because in 2021, I let the... Maryland won't let you plant late after May before you terminate the cover. So I waited until after that and it was... I think by the time I got to it, it was like middle of May. The rye was five foot tall. So here I am with no row cleaners, nothing. Just a simple [inaudible 00:18:57] and the row unit. And I planted this whole field. I couldn't even see the corn plant for some of it. And when corn came up and it grew and we didn't do terrible, but it didn't do great. But I'm like, "If I could plant through that, then I'm not really scared to go try this."

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah, that's a good point.

Bryan Racine:

I'm a little more scared to roll it because I haven't got to that yet-

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah. Right.

Bryan Racine:

... but I did a couple of passes to see. I know I can grow corn in it. It's not going to like it and it's going to grow tall and stringy, but it's better... like I said, it's better than rolling a half of it over and not having corn to harvest.

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah, that's right.

Bryan Racine:

If I had GPS, I would've cared less. I would've ran it.

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah, true. Right.

Bryan Racine:

But when you're looking through five foot green rye... like this rye. To try to see a three-inch tall piece of corn, I couldn't do it, especially with the kid supervising me. So we'll see what it does. I probably lost a good bit of my... I mean, that's half my corn right there, but it is what it is. I'll learn.

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

Corn ain't-

Mackane Vogel:

Find out one way or another.

Bryan Racine:

Yeah. Prices are four bucks, so what am I going to lose? I'm not losing my top end. It's going to be mediocre anyway.

Mackane Vogel:

We'll come back to the episode in a moment. But first, I'd like to thank our sponsor, Yetter Farm Equipment, for supporting today's podcast. Looking for innovative solutions to maximize your farm's productivity? Look no further than Yetter Farm Equipment. They're dedicated to providing farmers with the highest quality equipment from row cleaners and closing wheels to fertilizer equipment, strip till units and stock devastators. Yetter has the tools you need to optimize your farming operation. Visit yetterco.com to learn more and find a dealer near you. And now, let's get back to the episode.

Bryan Racine:

So yeah, I learned to roll the corn right at your plant. At least knock it down.

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

So then if it does get sprayed, it's laid down. It rolled down nice. But it had been sprayed, but it's rolled down. Yeah. Lesson learned. Unless it comes out to be some of the better corn, then you're like, "What the heck?"

Mackane Vogel:

Right. And then it's... Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

But that's why I do it because it's like, "Well, I'm going to learn it."

Mackane Vogel:

Right.

Bryan Racine:

It sticks around in your head a little bit more for me when you mess it up, and I'm pretty good at that, finding the hard way. I mean, there's nobody that's going to have a field look like this right here. I'll tell you that. When I order my summer mix, I order from a guy in [inaudible 00:21:46] I'm like, "Racing crazy summer cover mix program. Here we go. Let's add some more stuff to it."

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

Because I went to see a guy named Alan Williams through the Bonus Cover Crop Program. Now, he's a Million Acre Challenge guy, one of those groups, and it was out in Frederick.

Mackane Vogel:

Sure.

Bryan Racine:

And he does the grazing and how to rotatively graze it and all this kind of stuff. I was like, "Well, I don't have cows, but I want them so I'm not going to miss this..." because we got a whole free day-

Mackane Vogel:

Oh, nice. Okay.

Bryan Racine:

... with him because the next day he was doing it what you had to pay and it was like hundreds more people.

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah. Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

There was maybe 20 of us. So I'm like, "That's one on one." It's as close as I want to get because I ain't paying a five grand a day or whatever it was to come out-

Mackane Vogel:

No, it's huge.

Bryan Racine:

... a thousand an hour or whatever his rate was. I'm not doing that. So went out there and he is like, "Grass is what breaks your compaction. Grass is what's supposed to be growing here." All the other things are cool, but grasses are what give you your biomass-

Mackane Vogel:

Right, yeah.

Bryan Racine:

... your organic matter. They make the roots. They break up compaction. So that's when I added more grass and then I added grass because the neighbor's cows were going to graze it. We talked about it before. So I was like, "I wanted them to have more stuff." But they eat the sorghum first. They don't even look at anything else until the sorghum is gone. And then they'll graze through some of the other stuff, but they eat the sorghum down and then they keep eating it as soon as it comes back up and then they eat a little bit... like there was a lot of clover in the spring because that's what usually makes it, is this clover. None of the grasses really, and they were eating it some. They eat it obviously down to the ground.

There won't be any Maryland top yield producer crops coming out of this farm anytime soon. But say I get to the point where I don't need to put as much on, or I could put no nitrogen down on and still make a good bit of money. If I can get the cow poop to figure out how much of that I need or how much is good or not good-

Mackane Vogel:

Right.

Bryan Racine:

... then I don't even... maybe just one side dress instead of chicken litter. Or maybe I do just chicken litter and grow enough. Let's see, the field across the street I got rolled looks like... I feel like I got just a little bit too jumpy on rolling it, like the soybean stuff.

