While there are definite areas were you can scrimp and trim costs, cutting your fertilizer bill will probably bite you in the end if it lowers your yield even a little bit.
Adding specialty crops to your no-till operation can definitely increase your profits. Here's how to do it right, from a veteran no-tiller who's definitely making it work.
Like it or not, succeeding in the new millennium is going to require you to make some changes in your no-till program, both in your thought process and in your crop management system.
Every no-tiller has one trick or idea that they absolutely can’t live without. For David Linn in Correctionville, Iowa, it’s strip-tilling in the spring instead of the fall.
Bill Mckibben believes in the many benefits of no-till. He's put on numerous meetings for interested farmers. He promotes it to clients - but he does so with a realistic picture of the no-till conversion. "Some universities promote no-till but forget about minimum tillage," he says. "We use it as a good transition from conventional tillage to no-till."
When you see the number of no-till acres growing significantly in areas outside the Corn Belt, one of the interesting things is the complexity of many rotations. No-tillers in other areas of the country are getting more crops into their rotations and are making them work.
High corn and soybean yields don’t happen by chance on Condon and Mark Schnepel’s farm in Carson, Iowa. The brothers use a four-step process of planning, on-farm researching, implementing and reviewing to manage their 1,000-acre no-till operation.
No-tillers in Sarpy County, Neb., are still benefiting from the experience Frank Cockerill gained by no-tilling 60 acres of corn and 10 acres of soybeans in 1975.
Yield responses from ultra-narrow-row corn are no great miracle, says Bob Nielsen. The Purdue researcher, who was already conducting narrow-row corn studies in the 1980s, says these responses are a simple matter of crop canopy management.
With increased plant growth and yield increases in field trials, crop additives may have caught your attention. But these fertilizer additives are far from receiving an across-the-board endorsement from university researchers.
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On this edition of Conservation Ag Update, brought to you by CultivAce, longtime no-tiller Jim Leverich explains why 20-inch corn rows are paying off big time on his Sparta, Wis., farm.
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.
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.