Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Ken Hargesheimer <minifarms2@yahoo.com>]

Rodale, a few years ago, found that no-till during a drought, had yields 25% higher than their neighbors that harvested something.  Most farmers in the area had nothing to harvest. 

 

No-till or 0-till works and the reason it is not applied by all farmers in the farmers themselves due to this type thinking:  A wheat farmer in Amarillo TX told a friend of mine "There is no way you can raise wheat without tilling the soil". He walked off.  A farmer told me that "It is impossible to grow cotton without using chemicals".  I said then please explain to me how the farmers here are growing organic cotton without chemicals.  He walked off.

 

Each year weeds are less and less of a problem.  When the farmer stops plowing, he stops bringing seed up to the surface to sprout.

 

I have in my computer many articles, etc on no-till.  Anyone who wants a copy of them on a CD/DVD, email your postal address to me and I will mail a copy to you.

 

Ken Hargesheimer

 

No-till farming requires mind-set change

By NICK PETERSON of the East Oregonian

 

PILOT ROCK - A new and innovative method of farming requires not only new machinery but also a new way of looking at things. And a thick skin would help.  That's what Keith Head, an agronomist and consultant from Saskatchewan, Canada, told about 60 farmers who attended a direct seeding seminar at the White Eagle Grange recently.

 

"You may have to deal with walking into the coffee shop and having the whole room go silent," Head said, explaining the reaction a farmer might expect from his fellow farmers if he decides to change to "zero-till" farming.  "Zero-till is as much mental as it is mechanical.  Perceptions are very important. You have to have the right mind set."  Head said one of the big challenges for innovative farmers who go to zero-till is to change the way they look at their fields. The conventional view of a good looking field may be one that is plowed and manicured, while in zero-till farming a "good looking field" is one that is unplowed with stubble on it.

 

"But not only do you have to get your mind around that, you also have to deal with your neighbors who haven't got their minds around it," Head said. "You have to put up with comments like, 'Man your summer fallow sure looks like hell ... when are you going to work up that field?'"

 

Zero-till - also called direct seeding or no-till - is a method that requires no plowing and no working up of the soil.  It has been hailed by conservation officials as a great tool for preventing soil erosion and conserving water.  It is also touted as a method of reducing farming costs, since plowing is eliminated.

 

Head has been working with farmers in Canada and around the world for the past 10 years to introduce them to no-till farming.  In much of the world, zero-till farming is seeing a lot of success and is beginning to take root in the agricultural communities, Head said.

 

Head said with zero-till there also has also been a lot of change in seeding dates.  "Initially in Saskatchewan we thought with zero-till we would have to delay seeding dates because the soil would be cool and wet," Head said. "But with the use of furrow knife openers, that isn't the case. When we push aside the residue (straw and stubble) and get some sun on that black soil, that hasn't been the case. We can plant just as early, and in some cases earlier than we would have normally.  And because the fields haven't been plowed, we can get out on them sooner."

 

Crop rotation is probably the most important part of the whole zero-till system, Head said.  "We have to extend the crop rotation and bring in new and different crops for various reasons.  So instead of just planting cereals all the time the farmers have been moving to broad-leaf crops - flax, lentils, peas, canola - for rotation."  But by doing that the farmers in Saskatchewan began to find that they could grow more specialty crops than they ever thought they could, Head said.  "What zero-till did for a lot of those farmers is it made them more money because they grew some of the alternative crops that were more valuable than wheat and barley," Head said.

 

But along with the advantages there are also a number of new challenges to overcome in order for zero-till farming to work, Head said.

 

Weed control strategies had to change, and farmers had to begin to deal with a whole new family of weeds than they had to before.

 

Insect and disease management is another area where new challenges arise, Head said.  "From what I've seen with zero-till, there's probably not any different insect problems than you've had with conventional farming, with the exception of grasshoppers," Head said.  "But I think there are some diseases that are probably helped by zero-till and those are the diseases that are carried over on the residues."

 

The bottom line, Head said, is that "zero-till works.  I've seen it work in a lot of different conditions.  The farmers in western Canada now have about 30 percent of their acres in zero-till, and the only reason they're doing that is because it's making them more money."

 

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