To Drill or Not To Drill

To drill or not to drill, that is the question for many farmers. The seeding drill was one of the first planters to revolutionize modern agriculture. I remember the old McCormick drill on the farm as a boy replaced by the Superior Seed Drill which became a part of Oliver Farm Machinery. We planted many a crop with that drill.

I used the new Oliver Superior Drill in the 70's to teach my students seeding at the Blanchester FFA Farm. Deere revolutionized no-till seeding with their famous 750 drill around 1990. After RoundUp Ready soybeans were introduced, notill soybean planting became the number one way to raise soybeans.

Then Mr. Kinzenbaw had his little debacle with Deere and brought out the famous Kinze Interplant system and 15 inch precision soybean row planting took out many notill drills. It's been an interesting revolution.

I had farmers who Martinzed the corn part of the 15 inch planter and left the pusher rows stock and the beans would always come up quicker in the corn rows. You can't totally Martinize a 15 inch interplanter because you would pile the trash up in the centers. 30 inches is OK to sweep a path clean, 15 inches is too close so people came up with all kinds of ideas how to notill better with a stock 15 inch row corn soybean planter.

I saw my first 7.5 inch modified notill drill soon after the 750 came out in northern Ohio. The farmer put the Case IH or what we call notill tires on the gauge wheels of the 750 and mounted the spading closing wheel where the stock rubber Deere press wheel was. You could tip toe through heavier ground successfully just like you could with the modifed corn planter.

That's the way we plant here with the modified White corn planter and a modified Deere Air Drill. Les and Brad covered a ton of acres with them early last year and that enabled us to stage our crop before the record wet May we had.

Machinery is so big today that weight is a problem, especially if you are carrying a lot of fertilizer to get that crop off to a healthy early start. Some farmers don't carry fertilizer to reduce the weight issue while others pull nurse tanks with the planter or drill. Every one seems to have their own idea.

The point is any farmer can improve the stock notill drill or planter because we can't go to the manufacturer and buy exactly what we need for each situation yet. It has been well worth the cost of education, parts and labor for us on our farming operation.

Modification is so popular that you even see modified drills and planters sitting on dealer's lots today as farmers trade for newer equipment. That is something you didn't see just ten years ago.

So, trade shows and conferences are in high demand as farmers try to improve their operation and their bottom line. That is why we had another record crowd at the National NoTill Conference in Cincinnati and I expect the same next January in St. Louis.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a big crowd in Harrisonburg, Virginia Tuesday.

Ed Winkle

No-Till

My message to the Virginia No-Till Alliance includes several steps that could make it complex. I have to break it down and keep it simple.

Right now is the time to go through your no-till drill or planter to get it ready for its big job this spring. It must be in perfect working order. Almost perfect may not be good enough.

The biggest thing we have done to our planter is take the no-till coulter off and modify the row unit so you can plant the first day the soil is ready to plant. Last year my soil was in it's best condition to plant in late March and it stayed that way until almost May as we got more and more showers then it rained almost every day in May. After that, planting conditions were never as good.

This year will be different, no doubt. No two years are identical but many are similar. It's our ability to recognize the differences and make the little adjustmetns that make no-till succeed beyond our wildest dreams.

Some will say they need the coulter for stability on hillsides or they have rocks. They can use the coulter if they feel they must but I recommend they take it off. The double disk openers that make the perfect Vee where the seed is dropped should be new and properly installed either way. That is a key to getting the crop started right. The coulter causes too much slabbing of the trench sidewall in those areas of the field that are just a little wet. If you wait for every field to dry out then some of the soils are too dry to plant in and that is even worse.

If you are planting no-till corn with a no-till planter, running a fertilizer coulter instead of the no-till coulter will get that corn off to a great start by putting 10 to whatever gallons of liquid nitrogen and sulfur off the side of the row. I use one inch away for each 10 gallons of nitrogen as a thumbrule.

I use a no-till gauge wheel tire to transfer the weight of the row unit, ususally several hundred pounds, to the sidewall of the trench to gently lift and expland the trench row without moving the seed out of the pefect Vee we created with the double disk openers. These are keys to a great start to no-till corn that thousands of farmers use successfully every year, some since it's invention in the 90's.

I use the Keeton Seed Firmer to press the seed into the bottom of the trench about 1.5 inches deep. Yes you can use the MoJo wire if you want, I don't.

One of the best additions to the planter is spike closing wheels, often called spader wheels or spading tilling wheels. They replace the rubber or cast iron closing wheels that cause too much compaction in the no-till seed trench.

They gentle till the row pass like a garden tiller, crumbling up enough loose soil to cover the seed and let it breathe but have enough water to germinate quickly and all come up at the same time.

We use the drag chain to lengthen the tillage pass with the planter as it pulls a handful of crumbly loose, rich topsoil evenly over a foot of row, slightly mounding the row. This is really important to get the same amount of soil above each seed so it can all germinate within 24-48 hours of each seed so each plant will be mature at the same time.

Some want to use one spading wheel, some want no drag chain but the system works best as the now TradeMarked Martin Till system. I have seen some that work almost as well but it is the best system I have seen and I can recommend it.

The same thing can be done to the no-till drill and we will talk about that tomorrow.

Ed

Virginia

Tuesday I have the honor of being the lead speaker at the first meeting of the Virginia NoTill Alliance. I had that honor in Pennsylvania years ago and now Pennsylvania is a leader in no-till practices in the United States and not because of my talk but because we all came together to help one another.

Say a little prayer for me that I get there and back safely and leave a firm impression that no-till has the power to improve farming and farm operations in the state of Virginia.

