On this episode of Conservation Ag Update, brought to you by Sound Agriculture, we head inside Commodity Classic 2025. USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins promises a standing-room-only crowd rapid action and support from her agency to help get the industry on its feet this year.

Longtime South Dakota no-tiller Rick Bieber shares the eye-opening results from a 5-year trial comparing no-till fields with no inputs to no-till fields with “best management” inputs.

In the Cover Crop Connection, Rob Myers, University of Missouri agronomist, shares tips for seeding cover crops this spring. Plus, Indiana landowner Mary Huber shares a story about going the extra mile to get one of her farmers started with cover crops.

In the Video of the Week, Marlette, Mich., farmer Ryan Shaw shows how he’s implementing cereal rye on 100% of his strip-till acres.

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

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TRANSCRIPT

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Inside Commodity Classic 2025

Welcome to the show. Kicking things off in Denver today as we had boots on the ground at Commodity Classic 2025. 

Senior editor John Dobberstein was there for all the action, which included educational sessions from familiar no-till and strip-till names like Dave Hula, Kelly Garrett, Randy Dowdy, Fred Below and more. USDA secretary Brooke Rollins meanwhile took the main stage and promised the standing-room-only crowd rapid action and support from her agency to help get the industry on its feet this year.  

“Today I am proud to announce that the economic assistance program will be called the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP). ECAP is the new program to help us distribute the $30 billion in funds that congress pass ed in December. They gave us 90 days to start distributing that first $10 billion in economic assistance and we are on track to beat that and get that money starting to move immediately in the next few weeks.”

Rollins also promised a streamlined application process. Head to No-TillFarmer.com for more coverage from the Commodity Classic. 

How to Build Nutrient Content in No-Till Fields Without Inputs 

Turning our attention now to an interesting multi-year trial. South Dakota no-tiller Rick Bieber split one of his fields in half — one side got no fertility, and the other side got the best management practices. Yield went down 10-15% in the first 3 years on the side without inputs, but by year 4 it started going up, eventually equaling the other side of the field by year 5. Rick, how in the world did that happen? 

“We see that it’s balanced itself. Our testing shows that our nutrient content on the fields with 0 fertility has actually been going up significantly, and that’s all because of a process called rhizophagy cycling, where plants can and will manufacture their own nutrients if the balances are in the soil. I’m talking about biological balances, where all your fungi, bacteria and little critters come back into a balance, and they only do that when the chemical side of things — the carbon, oxygen, phosphorous, magnesium, molybdenum, etc. — all those levels become accessible and uniformly distributed within our soils so the plants can get them.”

Bieber never stops experimenting. Here he is seeding a mix of non-GMO corn, turnips, radishes, oats, barley and more on a 19-degree day at the Fields of Sinsinawa in southwestern Wisconsin last week. 

Breaking Down the Benefits of Seeding Cover Crops in Early Spring

Frost seeding legumes and spring cereals can work very well according to University of Missouri agronomist Rob Myers. And as Rob tells us here in the Cover Crop Connection, if you want to wait a little bit longer and plant your covers in April, that’s perfectly fine, too. 

“Frost seeding when the snow is on the ground, or we’ve got some moisture even if there is no snow, can be something to think about. The other option for spring seeding is I’ve had good success with a grain drill as soon as the conditions allow. Where I’m at, in Missouri, that’s often the last week of March or first week of April. If you’re farther south you could be going earlier in March, if you’re further north you might be a little more into April, but I’ve had really good success with spring seeding of crimson clover, Austrian winter peas, hairy vetch, oats. There’s really a variety of things that can be spring seeded and still give us some benefits for weed control, nitrogen fixation and providing soil protection since spring is usually are most erosive period in terms of soil erosion.” 

Check out the latest episode of the Cover Crop Strategies podcast for more spring management tips from Rob Myers. 

Indiana Landowner Goes Extra Mile to Help Farmer Plant Cover Crops

Last episode, we took you inside the first-ever Conversations About Conservation Workshop, teaching landowners about the true value of no-till and cover crops. And during one of the sessions, Indiana landowner Mary Huber shared a story about helping one of her farmers get started with cover crops.   

“I did the research, read up on cover crops and their benefits, as well as how to do them. I talked to the soil and water conservation people to see what they had to say, read about it and did research. And then I talked to my farmer about it and proposed to him that for the first couple years I would take care of making all the arrangements and paying for it. And after several years, he converted and now he also does cover crops on other lands that he farms.”

And it wasn’t just paying for the change that made the difference, she says, it was also putting in the work, digging into something that particular farmer hadn’t done before. 

Strip-Till & Cereal Rye a Winning Combo for Michigan Farmer 

Let’s check in with Ryan Shaw now for our Video of the Week. The Marlette, Mich., farmer explains how he’s incorporating cereal rye on all his strip-till acres.  

“This would be like one of our tram lines where our 120 and the other one would be over there. There would be the 12 rows here. We’re making the berms in between where our cereal rye was planted last fall after the soybeans came off. We were just making our seedbed between all that and the idea was to not have a whole bunch of that rye in our berm to start with just because sometimes the roots gave us trouble. If we got into heavy clay, it would almost look like a knife through butter, you could open it and see the wavy coulter but then it was just root mass down there. Leaving it in the 2 rows allows us to make a better seedbed and more comfortable with covering 100% of the acres with the cover crop knowing we won’t have that issue.” 

That’ll do it for this week. Got something you’d like to feature on the program? Shoot me an email at Nnewman@Lessiter Media.com. Thanks for tuning into Conversation Ag Update. Until next time, for more stories visit no-tillfarmer.com, striptillfarmer.com and covercropstrategies.com.