Jeff Martin

No-Tiller, Strip-Tiller

Mount Pulaski, Ill.

Banking on Soil Biology for Better No-Till Yields and Profits.

Jeff Martin and family are doing a lot of adding and subtracting these days as they work to boost soil health and productivity and log a more robust balance sheet for their farm. Does raising highyielding no-tilled corn with only 50 units of nitrogen sound unrealistic? It can be done, he says.

The Mount Pulaski, Ill., no-tiller and strip-tiller outlines how his family reshaped their input program with broadcast and in-furrow application of a high-performing compost-like product that helped them eliminate phosphorus and potassium applications and focus attention on micronutrient applications and other yieldresponsive practices. He also explains how utilizing cover crops by planting green or interseeding is boosting soil biology even further as they work to improve fungi-to-bacteria ratios in their soils.