Residue management, proper seeding rates, timely nitrogen applications and scouting for diseases are some of the keys to pushing no-till wheat yields to worthwhile levels
From the Pacific Northwest to the Great Plains to the Eastern Corn Belt, no-tillers John Aeschliman, Dan Forgey, Allen Dean and Romey Bardwell grow different varieties of dryland wheat in different soils in areas receiving vastly different amounts of rain.
While you’ll need to be prepared for some weed and fertility challenges, don’t ruin 10 years of soil benefits with full-width tillage, this agronomist says.
“I can't get my wife to no-till the garden,” laments Bill Coppess while walking through the family tomato patch on the way to one of his residue-covered, Ansonia, Ohio, wheat fields.
It doesn’t seem possible that I’ve been no-tilling for 30 years. I don’t know if you would call me a pioneer, but no-till was almost unheard of in north central South Dakota in 1979.
No-till has not only been better economically for Angela, Mont., farmer Alan Ballensky, the moisture protected by no-till has helped him raise yields that many would not deem possible in such a dry climate.
Alan Ballensky rolls his 4730 John Deere self-propelled sprayer to a stop in a cloud of dust at a field edge on his southeastern Montana small grains no-till operation.
The more Jim Millar works with cover crops, the more credit he’s willing to give them — credit for soil building, nutrient recycling, water infiltration and the nitrogen credit for the following crop.
A regular favorite at the National No-Tillage Conference, Dwayne Beck’s 2 decades of work at the Dakota Lakes Research Farm near Pierre, S.D., has revealed a depth of data to support his claim that, “In nature, tillage is a catastrophic event.”
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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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