Gage County
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News Column

Paul C Hay, Extension Educator

Ideas From No-till Conference

Here are a few ideas I gleaned from attending the National No-till Conference in St Louis. Randy Pryor the Extension Educator from Wilber and I attended with 12 farmers from the area. Education funding support from EQIP funds helped cover part of the trip costs.

Once again I was interested in how the farmers from the West (Nebraska, Kansas, South Dakota, Colorado, etc) tend to group together, as do those East of the Missouri River. Farmers in the West like to see firm seed beds, slot into the soil and leave some residue over the top of a well placed and well sealed seed. Farmers in the East are trying to open up, fluff up and dry out wet soils.

Narrow row corn continues to be a strong discussion area. Marion Calmer of Illinois showed his updated data where 85% of the side by side comparisons showed an increase in yields. Trials conducted on 43 farms in 12 states shows a 3-5% increase in yields. One of those trials was conducted in Gage County in 2000 on the John Niemeyer farm which showed a decline in yield with the 15 inch rows. One interesting note on narrow row choices would be the introduction of a Kemper type corn head. If row spacing for harvest was no longer an issue it could well change a number of agronomic and cultural practices used in growing corn today.

Data shared from on farm soybean trials in Illinois and Iowa confirmed recommendations we currently use here. Soybeans yields were increased in the trials as row width was narrowed from 30 inches(55 bu/ac) to 15 inches(61 bu/ac) to 7.5 inches(63 bu/ac) when the populations were kept constant. When populations were changed from 125,000 final stands to 225,000 final stands in any row spacing yields were flat (66.5 bu/ac) for soybeans planted prior to May 10 and slight increases were shown for later planted soybeans(54 bu/ac to 57.5bu/ac.). I recommend looking fo a target final stand of 140,000 i.e plant about 165,000. Increasing stands modestly for later planted beans can help yield a little and help harvestability.

A number of speakers were taking advantage of investors desire to own hunting land in the country. Taking advantage by working with them in habitat development on the farms, getting the right to farm the land, and capturing fee hunting dollars on their owned acres. We have that opportunity in this area for deer, pheasant, and quail hunting. Much of the habitat development investment was being cost-shared by EQIP, CRP, FIP, SIP, and other NRCS acronyms.

I am not a machinery guru, or a machinery additive guru. I am really impressed by producers attending who are doing a great job no-till farming with standard equipment and a whole lot less of it than we see on many farms today. One farmer from Iowa started no-tilling at 60 and is doing great five years later operating a 1000 acre farm with only one adaptation to his planter, Keeton seed firmers. He estimates his full line of equipment, in good condition is worth less than $175,000. He says he may retire in about 5 years and combine it with a son's operation.

A speaker from South America peaked our interest with the idea of using continuous crop covers in order to provide nutrient recycling and reduce herbicide costs.

View other Gage County News Columns & News Letters: http://gage.unl.edu/news/news.htm

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