An innovative approach that offers major Farm Bill conservation and environmental benefits is really built around tripling the current no-till acreage.
Since the 1980s, Ray McCormick has seen that the major benefits of no-till include saving fuel, curbing erosion, building soil organic matter, boosting wildlife numbers and protecting the environment for future generations.
No-tillers are keenly aware of the benefits that cover crops can provide to their soil, yet a recent survey funded by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture indicates that cover crop usage lags.
Several St. Louis National No-Tillage Conference attendees who use GPS auto-steer systems raised the question of adding more GPS wizardry directly to drills, planters and sprayers for reducing costly side draft on steep slopes.
With the recent focus on the benefits of cover crops, it is ironic that research plots evaluating corn planted into hairy vetch sparked my initial interest in no-till. Those first impressions were made when I was a student at Western Kentucky University nearly 25 years ago.
Almost all no-tillers in South America have given up tilling completely. They use cover crops while U.S. no-tillers revert to tillage as a problem-solver
Most U.S no-tillers miss out on the full benefits of no-tilling because they incorrectly believe they must occasionally till for a variety of reasons, says Rolph Derpsch, an internationally respected no-till researcher and advocate from Paraguay.
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.
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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.
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