Nice to see someone with a broader perspective than simple yield results. Great stuff!

Awesome comparison, a big thank you from us all for taking the time to... First take the time to do a 5 year repeatable trial, no easy task!!! ...second to take time to share with us all and do a great job explaining what, why, how, and more in-depth observations. No till where you can guys, especially if your cover cropping and building soil health and organic matter... but that doesn't mean tillage once every few years is going to totally destroy all your progress! If you gotta till I try to do it as late as possible when the soil is most alive and nutrients are moving! Like row crop cult in seed corn for example. Gets the most ergs going! Like flipping the switch on for soil. Fall and spring tillage is basically just "seed bed prep". Or smoothing out past sins of going to wet or decades of tilling! Planters today can plant into just about anything! Seed will emerge just as well in no till, but the ultimate proof is in the yield, Jon just showed you! Thanks again Jon!

Love to see this comparison of no-till and conventional. Thanks for doing such a good job Jon

Couldn’t agree more, the additional time to do other things is so, so important.

Being a young farmer born into a no-till operation, its really something I guess I've taken for granted. One of the things I know we have to battle is erosion across the hills we farm. This year I had MAP deep placed for the first time to see if we can beat the nutrient stratification in our long term no till environment. Watching your testing videos is a good reminder that I'm not the only regular fella out here trying to break the status quo and learn along the way. Thanks for sharing your experiences

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you for the story.

Merry Christmas....very good content.

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks. You have a good Christmas!

The last 3 falls have been extremely wet here and there are many farmers around me that simply could not get fall tillage done. This year the fall has been great and everybody got there tillage done. But over the last three years their crops suffered and so did their checkbooks. I've been notill/striptill and banding fertilizer for the past 5 years and I'm here to tell you if you put the effort in and dedication to the soil health principles by year 4 you will never go back to your old ways. You have to have the optimism and the dedication to stick with it. I'm sure glad I did.

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

Awesome story! I love hearing success stories.

That's a very good argument you make..in my opinion we have to be less greedy when we farm

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

yes. the modern farm template is not going to work much longer.

thanks for sharing the difference between the two

Enjoying your videos nice to see actually comparing different tillages in real world situations.

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you. Scroll back the video list i have a lot of them! And a lot to come!

Good stuff Jon! What I need personally, since I am mostly a hay guy, is a way to reduce fertilizer costs. There are no poultry operations near me for manure, and any dairy farms left here use all of their own manure on their fields. I don't have the time and land to raise any beef cows of my own, so that basically leaves me with chemical options- which really start to hit the checkbook, especially on some of these old farm fields I am renting that haven't seen any lime/fertilizer for 10 or 20 years.

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

Its tough. A good healthy grass hay crop usually responds well to fungicides and foliar feeding for more tons per acre but have to make sure it pays. You dont have any fly ash by product by you? Have a beef guys that needs to rent a winter grazing spot?

Nice intro! The numbers are interesting,we are slowly trying to get away from fall tillage. Old habits are hard to break!

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

LOL yes! Our mind is the biggest obstacle I still have Springs where I get nervous and think I better make it black. That's why I always recommend people when they're getting started to Simply Save one spray around on the edge or in an average spot of a field. 99% of your farm is what you know will work and the 1% is to see if you can change and do better and make more money

There's the jon Steven's comedy i was looking for at the beginning of the video. Very good presentation. I know if I was a row cropper I would take your vast knowledge and incorporate it.

@jjp1117

3 жыл бұрын

I thought the whole vid was comedy I was sure laughing tell me again how we don’t need tillage to let our ground dry up in the spring In Minnesota black dirt

You know a funny thing is they are finding out no dig or no till is also giving the best results for vegetable production and gardening. The less you disturb the soil the better. Great video! Love the cheers!!

@davemurphy2774

2 жыл бұрын

Maybe Degelman "Pro Till" should give people who bought them cause "NO TILL" was not "Working" for them their money back...See how that goes!!!!

