Gage County
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News Column

Paul C Hay, Extension Educator

IDEAS FROM NO-TILL CONFERENCE

It takes all kinds of skills to allow us to learn about our environment. It is said that when we stand on the soil we are standing on the roof of a vast universe of life. I got a chance to view that life at the No-till on the Plains Conference in Salina, Kansas with 15 area crop producers and agricultural consultants. Pat Robertson of Austin, Texas is not a soils specialist, not a microbiologist, she is just a city dweller and a back-packer, and by the way, a first-rate videographer. She filmed soil life in a rundown Texas pasture and a healthy rotationally grazed pasture on a grass-fed beef operation owned by none other than Betsy Ross.

She shared a five minute dull and boring session of seeing 2-3 species of mini critters struggling to survive in the over used pasture. Then she shared a 20 minute session of 20-30 species of springtails, ants, sow bugs, millipedes, snails, centipedes, small worms, and other critters. They came and went before her camera in vibrant purple, pink, yellow, red and colors that almost defy description. They feed on decaying organic matter, fungi, bacteria nematodes and a hundred other species to small to see and on each other in titanic battles of the pore spaces.

Pat didn't know what some of the soil beasts even were, but it didn't matter. The point was clear. It dramatically showed all of us if we take care of our soil it will take care of us. If we don't - well, the lunar lander in 1969 showed us what that option is like.

Dan Forgey of Gorman South Dakota us lamenting that he was embarrassed by some slides of his rotational no-till because the dormant residue shots showed the cheatgrass cover in some fields. It suddenly occurred to him that the short, quick maturing cover crop he was seeking was before his eyes, he just needed to quit fighting it and manage it like a planted cover. By building early control of cheat and downy brome into his system he is able to have a living cover he desires during late fall and early spring without significant soil moisture loss. Maybe there is hope for pennycress, henbit, and downy brome in our world.

Dave Miller of the Iowa Farm Bureau which sells carbon credits for Gage County no- tillers responded to several of my questions. Is the Chicago Climate Exchange growing? He said they have added about 25 company members in the past year. Is the price of carbon contracts increasing? Yes, slowly the price and the number of contracts traded is growing. Is there more stability in the market in terms of handling sales without the market dropping rapidly? Slowly, Dave said, with our volume we can still affect the price if we overdo it, but it is getting stronger as time goes by. What is the hope for the future? The pilot program is continuing through 2010. Tell your no-till farmers who aren't involved to file the contact papers. We had a company come by this week interested in our carbon offset capacity. They are considering a plan which we require a significant volume, which I assured them we can supply. It's a bright ray of hope for future sales when they come asking.

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

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