Mackane Vogel:

Sure.

Bryan Racine:

So some of it's rolled twice, some of it's rolled three times. Some of it's rolled twice before it got sprayed and rolled after. Do I keep track of all of it where?

Mackane Vogel:

No.

Bryan Racine:

But if it's rolled down, then at least I know it's rolled or not rolled.

Mackane Vogel:

Is that you right here?

Bryan Racine:

Yep. Yeah, we have a field here and then another field that's kind of in the woods a little bit.

Mackane Vogel:

It looks pretty good.

Bryan Racine:

It's not terrible. So there's a pond right there.

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

So it just stays marshy.

Mackane Vogel:

Right.

Bryan Racine:

And there's a lot of... we have I think three or four springs on the property, like that little building, there's a spring house.

Mackane Vogel:

Oh, sure.

Bryan Racine:

That's where they used to keep the milk back in the day.

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

So we have a lot of... This pole her, when we dug it up, put the electric for the house, we didn't even dig deep... to the barn and it was flowing full of water.

Mackane Vogel:

Oh, wow.

Bryan Racine:

Yeah, so we have a very high water table. So that field used to have their cows in it. So I don't know if it's the cow activity or if it's just the type of land-

Mackane Vogel:

Oh, okay.

Bryan Racine:

... but it stays wet and there's a wet spot in it, and it was... until two years ago, I couldn't even drive through it.

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

Now, I can at least drive the planter through it. Not saying it's going to do great, but I can plant through it. So it tells me that I'm doing better. And I think the key to wet spots is having something growing to suck up the water. Everybody thinks, "Oh, you got to disc to dry." Well, if you have a plant that will suck it up. That's the key. Like say this field is where I rolled it and it stayed down and the corn came up, and so this is usually my worst field because it's surrounded by woods. Nothing's over here to spook the deer off and they can just come out all day long and eat everything. But that's rolled it... and so they sprayed it. It was all nice and flat and rolled down. So it just shows you that whatever I did this day worked.

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

What it was that made the rye... so the rye over here grew tall and it was pollinating. I had rye over there that wasn't pollinating, but this whole field was pollinated and it was the last field I planted like two weeks late because I forgot about the darn field.

Mackane Vogel:

Right.

Bryan Racine:

After I planted all my wheat and everything, I was like, "Shoot, I forgot about the field across the street." So was it because I planted it and it rained sooner and it got a better start. You know what I mean?

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah, right.

Bryan Racine:

So that's why I do all kinds of crazy things to see what does what because I don't know the answer. Something somewhere. We'll see if we make it out. This is what I want every field to look like.

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

The rye covered, nice thick mat.

Mackane Vogel:

That does look nice.

Bryan Racine:

It got a little better... here where I turned it didn't do good, clearing the rows where I turned. But the straights, it did pretty good. Of course, I was a little low on nitrogen, so I don't have a lot of wheat. I feel like most people... well, let's just say the majority of the farmers care about the corn and the population that stand. I can't really care less, to be honest with you.

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

I'm like, "Hey, look, I rolled the cover crop, man. I figured that out. Check."

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah. It's rewarding, right? It looks cool.

Bryan Racine:

Everything else is a bonus. If, "Oh, I got corn to harvest? Awesome." I'm just trying to figure out all the other stuff, because like I said... I mean, even changing the same property, the fields are different.

Mackane Vogel:

Sure. Right.

Bryan Racine:

So it's always a gamble/you got to remember things or you just got to be lucky. I don't know. This is the lucky part. Pulling out of here.

Mackane Vogel:

A lot of variables, right?

Bryan Racine:

Yeah. Who would've thought the last planted rye would've been the one that rolled over and was perfect. But the other fields were like, "Yep, no, I'm coming back up." I mean, they went down, but you could see it, a couple of days later it was halfway back up.

Mackane Vogel:

Sure.

Bryan Racine:

And I have it full of water. I'm doing what I think I should be doing, and I rolled some and then I was like, "Man, maybe I should try the angle thing so I'm not running over the entire row on 30 inch because I got five foot gap." I mean, less sleep happening. Old Ford over there and a roller crimper, nothing fancy.

Mackane Vogel:

It works.

Bryan Racine:

Yeah. We're trying to figure out if it does. We try. Not a long tour when there's not much... You can keep it down if you want. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we went to a farm in Chester, down there, and the first field was a rye, hairy vetch mix, and they're like, "Oh, this is a little hundred acre field." I'm like, "That's more of my corn and beans in one acreage."

Mackane Vogel:

Right. Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

And you just, "Oh yeah, we're going to see what happens today." I'm like, "I can't. That's my whole everything." Yeah.

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah. That's about just doing what you can on your own farm, I guess.