Thanks for sharing! We left some stalks stand this year for my new to me 750 drill to kick butt in next spring

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

Nice! It'll be fun to see it go through. I'm in the same boat next spring will be my first time with the 750 in corn stalks. I'm excited because any of the tractors I have can pull the drill so Dad can just drive around the field while I use the 4640 with the technology in it to run the sprayer and the row crop planter

Lots of people are going notill now, less machinery expenses, less fuel expense, time and put covercrops on to break that hard soil up, let the worms do their thing. Most importantly you plant in wetter ground being notill and notill ground holds the water in better so if it's a dry year the notill ground has that left over moisture to help the plant grow.

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

Well said!

@davemurphy2774

2 жыл бұрын

Snow melt and we get 3 feet or better of it holds water to soak on into a cultivated disced field in the spring better than no till it runs off a stays cold with the heavy frost in the ground!!! Well said!! No till leaves you sittin on the fence while cultivated fields are able to dry earlier in the spring and be seeded "BLACK" attracts the sun. PS I farm where you have a shorter spring seeding and growing season and much shorter growing season than Minnesota!!! OR Anyone who farms in a dryish area with a month longer growing season and say no till always is better may be right but does not work where farmin weather challenges are where you need to have cultivators and no till or minimum till seeding equipment to get it done!!!

great video, my fall tillage consided if no till drilling winter wheat in soybean stubble and drilling rye in standing corn stalks.

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

Nice!

What an intro man👍👍

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

My wife actually laughed at that one and is like oh man. Thanks for stopping by we can chat more this winter I should be starting to get caught up on chores here in the next couple weeks

Love the applause track.

Congrats, Jon. Nice comparison. Can't stress enough building soil biology to develop successful no-till program. While Jon was able to see slightly greater yield on his no-till plots, each farm must ask - what is more important? Yield or net profit? They are not necessarily mutual. Keep up the good work, Jon.

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you very much!

I’m 40 yrs. old and have been farming in South central Kansas my hole life and this year have decided to make the big decision to go 100% no-till. Resistant weeds and fertilizer placement will be biggest concern for now. But I’ve been farming with conventional tillage practices for the last 20 years and have it mastered. It may take me the next 20 yrs. to master no-till but I’m ready to take on the challenges for hopefully a better life style for me and my family. Thanks for your advice and videos. Good work!!

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

Good luck! Convert the whole Farm in one shot can have some challenges but you'll do just fine! Someday if I'm KZread Rich and I could travel the country and talk to Farmers I'll get down there and do a story on you!

@wilsonfarms7320

3 жыл бұрын

I’ve just traded my 40 ft Greatplains drill in for a 3 year old model 1990 CCS John Deere drill. And right now working on a chemical/water tender trailer for the semi. And also having liquid starter fertilizer setup installed on the drill. Needless to say I’m tired of spending money for now but trying to stay positive knowing these are long term investments switching to no-till for the future.

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

@@wilsonfarms7320 is that dryland country or irrigated? Do you have markets to diversify a little?

@wilsonfarms7320

3 жыл бұрын

I grow about 3000 acres wheat, 450 acres Milo, 400 acres soybeans 450 acres corn and 300 of cotton. All these acres are dryland. Then I farm 4, 120 acre irrigated circles which are in a corn, bean, cotton, Milo, and wheat rotation. With no-till my 3000 acres of wheat will now be more row crops. So the hole farm will be about 50/50 row crop and wheat. Thanks, Craig Wilson

adding cover crops is just as important as stopping the big tillage. I disc in a cover crop before corn, but its way less destructive than big disc rippers going over exposed soil. I plant buckwheat in between the corn rows and that structures soil and breaks up compaction too.

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

Yes! The cover crops at what make reducing tillage possible

Excited to see the results, although I'm not surprised! Soil health just keeps becoming a bigger topic every year, and more people are starting to take it seriously. I can't wait for your classroom at the conference in Indy in January, that's one of the things I'm looking forward to the most!

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

I'm nervous about that. it's going to be virtual this year

@bjjarnecke

3 жыл бұрын

@@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754 Oh, really? Are they doing some virtual and some live? Or have they moved everything to virtual and just haven’t said so yet? I know they switched hotels a couple weeks ago to “better accommodate“ everyone

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

I got an email that they are virtual and someone will be in contact with me to create my classroom.

