When Shawn and Shane Tiffany took over the former Black Diamond feed yard in 2007 it wasn’t in terrible shape, mostly because of manure applications that kept organic matter in the soil. But after going to a cover crop field day 8 years ago, the brothers didn’t want to just settle.
Matt Griggs says embracing biomass in his fields has improved soil tilth and health, stabilized yields, enhanced weed control and produced a better-looking balance sheet.
When Matt Griggs decided to embark on no-till practices more than a decade ago he was already dealing with a degraded soil resource. More than 100 years of conventional tillage and a monoculture of cotton on his family’s rolling farm ground had caused erosion and stripped soils of organic matter.
The Uetrecht family is managing moisture with cover crops, tile and long-term no-till to boost corn and soybean yields and keep more of their rich soils on the farm.
Every farm faces at least some challenges adopting no-till practices. But when it comes to sticking with the practice, Ron Willis’ feelings on the matter are pretty clear.
King City, Mo., no-tiller Ron Willis discusses changes his family’s made to their 12-row Kinze 3600 split-row planter, including adding Furrow Cruiser closing wheels from Copperhead Ag, to better handle planting corn and soybeans green in spring.
Our farm hit a plateau in the 1990s. Yields were flat and we just weren’t making the gains we thought we should be. It’s not that we sought out no-till as the magic solution; we just knew we had to try something different, as conventional tillage wasn’t cutting it.
I DON’T KNOW if I was just stubborn or what, but I refused to accept that I couldn’t get a good stand through no-till. Now I can happily say we get excellent stands with no-till, but they didn’t come without some growing pains and a lot of tinkering.
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On this episode of Conservation Ag Update, brought to you by Montag Manufacturing, growers from across the U.S. share their predictions for the upcoming planting season, including one no-tiller who’s “bullish” about a great spring.
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