Bryan Racine:

Yeah, so I went... that day, the kid that works for him, Seth, was going to roll and plant and they have it on the front, a roller crimper on the front. "So is it cool if I come with you?"

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

He goes, "Sure, yeah, hop on." So I followed him over there and they had an eight row... I think it was this eight row corn planter with the roller crimper on the front of the John Deere, and he's like, he can't turn because it won't let you turn.

Mackane Vogel:

Sure.

Bryan Racine:

So I learned that maybe I don't want to put it on the front.

Mackane Vogel:

Oh, yeah.

Bryan Racine:

Because I was looking into getting a tractor with the three point on the front, and then I was like, "Man, I wouldn't make it through my first field with it on the front."

Mackane Vogel:

Right. Right.

Bryan Racine:

It wouldn't turn for nothing. I'd be fighting every other fight, and I thought about getting it on the corn planter. I'm like, "I don't have a tractor with the hydraulics to do that."

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

So I was like, "Well, that's not going to work great." So I was like... the kid in one of the groups, Steve, he had a roller crimper for sale. So I picked that thing up.

Mackane Vogel:

You got it. Yep.

Bryan Racine:

So they brought her last spring and yeah, worked out good because a new one's like 13, 14 grand, so.

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah, right.

Bryan Racine:

It was exponentially less than that.

Mackane Vogel:

I've heard of some farmers making them out of just old stuff they got around and-

Bryan Racine:

Yeah, we got the cultipacker there by the barn.

Mackane Vogel:

Take a look at it? Took some pictures?

Bryan Racine:

Sure. Yeah. So I was going to use... I tried the cultipacker, but it just doesn't have... it doesn't crimp. It just pushes it over.

Mackane Vogel:

Sure, yeah.

Bryan Racine:

So if I sprayed it, yeah, it would roll it over.

Mackane Vogel:

Right.

Bryan Racine:

Because I wanted the... if I'm going to get it, I'm not saying I want to be organic, but I want to see how much I could get it to crimp on its own.

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah, sure.

Bryan Racine:

And if I can make it do it mechanically, great. That's one less spray.

Mackane Vogel:

Right.

Bryan Racine:

I got 16 and a quarter every acre for the sprayer guy to go cross it. So I had a buddy cut all the weights on the front because I had them for the drill originally. He had some old plate steel at his job, and I gave him a John Deere weight. So he cut me all these out with the water jet. So I'd hang all these on the front because these weren't enough because in case the fuel's in the back. So I don't have nothing out here holding it down. Even though it's not far back, it's a short tractor. So I had to hang all these bad boys on there to keep the front end down because I would ride just on those without it, and you would turn and you didn't really turn. So I was like, "Man, I got to hang some weight on it."

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah, got to get creative.

Bryan Racine:

Yeah. I was like, "Well, I'm glad I had those weights." That's why you never say no to an opportunity. So we tried it out. It did pretty good. So I don't have a float, so I had to put my... the arms kind of have a float feature kind of built in, at least the case does. So I had to put that on those so it would kind of bounce some, but it's hard because it doesn't have a float, so you got to put it down a certain amount and it would get kind of choppy where it would bang, the top link would hit. So then I had to pick it up just a smidge, but it could have just been the rough fields, could have been all kinds of things.

So the wife, she gets to drive that and crimp for me. I told Jill back there, so I got it set up the way I like it, but it probably needs a new opener soon. But yeah, this is just the old 7,000.

Mackane Vogel:

Cool.

Bryan Racine:

So I got the cleaners, the floaters on there. I got the skinny wheels. I got some shoot closing wheels. I had to get the hydraulic markers because it didn't have enough to pick it up and have the old cable system in it.

Mackane Vogel:

Sure.

Bryan Racine:

I'd have to get off every pass.

Mackane Vogel:

Oh.

Bryan Racine:

I mean, you could just-

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah, right.

Bryan Racine:

You kick it and it's like, "Oh, okay," but it would just sit there and struggle. I'd had this thing cranking. It just didn't have enough... I like it because open cast, so I could see everything-

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah, right.

Bryan Racine:

... and I can hear everything. And I'm right here. I'm not up another three or four feet in a tractor I can't hear nothing in because it's a cab.

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah. That's a good point.

Bryan Racine:

You know what I mean? I can see everything. I see the change spinning on half the rows. I just have more visibility and I can see where I'm going because when you plant through some of that stuff, that's it. Where the depth gauge on the mark, that's all you'd see.

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

Because if it don't dig in the ground, it just knocks the grass over and you have to try to find that. I can't find that from up there in a cab. So yeah, I put the liquid on. It took a lot of work to get it there, but I did it all myself, so I know how to fix it all.

Mackane Vogel:

Sure.