@bjjarnecke

3 жыл бұрын

@@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754 Gotcha, well that's good to know, although can't say we didn't see it coming...

@jrwstl02

3 жыл бұрын

Jon, you’ll do great! Be positive, don’t be nervous. You have important info to share.

I have no tilled here in Ontario for over 30 years. My yields are usually lower than others but not always. This is offset by how little time and money I spend. Notill shines in drought especially. My nightmare scenario is a heavy wheat straw mulch and a cold wet spring. I love planting soys into corn stubble, works great. Had a few fields run 60+ bu soys this year. My equipment costs are very low, the soil stays where it should on my heavy slopes, and the rain goes into the ground, not over it. However, driving around the province, notill has disappeared except for winter wheat after soys.

What I think is after 5 years no till will produce 5% more per acre. After 10 years fertility will top out at 8 or 9 % and slowly gain a few for 20 years. Less compaction is only one factor. The less no till chemicals put down will amount to a greater fertility increase as more passes over each plot of land decreases. What I think is more chemical burden means less fertility. Ammonia will be your friend and cow manure.

You are so right about roots. Do you not have fungus issues? That’s was an issue for us in NW MN, long time ago so I imagine good anti fungals are easy to come by and don’t sting like jock itch. The grass strips are a joke here in MN, they said 6 feet by judicial ditches, but huge caveat is that 6 feet from natural ground. Farmers in the Red River Valley tend to go into the ditches each spring and recapture their topsoil, which they pile on the edge of their field next to the ditch. So when I was out with real deal survey gear for our watersheds, talking sub-centimeter accuracy, so when I walked into the field and made the subjective call that I’m standing on natural ground, I’d then walk into the ditch and find the same elevation, measure 6 feet out and ended up with a seeding area of about 2 feet. The legislation was written for farmers, not conservation. It was a sort of worthless look we’re trying to help with erosion control etc, meanwhile their ditches are full of slides, broken gates, beaver dams, red willows and cat tails. So much so that that water isn’t in the ditches rather sitting in large swamps. But that all came down to a bad watershed board and manager. Govt employees do need more oversight than say engineering firms, if you aren’t billable at a for profit, you better fix it up. But doing nothing for near 2 decades in Warren MN is easy, even when the 2 employees are always in trouble for mileage and overtime charges. Sorry, really lost my way here but I’ll let u delete it

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

I used to be the biggest promoter in the area of how you have to use fungicide on the beans and corn. But now I only use it as needed not as a preventative measure open as I build soil health I can build more of a natural system

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

Interesting about the valley.

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

I was down at the Uof M for a meeting and there was a lot of dept heads, companies like coke and general mills and politicians. They were meeting to figure out how to promote conservation. I had a plee whatever they do no regulations yet. Mentoring programs, grants...

You had me at No Till!!!

Minimum and notill are great.. One place they don't work here, is in some low ground.. we have a couple of fields that when worked every year or two, you can plant and harvest the whole field.. When we leave it in grass for long term, there are a few places we can't spray or fertilize.. and might not be able to harvest... Just takes money to buy the equipment needed...

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

There is something weird about old sod. It's almost like you put a layer of Saran Wrap on the field with a layer of sponge. LOL that old sod is my biggest challenge getting a crop to grow.

@GosselinFarmsEdGosselin

3 жыл бұрын

@@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754 the worst field is along a creek, the middle of the field is actually below the level of the creek bed.. but it will be dryer when it's been worked🤔

Strip till has been tried in my area by 2 people both guys went and bought new 16 row rigs one guy went at it for 3 years kept 500 conventional till farmed 3000 acres of corn, lost his butt ever year he said! His comment was tillage was cheap, everybody said your planting to wet he waited xtra 4 days on strips he said never helped him, fought more weeds being no till in middle, he sold it 5 years later in Iowa were east central il

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

Reducing conventional tillage shows the lack of soil structure and health that's out there. somehow tilling in a 10-inch pass versus the whole field black it was still too cold and too wet. Very typical response I get many many messages like that. I got a video coming that will address it Food For Thought kind of video

My thoughts did not venture towards using that saved time for leasure, but acres.

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

Yep!

