Jon, my experience agrees with your sod busting first then no/strip till program; grass was successful for a reason (but winter rye/oats/wheat block the seed bank weed grasses lurching out of the ground). ... All the tillage methods come back to what effect do they have on your Primary Livestock: The Worms! Worms leave as much fertilizer per acre as a correctly sized cattle grazing program. They work for free if you let them. ... The professional worm farmers (bait and compost sellers) reveal worms only live in the top five inches of the soil. So recovery after aggressive field actions rely on vicariously hatching viable eggs left behind, and that is slow. Strip-till preserves more worms outside of the narrow strips and thus has positive success. ... Would a farmer pour all the chems on his cattle that get dumped on worms? We're not crop farmers, we're worm ranchers.

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

5 ай бұрын

Nicely put!

Tilling in Covercrops greatly improved my soil. I’ve gained 1-2% OM. My worst soil is notill with no Covercrops

Thank you Jon for your videos! I’m going into my 2nd year farming without my dad or grandpa (rip) and it’s so helpful for me to learn to hear your conversations! I’ve commented before on previous videos on how I’m switching acres over to organics after being no-till since the mid 90s. It’s a challenge, but I figure I should try it out while I’m still relatively young. Much peace from northeastern Nebraska!

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

5 ай бұрын

Good luck this year!

It's all about the context. Good video Jon, have a good day.

Hi John I noticed in that video that the screws in the wall sheets behind you are in a beautiful straight line. Credit to your builders for that.

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

5 ай бұрын

Ha, good eye. Thanks. I spent hrs, nah, months working on thus and that us your takeaway? Pfft.

That made a lot of since. The best thing i did last you was put tile in a wet field. Flat ground is not always flat. The pockets that hold water were making some big problems. Now to get the field leveled back out and we will be in great shape.

Good video very informative

Primary Tillage is nescesary on a cash crop farm every 3-5yrs just to reset and smooth out ruts, also to break the greenbridge. Greenbridge = living roots in soil 365 days a year... better chance of insects over wintering abd hatching on your cash crop. Greenbridge is real and needs to be recognized when doing cover crops. Rotate cover crops like cash crops. Leave it tilled bare over a winter every 3'-5 years. Stuff ive learned in SE Nebraska.

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

5 ай бұрын

Good point on insect disease carry over.

I am just south enough here in the top 1/4 of Illinois, that I can get the cover crops to do the work. Thats combined with using short season varieties of cash crops. I’m so glad I don’t deal with a generationally instilled focus on yield per season. I am making more calories, nutrition, and profit per acre. I can’t go up North and tell those guys how to farm. But I can go south and weep with jealousy at the growing season they get 😂. Sure I have better dirt to start with, but the most dead clay or sand can be developed in to great soil, and land down there is still cheap. I know how to farm with low water, as long as I can drip in what is needed at the precise times the plants need it. I prefer a dry year. Less disease.

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

5 ай бұрын

very good points. I spoke down in iowa And central illinois. And I did make jokes about how them guys are too far north, too cold, and too wet to do any of this stuff. But up here where i'm at it works... Profit per acre? How does that get you in magazines and local hero status in the coffee shop?

@jimmartindale

5 ай бұрын

I think 2023 should have taught us a lot about the significance of capillary water. Without it functioning well i saw a lot of 30% tip back corn in MN. With it we saw record yields

That's where I am on hay seedings. Turn it over. I am looking at taking on a field however that if I do, I'll do a summer burn down and no till seed in August. Run a seed rate of about 3/4 and double plant. My idea is that the drill would loosen enough soil for a better seed soil contact. This field is really light soil. Now sod going into corn. I've had some of my best corn no tilled into sod but I've always did a fall burn down. This year im going to try my burn down about five days after planting.

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

5 ай бұрын

I had very hit and miss Results burning down in the spring. Even with 2 passes Some of the fields by harvest time we're a weedy mess.

@danw6014

5 ай бұрын

@@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754 yes have too. On the regenerative side they are planting into green cover crop and killing after planting. I want see how it works. I don't sell the corn and have to minimum yield goal of 110 bushels per acre. One acre feeds one steer. Planting my own corn is really just for rotation of hay seedlings and insurance against these high price swings. Of course this year looks like a better year to buy it.

@jimmartindale

5 ай бұрын

@@danw6014 it's never a great idea to be decomposing in soil while trying to grow a nitrogen requiring crop, which includes all crops, even legumes. Beans are forgiving because of the synergy of rye root exudate amino acids they contain.

@danw6014

5 ай бұрын

@@jimmartindale what do you think happens when you plow a field of sod over? Rapid decomposition.

@jimmartindale

5 ай бұрын

​@@danw6014i couldn't get my reply to post.

You get some of the fertilizer stratification taken care of with tillage every so many years. When that may be.

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 ай бұрын

I dont know if I am convinced that stratified is an issue.

Jon, have you heard of the Cursebuster tillage tool? I think you would like it. I have one.

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

5 ай бұрын

Rye Carlson has one. Good looking machine

@tylerbolton7310

5 ай бұрын

I bought mine in 15 and still working on getting away from the compact disc and row crop cultivator. We farm organic but I think it would be the ticket for someone willing to spray.

