timely-spraying.jpg
EFFECTIVE DRAINAGE IS ESSENTIAL FOR NO-TILL SUCCESS. Joe Breker has spent considerable amounts of money over the years on tiling problem fields in order to gain the maximum benefits from his extensive no-tilling program.

Rotations, Equipment Adaptations Help Deliver Long-Term Success

Check The Specs...

Name: Joe Breker

Location: Havana, N.D.

Years Of No-Tilling: 27

Acres No-Tilled: 2,700

No-Tilled Crops: Winter wheat, spring wheat, corn, soybeans, flax, field peas.

I grew up in a family of farmers who saw early on the advantages of reduced tillage to save soil and water. My dad and his brothers were leaders in the 1960s conservation movement in our area. It was a controversial change from tradition when they simultaneously shifted from moldboard to chisel plowing and moved away from summer fallow to continuous cropping (and supplemental fertilization of wheat and corn) in the same year.

Then, while I was a student at North Dakota State University during the 1970s, we explored the “new” concept of farming without tilling at all. I took some of those ideas back to the family farm and Dad was interested. I visited with extension specialists and got together with a few farmers in North Dakota and Manitoba who had started to try direct seeding.

In 1980, I went ahead and seeded durum wheat into unworked sunflower stalks with a conventional John Deere press drill. We had fewer volunteer sunflowers because we weren’t mixing them into the topsoil with tillage. And by retaining soil moisture, the wheat hung on longer and yielded better than fields that had been aggressively worked. We were on our way.

Four-Year Rotations

The next spring we attached coulters to a John Deere 7000 MaxEmerge planter and no-tilled corn into wheat stubble and soybeans into corn stalks…

To view the content, please subscribe or login.
 Premium content is for our Digital-only and Premium subscribers. A Print-only subscription doesn't qualify. Please purchase/upgrade a subscription with the Digital product to get access to all No-Till Farmer content and archives online. Learn more about the different versions and what is included.

Top Articles

Current Issue

Cover_CTG_1124.jpg

No-Till Farmer

Get full access NOW to the most comprehensive, powerful and easy-to-use online resource for no-tillage practices. Just one good idea will pay for your subscription hundreds of times over.

Subscribe Now

View More

Must Read Free Eguides

Download these helpful knowledge building tools

View More
Top Directory Listings