Josh Payne remembers the day he decided to switch from conventional tillage to no-tilling. The young farmer and his grandfather Charlie were in a shed one day in May 2013 on Charlie Payne’s farm near Concordia, Mo., working on machinery.
“A big thunderstorm came up and dumped 4 inches of rain on us in half an hour,” Josh recalls. “We watched from the shed as water broke over the top of terraces and tore downhill, taking soil and fertilizer with it. Grandpa said these rainstorms just keep coming harder and harder and that we were going to have to do something else to control that runoff.
“That gave me the green light to go out and research what we could change to farm differently,” he says.
Part of his challenge were variable spring weather patterns that could leave the land too wet to plant on a timely basis. On the other hand, average rainfalls approaching 39 inches and high temperatures in July and August of about 90 F offered potential for very good corn and soybean yields on this rolling farmland 60 miles east of Kansas City.
Skipped Usual Steps
A big change in the operation came after Josh attended the 2014 National No-Tillage Conference in Springfield, Ill.
“I went with a friend and neighbor, Darren Hull. His family had no-tilled since 1981. Darren’s grandfather, Glen Reikhoff, encouraged us to go get ideas from some of the most successful no-tillers in the country,” Payne says.
“Most people who try cover crops have no-tilled for a number of years, or they try just a few acres of cover crops for a few years,” he says. “We decided to go all-in right away. At first I just wanted to convince Grandpa to switch to no-till, but I learned from Dave Brandt in Ohio that no-till and cover crops are best used together in a system.
“He also told me the key to building healthy soils with that system is to include wheat in your crop rotation,” he says.
Wheat lends some diversity needed for soil building, but also allows for a cover-crop cocktail to be seeded before corn, Payne says. The combination enables soil building and cuts commercial input costs. As a result, he switched from a corn-soybean rotation to a 4-year rotation of corn, soybeans, soybeans and wheat that includes cover crops.
Standing Green
The other big switch the Paynes made was to no-till soybeans into a standing green cereal rye and plant corn into a growing, green cover as well. “It surprised me, coming from a man who had tilled for so long, that Grandpa agreed to try planting green,” Payne says.
The green the Paynes plant corn into is a short mat of volunteer wheat from the combine that’s growing up through decaying residues from the 14-way cover crop mix established the previous fall after a wheat crop. His mix usually includes sorghum, sudangrass, pearl millet, cowpeas, mung beans, fava beans, sunn hemp, turnips and radishes, among others.
14-WAY COCKTAIL. By incorporating wheat in his corn/soybean rotation, Josh Payne is able to plant a 14-way cover crop cocktail behind wheat and before corn. His mix usually includes sorghum, sudangrass, pearl millet, cowpeas, mung beans, fava beans, sunn hemp, turnips and radishes, among others.
“We turn the fan up on our combine to blow escaped wheat seeds out the back. Most of the covers in the mixture winterkill, but that wheat is usually 5-6 inches tall and growing underneath when we plant corn the following spring,” he says.
Payne wants to have roots growing in the ground all year round. “That’s why I like to plant green and let it grow to 4 feet high,” he says. “We destroyed the habitat for microbes back when we tilled, just like they starve when there are no growing roots now. I don’t think we get the full benefit from cover crops when we terminate early.”
Josh asked a local welder to make him a 15-foot roller/crimper with a three-point hitch, which he uses after planting both soybeans and corn. It has chevron-patterned steel blades that aren’t sharpened to a point.
“Looking back, I’d rather have a wider roller with a drawbar hitch, but as long as we have a thick, lush stand of rye this one does pretty well,” Josh says.
“We’ve tried to roll without a burndown, but we get only about an 80% kill with that. In the past we’ve used Roundup as our burndown, but we’re moving to using a grass herbicide, Clethodim,” Payne notes.
“We’ll scout to assess our broadleaf weed pressure and use Clethodim instead of Roundup when we can. It’s about $2.50 an acre. We have a boom sprayer we can use with the roller, so it’s a one-pass operation. The combination of rolling and a burndown has always done a good job of terminating rye.”
Slightly Modified
The Paynes are using the same 6-row Kinze 3000 planter that was used to plant into tilled fields. The only changes they made to plant green was taking the no-till coulters off, replacing the double-disc openers with new, sharp openers, and setting the planting depth a notch deeper than it was for conventional planting.
“We tried spiked closing wheels on one row and tried using the coulter and row cleaners, but those things wrapped up the rye. We learned it was best to be bare bones on the planter,” Payne says. “I’d rather use cover crops that enable us to wait for good soil-planting conditions than to try to add more to the planter.”
He’s found it’s easier to plant green, or to plant a month after a burndown, than to plant when rye residues are still decaying. “If you plant into residue that’s still decomposing, say 2 weeks after spraying, the residues are tough to cut through,” he says.
Higher Populations
Payne has also increased corn populations from 29,000 to 32,000-plus seeds per acre, believing they will have more moisture later in the season with the cereal rye mat.
The extra seeds also give Payne a little insurance in case they don’t all germinate. He also starts with higher soybean populations in his Kinze planter, as high as 160,000, to end up with a 120,000 count of emerged plants.