Nother guy tried it the 4th year after the previous guy he offered to sell him his rig, he said nope went bought brand new unit, he got his butt handed to him on yields 4 years in a row, his strip till bar is now a very expensive nh3 bar!!! Sold the cart off the 5th year, they bought new 870 ripper on it! They kept their tillage tools never used them for 4 years but went right back to using them! We tried no till in the 90s got our butt handed to us! Go north 30 miles it works but not here, as many have found out our ground here dont dry out and warm up

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

That's why I make it clear to talk about soil health and not a strict a zero till because there is a big difference. There are many soils that simply going to know till staying on a corn and soybean rotation that it won't work there. But there is no soil that the principles of soil Health won't work on it's a matter of management and willingness. Is every farmer going to just Implement soil Health practices and have just this wonderful easy transition? Nope. some guys it takes more management and learning than they're willing to try right now.

I just bought a new Kuhn 11 shank chisel plow 😂

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

I would believe it because they are a fantastic piece of equipment and you got to hide that money somewhere! Uncle Sam don't need it. I was speaking with farmers in Western Minnesota and I asked them like what incentive would there be to try to do some soil Health practices. They have erosion out there but he said there is no incentive they're making good money why would they do anything to change. Couple years later we got the buffer law and the nitrogen ban

@JamesOBrien2253

3 жыл бұрын

@@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754 what do you mean you got a nitrogen ban. Is it like ours where yoy cant spread in winter months

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

@@JamesOBrien2253 in some counties in Minnesota they have found nitrates in the water so they're not allowing fall anhydrous to be applied

How many years before it offsets? I tried splitting a field and tried to get the most roi per acre, 119 dollar a bag conventional corn, p and k put in 2 inch offset one pass pre with resicore. The no til used 5 gallons less fuel but yeilded 60 bushel per acres less, at 3.71 when I sold my corn that's 222 less dollars per acre and I can take that loss.

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

So glad to see that you did the math! That's why I have been saying do soil Health on a small one percenter Farm the other ninety-nine percent of your farm you do what you got to do so you know you can pay your bills.

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

The other thing when you asked about time frame is I can't answer that because I don't know your soil. So Arlo me clay mask that we call Soil up here responds to soil Health amazingly fast. When I did just know till it was not pretty and it was going backwards real fast. Broaden strip-till that was light years ahead of conventional tillage for cash flow better yields less equipment dollars less fertility dollars fault man that was amazing. When we brought in cover crops that is what started our no-till to work The other part with no till was removed from broadcast fertilizer to banded fertilizer and that helped a lot. Broadcast fertilizer in no-till it looked sad.

Not one boo imagine that 🤦‍♂️😂😂

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

You guys love me!

0:01 😂😂 Woow! Hardly any difference between the 2. I didn't expect that in the 1st year

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

Big difference when its not sod! If this was sod it I would expect a huge difference.

@AlextheDutchDairyfarmer

3 жыл бұрын

@@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754 No doubt! It will take the sod longer to seep through with no till

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

@@AlextheDutchDairyfarmer i am going to ni till into my alfalfa but trying a spot of uan28% to burn it down vs chemicals. Theory is nitrogen will break that mat of carpet down quicker?!

@AlextheDutchDairyfarmer

3 жыл бұрын

@@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754 Why would you do that? Seems like throwing away N to me. I'd rather kill it off with roundup on time. You actually don't need the extra N for the cash crop. It will get enough from the old sod. But if N is cheaper then roundup...😅 Be on early. The N from the sod comes free in July. Just in time for pollination. ( hope I spelled that right)

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

@@AlextheDutchDairyfarmer I need a shot of n in Alfalfa in the beginning. To plant into soil that is only 40 degrees Fahrenheit we need a little bit of commercial fertilizer out there to be available for the crop because the soil isn't even awake yet. I'll leave a strip of no commercial fertilizer and we'll see what happens. You have to remember my history is based off of conventional tillage and things are changing the healthier my soil gets. Before pop-up fertilizer became a popular thing up here purple corn when it was small was a popular thing. LOL

What’s your stance on organic crop farming weed control with cultivation

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

So I could have had a sponsor but they wanted me to go organic. In my soil row crop cultivator going to keep weeds down I would have a ditch in every row. I told them I won't do it because I can have healthier soil if I don't go to organic. If I could do organic no-till or strip-till then I would be more willing to figure it out except we know that every year you're going to have some ground that you're going to want a moldboard. It would be a fun challenge to figure out how to do no-till organic

What are we going to do when they outlaw chemicals?

