When we wrote about Ellis McFadden’s no-till operation near Fort Wayne, Ind., in November 2003, he noted two important keys to success. First, keep only equipment that is absolutely necessary, but make sure it’s all new or nearly new. Second, don’t be shy about trying new methods that help you farm smarter.
“Mound height is the key to successful strip tilling, but I see a lot of people who don’t pay a lot of attention to the mound height,” says Jim Kinsella, who’s been making strip-till work for more than 20 years on his farm in Lexington, Ill.
Illinois no-tiller knows the future could require a move away from soybeans, so he’s preparing to profit from corn on corn and willing to share what he’s learned along the way.
Fighting problems with surface soil compaction, this Ohio farmer was about to back away from no-tilling until he found a solution that has worked well for 15 years.
Just about every no-tiller I’ve ever met would agree that at some point you start to wonder if you were really smart to move away from the “safety” of conventional systems.
"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.
Water, water everywhere. Or at least a lot of rain to hamper no-tillers across the country. A few of them brought their shared frustrations to Farmers’ Forum, the online bulletin board at www.no-tillfarmer.com, where they found both sympathy and answers. Alas, rain wasn’t the only thing running downhill. So was a planter — sideways — in Pennsylvania. But again, Farmers’ Forum visitors chipped in ideas to resolve the problem. Now we bring all of these ideas to you, just in case it should ever rain a little too much in your fields, too.
No one thing got us into no-till, but every year we find more reasons to stay with it. In the 1970s and early 1980s, our farm management included my father, Doyle, my Uncle Jerry and a cousin, Roy. They had given up the moldboard plow in the 1970s and had switched to a chisel plow system, but were still doing a lot of tillage.
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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.