Master of Manure

I was appointed Master of Manure this week. No one else would take the job. Too many people thought I was most qualified! You know BS, MS, and Piled Higher and Deeper? I halted my professional educational program before the piled higher and deeper!

I couldn't wait to apply my education and make more money. I did my master's while teaching and I learned more that way than just studying for my baccalaureate.

Seriously, I moderated the manure round table today and I got the group thinking about green manure versus animal manure. We talked about the differences in manure and how it is a rare commodity now in many states like Ohio. When I was a young boy on the farm, manure was our most important fertilizer and when we ran out of it, we planted green manures. Today they are known as cover crops.

Cover crops were big at the conference, everyone was talking about them. Terry Taylor brought in soil cores from his tight southern Illinois soils and the change in them with notill and cover crops for many years were dramatic. It caught a lot of attention. The young farmers don't understand that is all some of us old timers had when we were little.

I made a decision on the way home after thinking and talking to many smart people. I have known it for some time but I have decided to try and never plant a genetically modified seed on my farm again. The risk is just too great. I should have known when my tissue tests were low in micronutrients that glyphosate was chelating the minerals in my soil. It took me a few years to figure it out because I have been almost 100% non GMO since we moved here.

I have been boning up on my other chemistry's to control my weeds with other chemicals and cover crops.

I think that will work much better in the long run.

Then I won't have to be Master of Manure. My radishes in growing soybeans did catch some attention though.

Ed