On this episode of Conservation Ag Update, brought to you by Martin-Till, Smithville, Ga., strip-tiller and cover cropper Alex Harrell shares the main takeaway from his record-breaking 218-bushel soybean yield.

We also head out to the Arlington Research Farm in Madison, Wis., where research assistant Logan Barr shows how mustard can help draw out earthworms.

In the Cover Crop Connection, associate editor Mackane Vogel catches up with the father of biological farming, Gary Zimmer.

Later in the episode, longtime agronomist and AGuru Machinery founder Bill Preller shares his no-till origin story during a special moment at the 2024 National Strip-Tillage Conference. And in the Video of the Week, we head inside No-Till Farmer editor Frank Lessiter’s office for a special moment for the “Johnny Appleseed” of no-tillage. 

This episode of Conservation Ag Update is brought to you by Martin-Till.

Our customers believe that Martin-Till®️ products provide an excellent return on their investment. We know this because a large percentage of them are repeat customers since the beginning in 1991. Our planter attachments help make it possible to plant into higher levels of residue and moisture. Higher levels of mulch means less erosion, improved soil tilth and fertility, which can reduce production costs.

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TRANSCRIPT

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Strip-Tiller Achieves Record 218-Bushel Soybean Yield

We’re kicking things off with breaking news. Strip-tiller Alex Harrell broke his own world record with a 218-bushel soybean yield in Smithville, Ga., this week. 

The irrigated soybeans were 12 bushels better than his 206-bushel yield last year. He strip-tilled through a terminated wheat cover crop on red clay soil with a Schlagel Rapid-Till, while banding a homogenized mix of N, P, K, sulfur, zinc, iron and copper. Harrell planted on 30-inch rows at a rate of 110,000 seeds per acre on March 21st with a mix of nutrients delivered both in-furrow and with a 3-by-3 system. He kept the soybeans pumped up with foliar fertility throughout the season. Rates were determined by weekly tissue tests. Alex, what was your biggest takeaway from this plot? 

“The main thing we’ve taken away from these high yield plots is how important singulation is on soybeans, not just corn. Emergence is still king in corn but singulation is more important in soybeans than it is in corn. Making sure the planter is dialed in perfectly is huge. That doesn’t cost anything but time. It’s not a product in a jug, dry fertilizer or anything like that. It’s just making sure the planter is dialed in and we’re getting proper singulation and emergence, that’s the easiest way to get free bushels.”

Harrell says his record-breaking friends Randy Dowdy and David Hula called to congratulate him shortly after hearing the news. 

Using Mustard to Measure No-Till Soil Health 

Fun fact — did you know mustard can be used to measure soil health? I didn’t, until I saw this video. 

This is from the Soil Health Alliance for Research & Education (SHARE) field day at the Arlington Research Farm in Madison, Wis., Aug. 7. Research assistant Logan Barr is using a mustard liquid mix to draw out earthworms. Logan, how’s this work? 

“It’s just mustard powder, and we mixed about ¼ cup with a gallon of water. The way it works is the mustard oil is an irritant to earthworms. What we’re going to do is add it into the soil, and it’s going to draw up the earthworms. The amount of earthworms we see is going to help us know how healthy our soil is.

“The field that we’re doing this in is a second-year alfalfa field. It was tilled last year, but it usually has some pretty good soil structure to it, and we’re hoping to see here that there’s quite a few more earthworms in this system than a conventional corn system.” 

Now, I’ll be thinking about that when I put mustard on my hot dog at the Brewers game this weekend. 

Elsewhere in Madison, the 2024 National Strip-Tillage Conference brought in over 350 of the brightest minds in conservation agriculture. Mackane Vogel catches up with one of them for this week’s Cover Crop Connection.

Being Intentional with Cover Crops in Your Farm System

At last week’s National Strip-Tillage Conference in Madison, Wis., I had a chance to catch up with Gary Zimmer, also known as the father of biological farming, who was attending the conference in hopes of learning more about how strip-till can fit into his biological farming practices. Here’s what he had to say about the role that cover crops can play in a strip-till system.  