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

Use more cover crops.

@robmiller2919

3 жыл бұрын

@@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754 ehhhh, maybe .... I want to watch you do a organic notill trial , that would be very interesting, I know it has been done before , but long term successful rotations ????

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

Oof tough demand. Most fields that are going to soybeans next year I seated with Alfalfa and perennial grasses because at the time soybean Market didn't look good so I thought I was going to have a couple hundred extra Acres of hay next year. Now the soybean Market is fantastic and I locked in some really good prices that I'm happy with do I have to burn that Alfalfa and perennial grass down to be able to put soy beans in there. I have a little 2-acre field that maybe I could try an organic corn in there? Or where I'm going to put corn in alfalfa is it possible to take the first cutting off and then the corn get planted without a burn down? I picture the elf Elf outgrowing the corn at a young stage and smothering it?

@robmiller2919

3 жыл бұрын

@@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754 look up farming with carp on youtube, they have done some notill corn into alfalfa, they just rolled the alfalfa at flowering, of course the alfalfa came because it is a perennial , but the corn got enough jump it stayed ahead of the alfalfa, not a great crop but still impressed me. The guy works for Rick Clark out of Indiana who is transitioning like 5k acres to notill organic.

What's it the a guy to have a cover out there to possibly graze it come early spring when the ground is beginning to wake up or to rent out the ground for 2-3 weeks in the fall to graze stalks.

@LtColDaddy71

3 жыл бұрын

That's a mixed bag of tricks. The organic matter is better off in the field versus bailing forage / stalks. Running the animals right on the ground results in them consuming nutrients, but also leaving behind broken down nutrients right out of their hind ends. I modified an old combine and round bailer and bailed directly right off the back of the machine, getting everything in a single pass and found that I lost yield the next year. That was 10 years ago (I also had an air seeder on the machine), I could try it again, due to the fact that the land has had 10 more years of organic matter build up. But bringing in my cattle during the winter is a practice that's fallen out of favor with me. For example, I'll run them on stockpile through December and start feeding hay IN THE FIELD on a sacrifice pasture right after Christmas. In the spring, when the pastures are coming back, I'll move them onto cropland and let them forage cover crops until the pastures are ready. That's a huge challenge, 2-3 times per day of moving cattle from paddock to paddock. The thing this guy is doing that I am beyond interested in, is the relay cropping, different row spacing. I'm like a bug that just can't resist the light. I hope he can convince me not to with his videos. LOL

@Heimerviewfarm

3 жыл бұрын

@@LtColDaddy71 I understand where the frustration lies but a guy shouldn't be removing a ton of stover, I'm referring to more of possibly a perennial cover crop situation where there's a massive green mat in between the rows.

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

@@LtColDaddy71 that would be an interesting machine to watch! I want to keep growing on the fall grazing behind the combine but we have to be careful we don't want them out there in the mud creating a bunch of problems. And there is no way I would be able to graze ground ahead of row crop planting. There wouldn't be anything to graze and there's not much time between snow and planting

@LtColDaddy71

3 жыл бұрын

@@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754 It was fun until I lost yield the next year, and it was nothing to do with weather, or other conditions.It didn't work out tht well for me. Shame on me for giving up so easily, but I was having mechanical problems, had an off farm job etc... You're north of me. I can't get much, hence the frequent moves. Of course, their are years where I can get nothing due to weather. To hep with compaction we have midget cattle. Not literally, sarcasm is just how I hug. but we have irish Dexters. They are like pet dogs, only 700-780 lbs on the hoof at slaughter. It works for us, because our customer's aren't the local types, they are city people. Lincoln Park in Chicago, Naperville IL, Highland Park, and all along the North shore. Big is a draw back for them. We dry age our products down really well, 30-45 days, So a half is 110-135 pounds. They just don't want to run 2 extra freezers to keep bulk meat on hand. The smallest size deep freeze, and the refrigerator freezer can store a half cow, half pork (we run small breeds there too) pus take care of their other freezer needs. Keep up the good work, you are a pioneer my friend!

