Not satisfied with what the market had to offer, this Missouri no-tiller designed his own strip-till machine and was rewarded with higher yields and freedom from compaction worries.
They say necessity is the mother of invention. For Paul Lanpher, a persistent desire for equipment that simply worked better on his farm led him to develop equipment designed for his no-till operation. It’s a desire that he dreamed up about 7 years ago. And after several modifications and updates, Lanpher is excited about his strip-till Dream Machine.
The essentials of no-tilling are severely tested in an area with a short growing season, just 12 inches of rain annually and the potential for frost 365 days a year. Those are the conditions that Tim Melville faces as he no-tills 3,000 acres with his sons near Enterprise, Ore., in the shadow of the Cascade Mountains.
A lot has changed at the Worth and Dee Ellis farm in Eminence, Ky., since 1999 when No-Till Farmer published a story about our operation. We farm more land now.
When it comes to calculating seeding rates for no-tilled Roundup Ready soybeans, recent University of Maryland research indicates that you may not need as high a plant population as you might have thought to get top yields.
Mention crop rotations to no-tillers outside the Midwest and chances are good that they’re growing more than two crops. Instead of just going with no-till corn and soybeans, growers who direct seed in the Pacific Northwest include a large number of crops in their no-till rotations.
A South American researcher maintains combining cover crops with effective crop rotations is a must with no-till to avoid concerns with disease, insects and weed carryover.
Progressive No-Tillers in Latin America have discovered that green manure cover crops are the cornerstone of sustainable agriculture and are always included in any sound no-till crop rotation, says Rolf Derpsch.
While doublecropping has long been an option for no-tillers located in the South and southern Corn Belt, it's an option their northern counterparts have not been able to enjoy.
As the concepts behind conservation tillage becomes more complex, more no-tillers are looking to double their acreage and earning potential with intercropping.
A cropping system with the potential to increase farm income while hedging production risk is Modified Relay Intercropping (MRI). MRI is the planting of soybeans into standing wheat 20 to 30 days prior to wheat harvest. The goal of this planting date is to have a well established soybean plant 6 to 8 inches tall (V2-V4) at wheat harvest.
Polymer seed coatings will extend double-cropping northward, encourage no-tilling of full-season soybeans prior to corn and help no-till corn growers ignore the calendar.
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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.
Needham Ag understands the role of technology in making better use of limited resources within a specific environment by drawing on a wealth of global experience to overcome the challenges facing today's farmers, manufacturers and dealers.
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