“You can get a really good crop by just playing the chemistry game and putting on this nutrient and that nutrient and feed it this and feed it that. But you see, if we look at where cover crops fit in, I’m trying to get a diversity of biology. I have to have that by diversity of feeds. The more diversity of biology, every one of those people that are talking about fungicides and pesticides — you’re constantly having to protect the plant where I would rather have the biology protect it by having diversity, and I want to get my nutrients in that carbon biological cycle. They can’t leach, they can’t erode, and I can constantly feed that crop. I think if we truly want to have healthy soils that are high yielding without tons and tons of inputs, I think we really need to put a much bigger focus on biology and cover crops and plant diversity are really a big part of soil health.”

“I think we’re limited here in the upper Midwest because by the time we get our corn and beans planted in the fall, it’s too late to have much — if you’re just going to grow those two crops, rye becomes one of the obvious things. Interseeding hasn’t worked for everybody out here, and so rye — you can plant it in November and still have it grow. And the management of it is always the issue, and I realize it’s only one crop, but ideally we would spend a lot more time and research on developing cover crops for a specific need. We do have some like mustard to control nematodes, and we grow a lot of clover and legumes to get our nitrogen sources out here, and I want deep rooted plants, but the only way we have an opportunity to grow those cocktail mixes is to be able to have a third crop in your rotation like wheat and then in August you can plant that cocktail mix now, but with corn and beans, you’re really limited.”

Zimmer says he’d like to see farmers be more intentional with cover crops and ask themselves what they are trying to achieve with a specific cover crop in their system. That’s all for this week’s cover crop connection. 

Going Cold Turkey with No-Till 

One of the highlights of the conference was the Strip-Till Hall of Fame induction ceremony, which featured Northfield, Minn., strip-tiller David Legvold, Univ. of Minnesota Extension educator Jodi DeJong-Hughes and AGuru Machinery founder Bill Preller. During his acceptance speech, Preller reflected on his no-till origin story and the man who helped him get here.

“The first year we no-tilled was 1973. And just to prove how weird we were, in 1974, we no-tilled into tractor-tall rye. So literally 50 years ago this spring, I was planting no-till corn in rye this tall. That’s weird. It was a complete failure. You know why? That happened to be a dry spring. Sucked all the water out. We had a horrible stand, and thank goodness we chopped it so we didn’t know how much grain yield we didn’t have. All right, so that have to do with anything? My dad would not have made that decision in 1973 to go cold turkey no-till without the information sitting on the kitchen table and his desk and the armchair by his chair. That was No-Till Farmer Magazine. That was the source of information. That was it. But it gave him enough confidence that there were other weirdos out there that he did it.

It was a cow farm. My first love growing up was cattle, but that whole experience is when I fell in love with growing corn. If it hadn’t been for Frank Lessiter and No-Till Farmer Magazine, I would not be standing here today.”

Video of the Week: Editor Frank Lessiter’s Newest Book Arrives

Perfect segue to our Video of the Week, and a very special moment for Frank Lessiter, aka the “Johnny Appleseed” of No-Tillage.  

Our entire staff was on hand as the No-Till Farmer editor opened the first box of his brand-new book, “Frankly Speaking: A Non-Whitewashed ‘First-Hand’ Account of No-Till Farming’s Rise Over 50-Plus Years.” It features 683 of Frank’s personal columns and opinions — as they occurred in real-time dating back to 1972. The only editor of No-Till Farmer since its first edition, Frank’s front-row seat spans more than half a century, during which he witnessed no-till acres grow from 3.3 million acres to 110 million acres today. 

Congratulations Frank, looking forward to reading it. 

Have an interesting photo or video from your farm? Or a story you’d like us to feature on the broadcast? Send me an email at Nnewman@lesspub.com.

And that will wrap things up this edition of Conservation Ag Update. Until next time, for more stories visit no-tillfarmer.com, striptillfarmer.com and covercropstrategies.com. Before we go, let’s send it out to Dave Hula for a preview of his upcoming presentation at the National Strip-Tillage Conference. Thanks for tuning in! Have a great day!