No-Till Farmer Magazine

      This past year, 2015, I had the opportunity to contribute my thoughts to two subjects that I have some passion for.  The first, in the August edition, 2015, (volume 44, No. 8) I responded to the question of how do you handle crop residue.  These thoughts and a pic show up on page 90 in the section titled "No-Tillers Tackle Residue Issue From Every Angle", along with the thoughts of twenty other people.
      The second opportunity came as a feature item in the November edition, 2015, (volume 44, No.11), titled "Overcoming No-Till Stumbling Blocks", starting on page 22.  This article was written from a telephone interview with Martha Mintz along with some material I submitted to her.  Martha is listed as a Contributing Editor and regularly writes articles under the logo " What I've Learned From No-Tilling...".  It came out pretty good if I do say so myself.  < Eriksen interview  >
      While looking up what Martha Mintz contributed over the years to No-Till Farmer, I came across an article where she interviewed Guy Swanson for a piece titled "Bringing No-Till To The Palouse".  Mort Swanson, Guy's father, is the name that everyone in the Palouse remembers as THE inventor-early practitioner of No-Till.  This article was posted in the November edition, 201, < Bringing no-till to the Palouse >.  It's a great read for someone interested in the background of no-till in the Palouse.  Mort is no longer with us but Guy is hail & hearty and manufacturing/selling EXACTRIX systems for applying liquid anhydrous ammonia fertilizer.
       No-Till Farmer has been around since 1972.  I was a subscriber for a while in it's early days, but found that it was a midwest and east magazine that I couldn't relate too.  Today, No-Till Farmer is still primarily an east of the Rocky Mountains publication but I am finding that even though we are in two different climatic zones, Continental vs our Mediterranean classification,  the same problems exist.  Practices and Research done east of the "divide" has concepts that apply here,--our task is to adapt that knowledge base to our climate limitations and strengths.  With our Stripper Head, self propelled sprayer, and CrossSlot drill, we have all the practices available for controlling soil erosion; however, we still have water loss.  Soil health has improved, and it will continue to improve to some extent; however, that improvement will be limited until we get more plant diversity, and remove fallow.  Cover Crops and Interseeding crops potentially hold the answer to these questions.  The trick is, how to apply.
       The Koppen Climate classification model designating the Pacific Northwest as mostly Mediterranean does not fit very well.  We don't fit the Continental or the Coastal either.  Our climate diversity is likely to be a topic of discussion for a long time as to what classification we really fit.

Soil Temperatures with Direct Seed

     General consensus by farmers in our area is that tillage warms up the ground early in the spring.  In the late 90's early spring soil temperatures were taken across the Palouse, and the result was reported to be only 1-2 degrees.
     The October 2015 edition of  NO-TILL FARMER (p.2) had a short article on temperature comparisons.   A summary of this particular article stated that shortly after planting the soil temperatures moved quickly to the same level whether tilled or untilled.  Twelve hours after seeding there was a 5 degree difference.  Twenty four hours after seeding there was no difference.
     There was no mention whether the no-till was low or high disturbance.
     This is potentially good news and we will try and verify using our ultra low disturbance system this coming spring.  We have conventional tillage all around us for a good comparison.  We do know that surface cover and standing stubble moderates soil temperatures, --both winter cold and summer heat.