Bryan Racine:

And I got to do some stuff with the row cleaners. I think I need the weight. I think I need the tread wheels on it to weigh it down more because I feel like I was kind of riding-

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah. Is there a dealership you go to around here or you just kind of deal with the stuff mostly?

Bryan Racine:

So just Packway Planner, those guys up there.

Mackane Vogel:

Okay.

Bryan Racine:

I think they've been in your magazine before. I got all this stuff from them because I just know they rebuild them. I think it was seven thousands or maybe even 72 hundreds, "Here's your key."

Mackane Vogel:

Sure.

Bryan Racine:

But they had it all there, you just go up there with a big truck.

Mackane Vogel:

Perfect.

Bryan Racine:

Load it all up. I spent stupid money on it, but I planted 90 acres of crops this year, so it then helps just spread it out some. But yeah, that's what we do. You can see where the... it almost looks like your yard with the roller crimper pushing one way and then the other way. Yep. Nothing fancy, nothing going to be on the front cover of the tractor magazine for sure, but-

Mackane Vogel:

It doesn't have to be. If it works, it works.

Bryan Racine:

It's just a low ROI and it's all mechanical. Nothing. I don't have to worry about some computer screens starting up or a fuse blown or nothing. If worst case, you jumpstart the old Ford and you leave it running for a couple of days. I mean, I've planted with the Case, I've planted it with the Kubota. It just isn't the same. It just didn't do it as good.

The funny... the neighbor gives me trouble. Just trying to get enough hitch height. I got a trailer hitch and then washers to try to get my front end up enough to get my closers to do a good job because it's just a low drawbar, and then the more weight I add, the more it pushes it down. So it's like a bouncing act of trying to, so I need to work on that. That's one thing I for sure need to work on. These row cleaners do fine and the depth wheels do good, but the closers, they're not running level. So I don't know if I need to put another hitch on it, jack it up some more.

Mackane Vogel:

Right. Play around with them a bit. Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

Yeah. Yeah. Trying to get it to where it needs to be, but it plants corn, so.

Mackane Vogel:

Yeah. Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

Like I said, we're not... I don't need it to bounce because I don't need the farm to make my whole income for the year, you know what I mean?

Mackane Vogel:

Right.

Bryan Racine:

So I have the ability to send it more-

Mackane Vogel:

To try and play around with some stuff. Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

To go all the way out here in Wildtown to see if I can figure it out quicker or better and not have to be like, "Oh crap, we can't do something this year or whatever."

Mackane Vogel:

Sure. What do you do for work outside the farm?

Bryan Racine:

So I work at Northrop Grumman-

Mackane Vogel:

Oh, yeah. Okay.

Bryan Racine:

... up in Elkton. We make rocket motors and I'm in the testing department.

Mackane Vogel:

Nice.

Bryan Racine:

So we get to blow them up, controlled blow them up. Yeah. And then I cut grass and then this and a couple of side jobs here and there.

Mackane Vogel:

Sure. Yeah.

Bryan Racine:

Always something for a dollar.

Mackane Vogel:

That is a wrap on my second farm visit. Thanks to Bryan Racine for showing me around. This is a perfect example of why this is such a great industry and why I love being an ag journalist. You go from one farm, Jim Hershey, you have a couple of thousand acres, big time established no-tiller, been at it for 30 plus years. And then you go see a guy like this who's just got a couple of hundred acres and he's only been no-tilling... you heard him say since 2019. And that all started because he saw a video of Steve Groff on YouTube. So it just goes to show that the range of different operations that you can find in the no-till community, it's a big range and it's really cool to see.

I mean, I think one of the coolest things that Bryan said is he doesn't have a planter or any tractors or any equipment that has a screen on it. No GPS, none of the bells and whistles that a lot of farmers would say they need these days. So he's running a tractor and it's just an open cab. He's just looking at the field with his bare eyes and he's just planting where he can see. So really cool just to kind of see the juxtaposition of a farm like that compared to the bigger ones that we visit a lot. And yeah, that's kind of my main takeaway there.

We've got one more farm visit. I will be headed to another Maryland farm tomorrow, and you can tune into the next episode to find out where I'm going and who I'm visiting. But I think that'll kind of be another pretty different operation. We have the big one with Jim Hershey, the small one with Bryan Racine, and this other one might fall somewhere in the middle, so I'm looking forward to it. But for now, it's lunchtime. I've got a cheeseburger with my name written on it at one of my old favorite burger joints in Towson, Maryland because on the way home, we're going to stop at Gino's and maybe get a milkshake too. We'll see. We'll see what the vibe is when I get there. But for now, I am signing off and I will talk to you in the next one.

That's it for this episode of the No-Till Farmer Podcast. Stay tuned for next week where we will head back to Pennsylvania for our final stop of this on-the-road podcast series. And from our entire staff here at No-Till Farmer, I'm Mackane Vogel. Thanks for listening. Keep on no-tilling and have a great day.