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No-Till, Planting Green Lead to Improved Soil Health and Higher Profits
Fierce determination and a commitment to improvement paved the way to better operations and a strong bottom line for long-time no-tiller Lucas Criswell.
Though he is a 30-year no-till veteran, Lewisburg, Penn., no-tiller Lucas Criswell will admit he’s made some mistakes and is still learning.
After years of conventional farming, he and his father started no-tilling corn in the 1980s because his father got an off-farm job and they needed to save time, fuel and wear and tear on the equipment.
These are all good reasons, of course. But it wasn’t until the early 1990s that the Criswells realized no-till was helping with erosion, which was a significant concern as their area gets about 40 inches of rain per year. More changes and insights over the years have multiplied the benefits of no-till, leading the Criswells on a journey of continued improvement.
Slug Issues
The addition of a no-till drill allowed the Criswells to seed cover crops in the ground instead of broadcasting it.
NO-TILL TAKEAWAYS
- Experiment with shorter-season varieties to give yourself more time to get cover crops established.
- Saving money on inputs is often more effective at boosting the bottom line than achieving higher yields.
- Question assumptions and established principles and talk about your ideas with fellow farmers. Novel solutions can develop in surprising ways.
“I started to learn about planting rye as a cover crop and using a growing plant to pull up our nutrients and minimize compaction,” Criswell told attendees at the No-Till on the Plains Winter Conference. But he was still firmly convinced of the need for added fertilizer and was happy to continue doing what had always…
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Last-Minute Planter Prep for No-Tillers & Strip-Tillers
On this episode of Conservation Ag Update, brought to you by Martin-Till, precision specialist Chad Baker, co-owner of Baker Precision Planter Works in Orangeville, Ill., helps a first-generation no-tiller with planter setup, and later encounters a couple problems with a strip-tiller’s new 24-row planter. Plus, veteran agronomist Brad Forkner checks in with a couple tips for farmers to keep in mind before they take the field.
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