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

@@LtColDaddy71 that is funny on the cattle! Good for you! If you're not done farming then you haven't given up too quick. There's always next year to try again but like I tell everybody just do it on a tiny area.

Can we publish some of your results on our site? $100/acre savings? Give us a call and chat about it, we won't keep you waiting for the applause!

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah I'll give a call!

I went notill 7 years ago and in the last video I seen rutts no rutts and all I could say to myself was notill not notill . The wear and tear on combine, sprayer is gone in no till and you just made thing worse where you tilled. its a no brainer.

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

Excellent! See dealer came over one time with the way wagon to do a test plot. They drove into my field with a pickup and I had the 4020 tractor moving a 500 bushel wagon. This was a very wet fall add a previous Farm they had to use the tractor and grain cart to get the corn across the road to the way wagon because there was no way they could even get out into that field. And I mention to them do you notice anything different and all they said was well because my soil is lighter. Nope my soil is starting to build structure and health it can carry equipment better without making such deep ruts and it can infiltrate water better to reduce all that mud. Doing extensive tillage to fix ruts is so backwards. You fix the ruts but you destroyed the infiltration of that spot so Waters going to collect you destroyed the infiltration rates around the rest of the field so water going to run and Pawn and now that spot is going to just be Rod again next year. Tillage fixes nothing it is a Band-Aid it begets more tillage

Glad to see the results. Everyone wants to bash more government regulation, I get it. But there is such an opportunity to get out in front of the regulations by adopting some or all of these practices. I would be interested in seeing a survey of farmers and why they would not want to adopt these practices. Is it just a lack of information for them?

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

In Western Minnesota a few of them farmer said that there is no incentive for them to try to move away from black dirt. They are making good money doing what they're doing and to them the wind erosion over winter and water erosion in the spring means nothing.

give it a few more years and i think the results will supprize alot of people...

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

Yep. This field is a very uphill climb to get the soil Health up and running. The fact that it did so well on the no-till side with the underwear challenge is promising.

Where is this in terms of location?

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

East central Mn. 70 miles north of the twin cities not far from StCroix river.

@mattcraztex9940

3 жыл бұрын

@@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754 Ah ok thanks, I am located in Southern Ontario Canada. Harsh Winters here and not very long growing seasons. Its hard to know if it will be a wet summer or a hot one. No-Till works in some soils but I am not sure if it will work in my Organic Potatoes and Vegetable system. How do you warm the soil and mix in manure without tilling? From your experience what has No-tilling done in terms of warm/cold soil and cover crops not absorbing too much moisture from the ground?.

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

3 жыл бұрын

soil health works on all soil no till might not. organic production is a whole nother animal to figure out. soil health has made improvements to how my soil survives extreme weather events. i have videos from 2018 of side dressing corn and spraying beans after 4 and 5 inch rains. am in a 90 day corn area but the climate is changing. we have been getting better seasons! the need to warm and dry the soil to put in corn is a myth. what happens when my neighbors till there soil to warm and dry it and the next rain behind the planting all the soil is the same temp. there has been many soil temp trials and i did one last spring showing that the grass got just as warm as the tilled soil. i dont work in manure. it does more good for my soil by leaving it on top vs mixing it in. we would lose more nutrients by tiling it in with runoff vs leaving it on top where the soil can absorb the water.

@mattcraztex9940

3 жыл бұрын

@@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754 Thanks for the input. When it comes to manure and no-till, we are going to compost it and spread it over top the soil therefore all the nitrates and nutrients stay in the compost and actually go in the ground rather then hauling around all that weight. Some soils actually benefit with plowing because they are very thick clay like soils. I am trying to transition to using deep rooted crops like tillage radishes and turnips for compaction rather then using Iron. Mother nature got on without us for millions of years and it's we try to work with it a little more then against it. Cover crops are great at reducing weeds and even better for building organic matter.