On this edition of Conservation Ag Update, brought to you by CultivAce, Gregg Sanford, Wisconsin Integrated Cropping Systems Trial manager, reveals how no-till is stacking up to other major systems in year 34 of the trial.

Hickory, N.C., no-tiller Russell Hedrick helps his community after the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene, delivering food, water and supplies to stranded victims.

 In the Cover Crop Connection, associate editor Mackane Vogel catches up with Pennsylvania no-tiller William Thiele at the Soul of the Soil Conference in Galena, Ill.

Later in the episode, Otwell, Ind., strip-tiller Chris Perkins explains the true value of crop residue, and in the Video of the Week, a young farmer from Cantril, Iowa, tests out his grandpa’s equipment.

This episode of Conservation Ag Update is brought to you by CultivAce.

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TRANSCRIPT

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Latest No-Till Takeaways from WICST Trial

Let’s kick things off at the University of Wisconsin, where they’re on Year 34 of the Wisconsin Integrated Cropping Systems Trial (WISCT). The purpose is to evaluate a broad range of ag systems common to the Midwest and see how they stack up to each other in terms of yield and economic returns.

WISCT manager Gregg Sanford says no-till has proven to be one of the most resilient systems in drought years, but not shocking to many of you, he also says no-till is at its best when it’s paired with something else like livestock and cover crops.

“We do see the lack of tillage slowing carbon loss, stabilizing carbon. But when it’s happening, it’s happening because it’s a combination of no-till and a grassland system or no-till and a perennial system. Our no-till corn and soybeans are phenomenally productive, very stable with respect to climate. We’re still seeing carbon loss in some of these systems, which is a disappointing finding. We’re doing a lot of research right now to look at soil health, deep soil carbon, microbial community composition in no-till grain systems, where we’ve got that no-till component to produce grain, but we’re combining it with greater degree of living covers or reintegration of livestock.”

No-Tiller Delivers Supplies to Hurricane Helene Victims

A no-tiller in the southeast is stepping up big time to help those in need after the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene.

Russell Hedrick shared this video on his Facebook page. The v no-tiller is using drones to deliver food and water to people who are stranded in Asheville and surrounding areas. And he’s been doing this every day since Saturday Sept. 28.

“We’ve made it all the way up here. Got a drone set up, getting it ready. Got our bags, flying the 3 Ts over with speakers to tell people we’re coming. Just so you can get a look at what people are dealing with, I’ll give you a shot (with the video camera), and this isn’t the bad part. I don’t even know how you deal with this.”

“Just so y’all understand, some of these rocks are bigger than my F-350. Everything’s washed out. They’ve been 4 days now without supplies, no contacts, so hopefully it will make their lives a little bit better.” 

Hedrick says he’s seen more people helping each other out over the last few days than he can remember in quite some time. And he’s been impressed by the resiliency of the community.

Cover Crop Tactics on Display at Soul of the Soil Conference

Mackane Vogel here with this week’s Cover Crop Connection and this week we are in beautiful Galena, Ill., and we got a choice to check out the first ever Soul of the Soil Conference. This is put on by the Fields of Sinsinawa and we are actually going to toss it off to one of the presenters to talk a little bit about what’s going on in the world of cover crops at the first annual soul of the Soil Conference. 

“What is the most dangerous phrase in farming, and I thought I believe this is the most dangerous phrase in farming. We’ve always done it this way. Well yeah, of course we’ve always done it this way it’s always going to be the same year after year after year — no it’s not. So, I want you to have that background whenever I’m talking here.”

“This mix is typically what we do for our summer mix after we harvest the oats and the rye. We roughly put in this mix. Now, I have a question mark with the crimson clover because we plant ahead and if next year we plan on putting corn in there we put the clover in. If next year it’s going to be into soybeans then we take the clover out. And so that’s what we have been doing with that. We’ve experimented with this mix a little bit. I think one year we tried sunn hemp and that for whatever reason didn’t work out. We’ve tried turnips, we’ve tried a lot of different things. So I’m not married to any of these but nonetheless it’s something we’ve been trying.

“Here’s another video of walking right behind — you’ll see — the clover and the rapeseed that’s behind that. You can see a little bit of that in there. Now, another thing you’ll notice here is that this is the same field when we are harvesting. As I was harvesting I thought I want to showcase that rye that is still doing that mulch, that weed suppression that’s down in there and I thought that was great to see that it was still doing that late in the season like that. From what I’ve observed, we talked about observations earlier today, and an observation I made is that the only weeds I see that are getting through that during the growing season — I’ve seen some dandelions and that’s about it. So, I tell a lot of people that I prefer dandelions over marestail and pigweed and all that fun stuff.”

Lots of great information this week at the Soul of the Soil Conference. Well, I’ve got to go catch my zipline over my shoulder there but that’s all for this week’s cover crop connection.

How Valuable is Your Residue?

Corn harvest is 21% done in the top corn-growing states according to the latest USDA Crop Progress Report. That’s up 14% from last week and ahead of the 5-year average of 18%. Just how valuable is all that crop residue after harvest? Strip-Till Innovator Chris Perkins says, very valuable. 

“It’s the one thing I’m a huge believer in — a good crop, will grow you an even better crop the next year. It is amazing how that works. 

“The healthier the residue, the better it breaks down. When we did some trials with fungicide a couple years, the corn that didn’t have fungicide, it was back in 2016, it was 80-100 bushels less than where we did apply fungicide. What was amazing, a couple months later, where we didn’t apply fungicide, the corn residue looked like we had just combined it yesterday because it was already brown and dead the day we got there. It had nothing to give up that the biology wanted, it was just junk. But the corn that had the extra sugars in it, and the extra fertility in it, the makeup of a decent corn crop, that corn was degrading and as black as can be.” 

26% of soybeans were harvested as of September 29, which is 8% ahead of the 5-year average. 

Video of the Week: Grandson Puts Grandpa’s Farm Machinery to the Test 

Turning now to our Video of the Week. This one comes to us from Cantril, Iowa, where third-generation farmer Bradley Zimmerman puts his grandpa Raymond Zimmerman’s prototypes to the test. Raymond is the founder of Zimmerman Manufacturing, which makes strip-till bars, low-disturbance manure and nitrogen applicators and more. Bradley, what’s it like to use grandpa’s equipment?

Bradley Zimmerman: It’s great. It’s nice to be able to use the first thing, even though it doesn’t work right, it’s still nice to know you’re the first to get to use something. 

Michaela Paukner, No-Till Farmer Contributing Writer: “Do you give him honest feedback when it doesn’t work right?”

Bradley: “Yea. They take it. At least they know they need to change something and not send it to someone else, and then it’s wrong for them.”

Raymond Zimmerman: “I think it’s great that my grandchildren want to be on the farm. 3 of these boys are right behind each other. They have to take turns running farm machinery. It’s fascinating to see them run the big manure tanks. And being out there running at the same time in the field, there’s one of them running the grain cart, and the other running the combine. I think we need a lot of young farmers. Teach them what farming is when they’re young, and they’ll want to do it when they’re older.”

Bradley: “I like farming. Someone’s got to do the farming or nobody can eat. It’s fun to be the one to do 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!