Re: Questions about no till

Posted by Paul Searl on September 29, 2011 at 08:56:28 from (199.151.19.201):

In Reply to: Questions about no till posted by oldtanker on September 29, 2011 at 06:36:39:

Cons:

slower soil warm up

variable yield decrease

heavy residue

requires differnt equipment

possibly heavier disease pressure

heavier pest pressure from overwintering and lack of tillage

variable increase in herbicide use

Pros:

short term:

decrease in soil erosion

reduction of tillage passes resulting in major fuel savings

possibly able to use smaller tractors

decrease in nutriant loss

Long term:

general increase in soil tilth

increase water holding and permaibility

better nutrient availability/possible reduction in required inputs

reduction in compaction and plow layer

summery:

No till is a love it or hate type system. you have an immediate decrease in yield that might be substantial depending on a lot of factors. Slope, soil type, weather etc will all play a big role in what kind of decrease you see. Some people see almost no decrease, some see a big decrease. The offset to that decrease is a lot of harder to measure factors. Cutting out 2 or 3 major tillage passes and not needing that big 4 wheel drive anymore with 4 dollar diesel is not small change. The ability to get started much later then your neighbors might be offest by getting the soil warm enough to get going. Sloping ground tends to take to no till a lot better then flat, damp black.

People also have a hard time quantifing what soil erosion costs per year. Losing 4 tons/acre of soil per year to erosion may not seem like much, only a sheet of papers worth really. But that sheet is coming out of your most productive soil year after year and taking your nutrients with it. And once its gone, its pretty much gone for ever. We really don't get any new soil build up under row crop farming, not nearly enough to offset the erosion. You didn't mention if your a flat lander or a hill farmer, so your erosion may be a lot more if you have a little slope, doesn't take much to be loosing 10-20 tons of soil a year. And once you loose the top soil and get down into your C horizen, well, you'll see even worse yields then on no till.

No till is not a system your going to see best results overnight from. Guys who only try it for a couple of years and abandon it will never get the full potential, same with guys who only no till on their soybean ground. You'll see some benefits, but you won't see the full benefits. run a deep ripper through after 2-3 years and you loose most of what you've gained. Reason for this is no till isn't just what you see on the surface, its whats going on in your soil. Earthworms especially will make a HUGE differnce in soil quality, and the longer they get to work undisturbed, the more impact you will see in soil quality, enough to elimiante plow layers and compaction zones, and you don't get the post tillage compaction. You can easily tell the differnce between a conventional tilled field and no till/strip till with a penetramoter or tile probe or just watching after a rain.

Dad has done No-Till and strip till almost 25 years now, and he noticed a few years ago that his low input test strips were yielding close enough to his high fertilizer input test strips that the yield increase wasn't even coming close to covering the extra input costs. I've talked to other long term no till farmers who have report similer results. However, I have hear dof no long term university studies to support or disprove this. Again, its not over night for any benefits.

Am I fan of no till? yes but I also feel its best value is in a crop rotation on at least B slopes. I am not a huge fan of it on flat black and I see a lot of pest problems in corn on corn either already here or on the horizon not to mention our modern hybreds just don't break down very well. I think it is a bottomline system, you don't get the same yields but you will cut back on costs enough to offset that, to understand it though, you really have to understand your system and whats happening and be able to weigh the long term. it will often come down to high corn values short term vs long term sustanability and efficiency.

Now, besides no till, you might also look at strip till. You'll need a strip till bar, and i suggest doing it yourself not hiring the local coop to coem do it. Most of the time, the coop kids treat strip till just like they are putting on Anhydrous and it sucks. Strip till means putting that slot right where you want to plant in so you need to get that strip right the first time. Nice thing is, it gives you a bare strip to warm up faster while still giving you many of the benefits of long term no till.

I'll also throw this out for you, your local NRCS office may have some programs available for first time no till/strip till with some cost share to help get started.

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