Virginia is very important in the history of the formation of this country. Heinrich or Henry Winkle took the big plunge across the Atlantic in the 1700's and sailed to America to spread the Winkle family across our country and thus I am here.

I can't imagine the fear and excitement in crossing the ocean in a little sailing vessel to start anew in an unkown land. What could cause a person to leave Europe to settle a new land in those days? The history must be rich as many Europeans took this challenge.

There is a plaque on a state road in Rockingham County where the Future Farmers of Virginia was started and became the Future Farmers of America and now the National FFA Organization which has been so important to my family.

There is another plaque along a road in Kentucky where many of those people migrated to and where no-till farming practices were started in the 50's and 60's. Now no-till has also spread across our great country.

I trust I can share my passion for no-till in Virginia as they look to improve their soil, the foundation of all farming practices. Through my mistakes I have learned certain basic techiques that work anywhere, even in New Zealand. Soils can be saved and improved while farm profits increase.

That is my message. I hope through my talk I can get it across.

Ed

Virginia

Tuesday I have the honor of being the lead speaker at the first meeting of the Virginia NoTill Alliance. I had that honor in Pennsylvania years ago and now Pennsylvania is a leader in no-till practices in the United States and not because of my talk but because we all came together to help one another.

Say a little prayer for me that I get there and back safely and leave a firm impression that no-till has the power to improve farming and farm operations in the state of Virginia.

Virginia is very important in the history of the formation of this country. Heinrich or Henry Winkle took the big plunge across the Atlantic in the 1700's and sailed to America to spread the Winkle family across our country and thus I am here.

I can't imagine the fear and excitement in crossing the ocean in a little sailing vessel to start anew in an unkown land. What could cause a person to leave Europe to settle a new land in those days? The history must be rich as many Europeans took this challenge.

There is a plaque on a state road in Rockingham County where the Future Farmers of Virginia was started and became the Future Farmers of America and now the National FFA Organization which has been so important to my family.

There is another plaque along a road in Kentucky where many of those people migrated to and where no-till farming practices were started in the 50's and 60's. Now no-till has also spread across our great country.

I trust I can share my passion for no-till in Virginia as they look to improve their soil, the foundation of all farming practices. Through my mistakes I have learned certain basic techiques that work anywhere, even in New Zealand. Soils can be saved and improved while farm profits increase.

That is my message. I hope through my talk I can get it across.

Ed

Storm Cost

This storm has cost our nation a lot of money. I wonder how much?
Travel and achool and business have come to a crawl as we all just try to survive until the next round comes. That looks like Saturday in Southern Ohio.

One farmer lost his life shoveling off his barn roof when he accidentally fell through one of those cheap skylights found in so many pole barn roofs. Another man accidentally hit a propane tank plowing out his barnyard and is 60% burned and not expected to live.

A jogger was blown into Lake Michigan? Why would you risk your life jogging in 60 MPH winds? Another person became disoriented and fell into Lake Michigan with the Lake Shore Drive jam?

Dr. Taylor showed us a proven 89 year cycle based on solar radiation. Another decadal or 10 year cycle is known which does not fall closely to sun flares. Australia has been beaten with rain and storms and you know the story in the states or where you live.

This has been a costly winter.

I hope you are safe.

Ed

Soil Sampling

This morning on Crop Talk I saw a farmer asked if farmers take their own soil samples. Some do, some do not.

Soil sampling is the basis of my soil fertility and soil amendment program.

My new farm came back around 6.0 water pH which is very reliable and repeatable and the buffer pH came back at 6.7 which is good for me. That means it takes less ground agricultural limestone to raise my pH to my desired level.

I have chosen one lab to do all my nutrient extraction from my soil samples and that is Midwest Lab in Omaha, Nebraska. I do work with others though. There are many good, reliable and certified soil test labs on our continent.

I use their complete test and pay extra for their recommendations which are invaluable to me. The data I get back is very close to the data I got from Ohio State's OARDC Lab before they closed it in the 90's.

Farmers really ought to pull their own samples to see what they are dealing with. My soils keep getting easier and easier to probe from my soil management practices and crop rotations.

The samples ought to be pulled every 3 years in a 3 year rotation and more often if it is a new farm to you. The samples ought to be pulled from the same areas each year to compare data so GPS would really help mark the spot but you can do it with flags and markers.

As John Haggard points out, the probe ought to be cleaned between every sample and the soil handled and mixed carefully before sending it to your lab. It is a tedious process but the better the sampling, the better the data and the better the results.

Hope you are safe in this record winter storm.

Ed Winkle

Friends

We have made a lot of new friends on the Roach Crop Markets Cruise.

I didn't care for the idea of assigned dinner seating on the Zuiderdam but it turned out great.

Kenny and Darlene from Illinois are nice people. Kenny beat colon cancer, the only person I have met who has. God bless him and good for him.

Mark and Amy farm 2000 acres in Minnesota. Amy has beaten some serious health problems that caused many joints to disintegrate and they have also become wonderful friends.

Bud and Sherrill have an amazing story how they met as teens and ended up happily married many years later. Bud was born without hearing and now wears an implant connected to a hearing aid. We shared a lot of war stories too that all of us have been blessed to overcome.

The final dinner was quite some show from all the cooks and servers. It was a really good time. I definitely recommend Holland America if you want to cruise and we will do it again.

Next year the group is going to the Carribean the first week of January but that just won't work for us so we will have to save for another excursion somewhere. Hawaii, South America and the Mediterrean is on our list.

There is so much to see and so little time but we are thankful to see all that we have the past 11 years.

I imagine most of our group can't get home today with the big storm across the states. The weather channel is working overtime covering all of the weather events across the country from cold to wind to snow and ice.

We wish you all well,

Ed and LuAnn