No-Till Farmer
Get full access NOW to the most comprehensive, powerful and easy-to-use online resource for no-tillage practices. Just one good idea will pay for your subscription hundreds of times over.
Advertise Follow Us
Covers, Continuous Cropping Advance No-Till Game
Dan Buerkle finds benefits of a continuous cropping system have ramped up soil health and made weed control more economical and effective.
Above Photo: WEED WATCH. More crop diversity with staggered planting dates means Dan Buerkle is more likely to get all his acres sprayed prior to planting. He’s also able to use more cost effective herbicides as he can target grassy weeds in his broadleaf crops and broadleaf weeds in his small grain crops.
Check The Specs...
NAME: Dan and Lana Buerkle
FARM: B and B Farms
LOCATION: Plevna, Mont.
YEARS NO-TILLING: 10
ACRES: 2,200
CROPS: Winter wheat, spring wheat, safflower, peas, corn, canola and hay
Leaving fields in fallow, and heavily tilling to keep them that way, is a deeply ingrained tradition in the often-parched southeastern corner of Montana, where I farm with my wife of 41 years, Lana.
Moisture is scarce. We only get about 14 inches of rain per year, so people have long left fields to rest every other year, hoping to stockpile what little water seeped into their soils.
Dan Buerkle
Tilling the soil to keep the moisture-grabbing weeds at bay actually had the opposite impact. In the hot summer sun, turning the soil allowed even more moisture to evaporate, which is part of why this tillage tradition was the first to go for us.
Hours spent keeping the earth black in summer were transferred to our 120-foot pull-type Top Air 1600 sprayer, as I started using a chemical fallow strategy and no-till planting. By cutting out tillage, I was actually successful at keeping more moisture in the soil. Not tilling also allowed me to address…
Premium content is for our Digital-only and Premium subscribers. A Print-only subscription doesn't qualify. Please purchase/upgrade a subscription with the Digital product to get access to all No-Till Farmer content and archives online. Learn more about the different versions and what is included.
Top Articles
- No-Till Highlights: Dec. 26, 2024
- Video of the Week: “You Can’t Do It All at Once” with No-Till
- How Financial Liquidity Helps Farms Perform in Tough Times
- Sarah Noggle Receives Prestigious Ohio No-Till Council Educator of the Year Award
- Reflecting On the Significance of Commitment to No-Till & Cover Crops
Current Issue
Innovators Honored for Blazing a Path for No-Till Adoption
Searching for a Silver Lining After a Tough Year of No-Tilling
When it Comes to Brand Loyalty, More Growers Are Willing to Switch Brands with Planter, Drill & Sprayer Buys — Three Slices of the Overall Farm Equipment Market Which Are Critical for No-Tillers
Must Read Free Eguides
Download these helpful knowledge building tools
- How No-Till Improves Your Land Value
- 5 Pillars for No-Till Farming Effectively, Efficiently
- Making the Precision Basics Even Better with Implement Guidance
- Focusing on Smarter, Sustainable Fertilizing Strategies
Videos
Ponds, Panels, Pollinators: No-Till Innovator Takes Conservation to Next Level
On this edition of Conservation Ag Update, brought to you by CultivAce, No-Till Farmer’s Conservation Ag Operator Fellow, Ray McCormick, showcases how he’s taking conservation ag to the next level in Vincennes, Ind., with ponds, solar panels, duck hunting and more.
Top Directory Listings
Needham Ag Technologies, LLC
Needham Ag understands the role of technology in making better use of limited resources within a specific environment by drawing on a wealth of global experience to overcome the challenges facing today's farmers, manufacturers and dealers.
Titan International, Inc
Titan offers a full line of wheels, tires and undercarriage products for a wide variety of off-the-road equipment.
The Andersons PureGrade
The Andersons grows enduring relationships through extraordinary service, a deep knowledge of the market, and a knack for finding new ways to add value as we have done for nearly 70 years.