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Articles Tagged with ''roots''

Compaction Can Threaten Unsuspecting No-Tillers

Just because you’re no-tilling doesn’t mean a hardpan can’t undermine all your cropping efforts from the roots up.

By Ron Perszewski posted on December 1, 2005 | Posted in Soil Health

No-tillers know the threat that compaction poses to their crops. And although no-tilling minimizes the risk of compaction, no-tillers might not understand how a hardpan might still sneak into their fields.

What I've Learned from No-Tilling

Continuous No-Till Really Does Pay

While 23 percent of the country’s total cropland is now being no-tilled, less than 12 percent has been continuously no-tilled for more than 5 years.

By Dan Towery and Ron Ross posted on August 1, 2005

If I had to pick out one consistent thing about no-tilling that I have observed over and over, it is that most no-till benefits come with continuous no-till — season to season and crop to crop. That’s the message I delivered last winter to attendees at the 2005 National No-Tillage Conference just a few days after I retired from the Natural Resources Conservation Service. And it’s the message I would like to expand upon as a private consultant: It’s time for the no-till community to aim higher.

Maximize Your Phosphorus Placement

Input costs for fertilizer, an absolute necessity, can be staggering. Here’s how to ensure you get the biggest bang for your phosphorus buck.

May 1, 2005 | Posted in Nutrient Management

Fertilizer placement draws a lot of opinions about everything from when to apply to the depth of application. The many, sometimes conflicting opinions can be confusing about which to follow.

Annual Ryegrass Cover Crop Reaches Depths To Aid Yields

Advocates point to extraordinary root development that improves soil structure while helping crops reach water and nutrients several feet below the surface.

By Ron Perszewski posted on December 1, 2004 | Posted in Cover Crops, Nutrient Management

Annual ryegrass works hard as a cover crop. It sends roots down as far as 6 feet in no-till fields, breaking through compaction layers to reach deep water and nutrients, and it leaves improved soil structure and higher organic content in its path, according to Mike Plumer.

Diseases Travel Over "Green Bridge" To Quietly Steal No-Till Yields

Pathogens feed on dying plants then live long enough to prey on newly planted crops1

By Ron Perszewski posted on November 1, 2004 | Posted in Crop Protection

The so-called “green bridge” could be stealing yields from no-till fields without the growers’ knowledge. The green bridge is the method by which soil and foliar pathogens feed on cover crops, weeds or volunteer crops and survive long enough to infect a new season’s cash crops.

The Big Three

No-tiller Paul Reed pays particular attention to three aspects of his operation to drive up corn yields and profit.

July 1, 2004 | Posted in Seeding & Planting

“No-till soybeans have caught on a lot faster than no-till corn. We want to close that gap,” says Paul Reed, who no-tills in Washington, Iowa, with his brothers and father.

Frank Comments

Watch Shallow No-Tilling

March 1, 2004 | Posted in Seeding & Planting

While John Pickle admits that no-tilling corn shallow will get the plants out of the ground faster, he maintains there are several other considerations to worry about when deciding how deep to plant.

Use Deep Zone-Tillage To Farm Vertically

Higher yields can result from getting crop roots to grow deeper in your no-tilled fields.

By Lynn Grooms posted on August 1, 2003 | Posted in Seeding & Planting

"If you want to double the size of your farm, farm vertically,” says Ray Rawson. The developer of several pieces of zone tillage equipment and a no-till corn and soybean producer from Farwell, Mich., for many years has taken the time to look beneath the soil surface. The result has been higher yields on his own and and many other farms.

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Sustainable Agriculture Summit Shines Light on No-Till, Strip Till & Cover Crops

During the Sustainable Agriculture Summit in Minneapolis, Minn., Carrie Vollmer-Sanders, the president of Field to Market who also farms in Northeast Indiana and Northwest Ohio, shared why it is important for no-tillers and strip-tillers to share their knowledge with other farmers.

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