Gage County
1115 West Scott St.
Beatrice NE 68310
Phone: (402) 223-1384
FAX: (402) 223-1370

News Column

Paul C Hay, Extension Educator

No-Till Cadre

No-Till Cadre - This column is a double cadre of no-till management tips and happenings in our area. University of Nebraska Extension, Nebraska NRCS and no-till producers have formed a working group to plan and conduct no-till education programs across Nebraska.
They have formed a no-till listserve discussion group. In order to best meet your needs I have devised a way you can choose to be part of this discussion.
One - If you are interesting in joining the No-Till Listserve, simply send an e-mail to: LISTSERV@UNL.EDU with the following information in the message (NOT the subject line): SUBSCRIBE NO-TILL {your name}. Do not include any other text or a signature block as the Listserv computer will try to interpret each line as a command. This is an automatic process conducted by a computer and no human will be seeing this e-mail. The e-mails from the NO-TILL listserve will be sent to the e-mail return address of the computer used to send in the subscription.
Two - go to the gage.unl.edu/index2.htm website select agriculture and no-till for a Paul Hay edited outline of interesting discussion topics garnered from the no-till listserve.

Forty Gulls in a Row - One no-till farmer planting corn last week had to stop and count the number of sea gulls feeding in his field. There were forty gulls all in a row. Lined up, feeding on the soil disturbed by the last marker pass. The birds adapt pretty fast to no-till farming.

How much Water? - Someone asked me how much water a centerpivot would have to pump to replace the water lost from the field as the farmer was completing the third tillage pass and planting corn. Fuel prices have been quite low and the cost of tilling fields and pumping water have been relatively low as compared to all costs. That is no longer the case. The no-till operator, in comparison to this operation, would have a advantage of something like 2.5 gallons of diesel fuel saved by not tilling and another 3.0 gallons of diesel to replace two inches of soil moisture lost from the tillage operations. In the past 5.5 gallons of diesel fuel was a minor cost.
Perhaps even more important in some areas of Nebraska, and maybe here in the future, if the rain soaks in and the water is stored for the crop to use, no river compact or pumping restriction can take it away from you.

Carbon - Dedicated continuous no-tillers have enrolled in a carbon credits program. Last years payments we about one dollar per acre. The current trading value of carbon credits may triple that number in 2006. In addition the New York Times will be stopping by this week, actually landing in a RED State, to do a story on the carbon sequestration program and no-till farming in Southeast Nebraska. A couple of long term no-till farmers will be highlighted in the story. Extension is also continuing to encourage enrollment and a mailing will go to 8000 Nebraska farmers this week. The mailing will go to the 30 highest no-till counties in Nebraska. If you happen to be a no-tiller in Johnson County call my office, because your County is far behind that standard.

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

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Extension is a Division of the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln cooperating with the Counties and the United States Department of Agriculture.
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