I’d love to get your opinion on how this could be done on some highly erodible land. In my area of SW Wisconsin, NW Illinois, E Central Iowa, there’s hills everywhere. My concern is with full tillage passes that it leaves the land very susceptible to eroding during rain events. In those cases I see it as a “pick your poison” scenario, either deal with a rough field or have the possibility of erosion at the start before the soil really rebuilds its structure

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

5 ай бұрын

Absolutely the erosion behind tillage is a concern. A guy has to try what you can, if you had to do tillage to reclaim some land, for sure I would put oats with other stuff to get a quick green up

@thomasfranklin4307

5 ай бұрын

Is it possible to till on the contour instead of up and down hills? Can you get a cover crop in right away, and have a cover crop over winter?

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

5 ай бұрын

@@thomasfranklin4307 You absolutely could tilll across versus up and down And immediately get it Planted. If you can use perennials , that will be there as late in the season as possible and right away in the spring , that would be great

@christopherschneider3323

5 ай бұрын

@@thomasfranklin4307 A lot of guys do contour till around here. As far as over winter covers, it really depends on the year. If it’s really wet like this year was, covers were hard to get in

@jimmartindale

5 ай бұрын

The curse Buster addresses each one of your concerns on highly erodable oil even to the point where you can reverse till you erosion by moving Soil up the hill.

Does any of this apply to tilling a garden? All of the talk of the economy crashing has gotten me on an implement buying spree for my Toro garden tractors.

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

5 ай бұрын

A gardener is so much easier for you to control some of the things. That you can't on a larger scale. You also probably don't have the erosion problems on a garden. But if you could build the soil Health on the garden You should start to have better food than commercial. If I was putting in a big backyard garden. whatever size you need for your corn and potatoes and carrots. I Would have another bay that size that I would seed it down to alfalfa, clover, buckwheat, annual rye grass.. So the next year that is the fertility that you need for them crops. I would soil test, And get a hudson sprayer to feed The plants and test the plants to make sure they are getting their micro nutrients.

Like it or not the moldboard plow is the best tool for sod.

Sounds like tillage once in a while isn’t such a bad thing. I am looking to tillage for nutrient incorporation. Mainly lime. If i was to apply 1 ton every fall to every field, might not be such a big deal. But if I am to apply 4 ton once every 4 years or so, i feel that needs to be worked in. I also think of manure, to prevent runoff issues, get that stuff in the ground unless its on a thick stand of grass.

@jimmartindale

5 ай бұрын

If you manage density layer development which results in normal root system architecture, water infiltration and gas exchange, then nutrient incorporation is never needed. I also suggest more meaningful info is gained by using 3 inch cores for soil testing. The bottom 3 to 4 inches of datA when included in the sample are misleading.

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

5 ай бұрын

It's not a good thing, but it sometimes is a must thing. Just east of me in wisconsin, they have to incorporate manure. Historically, that's how we did our liming, I have been adding calcium to my strip till program. To see if I can't get away from some of the surface applied, And also get away from 3- 4 ton and acre of product applications

@jimmartindale

5 ай бұрын

@@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754 how long can one stand to farm just a fraction of the farm?

@mn-1381

5 ай бұрын

@@jimmartindale i agree to an extent. But to be able to farm more than just a fraction of the farm a person has to make sure they have adequate calcium at the levels you are looking to explore. To me, that tillage to get it down there might be a necessary evil.

@jimmartindale

4 ай бұрын

@@mn-1381 my experience watching the stratification phenomenon for 40 years is that efficient management of soil aggregation and structural enhancement is entirely adequate to prevent stratification from developing. The vector is water movement and root system architecture combined with abundant microbial nutrient mobilization. I think we have yet to fully comprehend the mineral component of root system exudates. I think that will reveal another significant source of nutrient mobility. It's pretty hard to know all of the components that working when tillage that doesn't dislodge root systems or rearrange the soil microbiome but we definitely can measure the results. Results are excellent cationic nutrient mobility . Conversely we have been observing reduced leaching of anion like Boron, Sulfur and Chlorides.

Hello!

It's just another tool that can be used when needed. The idea is to have healthy soil a guy doesn't have to be a tillage teetotaler all the time.

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

5 ай бұрын

Thank you.

Do gophers count as tillage.?

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

5 ай бұрын

Ha! They should, they can move a lot

Promo`SM

Get those hippos off your land and go with the lighter end of medium framed animals, go more sheep focused, or just background younger weights. Keep them moving, moving, moving.

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

5 ай бұрын

Right, they are gorgeous! I don't know why but yeah one generation got really big. Same genetics, same pals, but we are getting back to normal size. No way no how would I ever leave the cattle to go in to sheep.

Everyone is convinced that tillage is evil and spraying pesticide is not

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

5 ай бұрын

Good point, upcoming video. What's better for the soil, a little bit of tillage or a lot of chemicals

@jimmartindale

5 ай бұрын

Depends on the type of tillage and the chemical and the timing of each one.