Tuesday, May 20, 2014

No-Till Dan

I remember meeting Dan DeSutter in the 90's.  Son Matthew and I picked him up to go see a no-till planter demonstration in Illinois that Paul Reed and cousin David Moeller had developed from Howard Martin and Eugene Keeton's parts.  Many of us have adapted that planter system and still use it today.

"The Attica, Ind., grain farmer views any disturbance of the soil as an inherently destructive process. After 20 years of no-tilling corn and soybeans, he and other farmers are well on their way to what they call "never-till" -- a zero-tillage system that revs up their soil biology for optimum soil nutrient recycling to increase grain crop yields.

DeSutter started no-tilling to lower production costs and to protect his soil. He didn't realize he was also changing the soil biology and building soil organic matter by two percentage points. He is now firmly focused on learning how his farming system affects the unseen life below the soil surface.

POWER UP MICROBES

"The second you stop tilling, the sooner your soil [microbiology] starts trying to build organic matter," explains Barry Fisher, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) state soil health specialist for Indiana. Biological activity resides in the topsoil. It serves as the engine for the carbon and nitrogen recycling that provides food for soil microbes and makes nutrients available for growing crops.

"Once you break up the old plant root channels and earthworm burrows with tillage, you have to start over," he adds. "I've watched many farmers trying to make no-till work with tillage, and this [understanding] is what they're missing."

Fisher said if you're tilling the top 2 inches of your soil, you're injecting oxygen and burning off the organic matter from soil microbe activity. "Organic matter is the very thing you need to make your soil transition to better soil health."

It's going through the transition stage that prevents many from attaining true no-till farming, much less never-till. He adds that just stopping tillage doesn't guarantee improvements in soil health. Easing the transition depends on incorporating cultural practices, such as improving drainage, adding diversity into a typical corn/soybean rotation by including cover crops and managing a fertilizer program that complements soil microbe activity.

Experienced no-tillers recommend identifying and eliminating field problems before changing to a no-till cropping system. Roger Wenning, Greensburg, Ind., was faced with ground that was cold and hard because of the clay composition of the soil. He'd been no-tilling soybeans but quit the practice in corn because of drainage issues. Tile turned the situation around.

IMPROVE SOIL STRUCTURE

With drainage problems solved, it was time to conquer compaction. Wenning tried rippers but found long-term results less than satisfying. "That's where the cover crops come in," he said. "Wheat helped, but it wasn't the answer, so I got hold of some [annual] ryegrass and started experimenting with that."

Visible soil structure improvements have led him to keep a cover crop on every acre during the last nine years. While annual ryegrass and crimson clover are his favorites, Wenning has tried oilseed radishes. Still, it's root-heavy ryegrass that he counts on to build soil organic matter quickly.

Some of Wenning's fields had 1% to 1.5% soil organic matter nine years ago. A continuous no-till and cover crop treatment has raised soil organic matter to 2.3%.

His cover crop investment is $34 per acre for seed and aerial application."

I haven't seen Roger or Dan in awhile but it is good to see them doing well.

Ed

5 comments:

  1. Ed, would u say I need to get gypsum spread before I started trying to no till for aeration purposes? After seeing my fuel bills I can see no tilling being more valuable

    Brian "GrainTrader"

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  2. My favorite comment is about running a disk or VT tool over the ground to smooth it out... After I mention what was described in the article people's facial expressions change. Its some what amusing to me at this point. I am no expert at no till since this is my first year adopting the concept 100%. What I do know about it is that it makes sense. You just have to be willing to adapt to situations as they present themselves. I spread about 2 tons of lime on my ground that was harder for me to no till seemed to help loosen the seed bed for planting. I haven't got a chance to play with Gypsum yet

    Chris Lich

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  3. Dan is as good as it gets.

    For Ohio soils, get a couple of soil test for each soil type in your fields. I think you will find the clay soils way above the targeted 15% base saturation of magnesium (which is what makes the soil hard in general), only way to fix that quickly (2-3 years) is gypsum.
    just our experience on our farms in ohio

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  4. Ken is correct. This is a principle we taught at Des Moines in 2000 and it is slowly getting around. One ton of gypsum took the red out of yield maps on local farms last year. They noted less ponding water.

    We can source gypsum for around $6 per ton at the Ohio River or the Cayuga Power Plant in Indiana.

    Ed Winkle

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