“We’re still experimenting with seed treatments in the first year of soybeans,” he says. “I originally thought the rye would let me get away from seed treatments. We’ve had some problems with sudden death syndrome, but it seems more connected to planting date than it is to whether we plant into a rye cover crop.”
Feeding Biology
Payne uses cereal rye in place of a residual herbicide ahead of soybeans, drilling it in at a rate of 50-70 pounds an acre.
Waterhemp is a problem in Payne’s area, like many other places, but he says the growing rye does a good job of controlling the weed. Planting green, rolling it and using a burndown eliminates Payne’s need for a residual ahead of soybeans, saving considerably on herbicide costs.
“Since it’s my herbicide, I need a heavier stand,” he says. “It costs a little more for the extra seed, but I’m still going to save more than that cost on chemical inputs.
“The hardest thing to sell Grandpa on is the concept of soil biology,” he says. “It’s a shame, but biology has been taken out of the equation for most corn and soybean farmers. Chemical reps say what chemicals and fertilizers to apply, with no consideration to what’s living in the soil or how living plants can replace or at least supplement chemicals.”
PUSHING POPULATIONS. Because Josh Payne believes he will have more moisture later in the season from planting soybeans into a cover of cereal rye, he’s pushed his seeding populations to as high as 160,000 per acre.
Payne compared the costs of controlling weeds with his green-planting/cover-crop system with recommendations from the University of Missouri for a no-till soybean system without cover crops.
“Their recommendation was a residual in the fall ($31.56 per acre), a burndown and residual in the spring ($34.50) and a post application of Roundup and Warrant ($22) for a total herbicide cost of $81.50 an acre on soybeans. By planting soybeans green into growing rye cover crops, I used only a burndown of Roundup ($11.50 per acre) and a post application of Roundup ($11.50). That’s a savings of $58.50 per acre,” Payne explains.
“I roll the small-growing wheat and leftover residue from the 14-way cover crop mix ahead of corn emergence, but I do use a residual on corn. My herbicide program for corn is pretty much what I’ve always used,” he says.
Drill in Covers
In fall 2015, the Paynes transitioned to including wheat and cover crops in the rotation by drilling winter wheat as a cash crop into 200 of their 650 acres, and drilling cereal rye into the remaining acres as a cover crop.
“We drill a rye cover crop right after corn harvest and the first year of soybeans, but after wheat we drill our 14-way cocktail mix,” Payne says.
Last year, they purchased a new 15-foot CrustBuster All Plant 4500 no-till drill for use on both the cover crops and wheat.
“What I like about that drill are the three boxes it has for different seeds,” Payne says. “I can get more specific rates applied when I drill cover-crop mixes. I put the grasses in one box, legumes in a second and the brassicas in the third.”
“We were able to get 240 bushels of corn per acre last year with only 140 pounds of N applied...”
He uses the SmartMix calculator from Green Cover Seed to decide on ratios for the 14-way mix.
“I’ll adjust that a little heavier on legumes, since I want nitrogen for the corn I’m planting after that mix,” he says. “I’m also looking for diversity in plants and roots that are going to make my corn healthier, so I can cut back on fungicides. I’ve seen that happen.”
Reducing Nutrients
Payne has changed his fertilizer program considerably. Five years ago, in their conventional system, they applied dry fertilizer in the fall before corn, putting on 200 pounds per acre of anhydrous in the fall with a nitrification inhibitor and another 50-60 pounds topdressed over the corn,” he says.
He’s switched to using AgroLiquid products to apply phosphorus (P), potassium (K), micronutrients and 10 pounds of nitrogen (N) in-furrow at planting. He also applies 40 pounds of liquid N in a 2-by-2-inch configuration with the planter.
Soil tests are taken to determine how much ammonium nitrate is needed when the corn is about knee high, he says.
“We’re trying to feed the plant and use cover crops to capture nutrients,” Payne says. “The first year using the cover crop mix, 120 pounds of N was fixed. Last year, 60 pounds was fixed. We’re saving 100 pounds of N a year and applying it when the corn needs it.
“Because cover crops sequestered nitrogen in the soil, we were able to get 240 bushels of corn per acre last year with only 140 pounds of N applied,” Payne says.
Early Yield Boost
“In the first year we no-tilled soybeans with cover crops, we had a side-by-side trial to compare it to conventionally tilled fields,” Payne recalls.
“Charlie was combining and checking the yield monitor as he drove down the rows. He called me and told me to come ride with him, because he was sure the monitor was broken.
“Yields were significantly higher in the no-till field. And the higher no-till yield was on some of our worst ground, on a steep hill that normally produces 5-10 bushels less than other parts of the farm,” he says.
Payne is hesitant to talk about yields because everyone in the area had good corn and soybean yields last year. “I can say we fertilize less, but more often, and we haven’t experienced any kind of yield drag with no-till,” he says. “That’s because we’re using no-till and cover crops together.”
He has also found other benefits to his no-till and cover crop system.
“Our organic matter averages 3.8% now. We feel we’re gaining organic matter more quickly,” Payne says. “We’re seeing better soil tilth and friability.”
He says no-till also enables him to use less fuel and smaller machinery. It also results in less field time at planting, although the rotations and cover cropping make field operations more intense in the fall.
