No-tillers know the threat that compaction poses to their crops. And although no-tilling minimizes the risk of compaction, no-tillers might not understand how a hardpan might still sneak into their fields.
If I had to pick out one consistent thing about no-tilling that I have observed over and over, it is that most no-till benefits come with continuous no-till — season to season and crop to crop. That’s the message I delivered last winter to attendees at the 2005 National No-Tillage Conference just a few days after I retired from the Natural Resources Conservation Service. And it’s the message I would like to expand upon as a private consultant: It’s time for the no-till community to aim higher.
Fertilizer placement draws a lot of opinions about everything from when to apply to the depth of application. The many, sometimes conflicting opinions can be confusing about which to follow.
Advocates point to extraordinary root development that improves soil structure while helping crops reach water and nutrients several feet below the surface.
Annual ryegrass works hard as a cover crop. It sends roots down as far as 6 feet in no-till fields, breaking through compaction layers to reach deep water and nutrients, and it leaves improved soil structure and higher organic content in its path, according to Mike Plumer.
The so-called “green bridge” could be stealing yields from no-till fields without the growers’ knowledge. The green bridge is the method by which soil and foliar pathogens feed on cover crops, weeds or volunteer crops and survive long enough to infect a new season’s cash crops.
“No-till soybeans have caught on a lot faster than no-till corn. We want to close that gap,” says Paul Reed, who no-tills in Washington, Iowa, with his brothers and father.
While John Pickle admits that no-tilling corn shallow will get the plants out of the ground faster, he maintains there are several other considerations to worry about when deciding how deep to plant.
"If you want to double the size of your farm, farm vertically,” says Ray Rawson. The developer of several pieces of zone tillage equipment and a no-till corn and soybean producer from Farwell, Mich., for many years has taken the time to look beneath the soil surface. The result has been higher yields on his own and and many other farms.
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On this episode of Conservation Ag Update, brought to you by Martin-Till, Westville, Ind., no-tiller Jeff Herrold provides an update on how planting is going so far, and why a potential problem with slugs is causing some early-season anxiety. Herrold also explains why he prefers to plant soybeans before corn.
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