WHY EVERY PALOUSE FARMER SHOULD NO-TILL

   

It seems that agriculture is besieged from all sides.  Soils are being degraded from erosion and conventional farming practices.  Pest control products, --herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, and the additives that enhance their activity are coming under ever increasing public scrutiny that will eventually lead to more restrictions.  Fertilizer products and pest control products along with soil are entering the "public waters" through runoff which is triggering demand for more action to clean up these waters.  Everything we input to grow our crops is under regulatory pressure that likely will increase
      There is a lot going on behind the scenes relating to these issues.  As an example, I am part of a Washington State Department of Ecology advisory committee being used mostly as a sounding board for staff's evaluation of NRCS best management practices.  The result of this is expected to be a manual for farmers to voluntarily use to reduce pollution of state waters.  I see nothing good coming out of this for farmers or the environment unless it results in a massive education push to educate farmers on the value of improving soil health.  Erosion from farm land is much too complicated to be resolved with a cookie cutter manual.  Over the years I have discovered that farmers generally follow tradition more than science and change is verrrrrry sloooooow.  Many farm operations are the same as in the day of their grandfathers except the equipment is newer, larger and faster.
     So, why should farmers no-till?  The simple answer is, --WE HAVE TO!  Survival in the coming political climate will depend on it.    No-till is not the answer in itself, but it is the base on which to build.  Minimizing soil disturbance allows for management decisions that will build soil structure, build soil surface armor, build soil organic matter, build soil biology, and minimize soil displacement.  Continued use of cultivation in our Palouse environment can not accomplish these needed changes.   These are all critical to improving soil health and reducing environmental degradation derived from farm operations.  No-till also holds potential for sinking carbon which is beneficial to the soil and atmosphere.  Our soils are carbon deficient, and carbon is a driving force in the plant kingdom.  No-tilling is a WIN-WIN proposition.  The trick is learning to manage the no-till system to reap the benefits and avoid the pitfalls.
     Minimizing soil disturbance through no-till allows management decisions that will reduce erosion too zero or near zero.  As we gain a better understanding of soil biology we will control weed species and insect predation with less chemistry.  As our understanding increases about how fungal networks transports information, nutrients, and water throughout the plant community,  and how soil microbes extract nutrients and make them available to plants from organic matter, dirt and rocks, we will be able to manage our crops using ever lessening synthetic inputs.  The more minimal the soil disturbance the better the environment for these natural processes to develop.
     Many issues surrounding SOIL HEALTH are not well understood, but there is intense research going on by private and public institutions, and farmer experimentation since around 2000.   I read/listen/look at a lot of material and find myself discounting information that is more than 3-5 years old.  One researcher told me that if your education in soil biology was prior to 1985 it was mostly wrong.   I'm long in the tooth, but find it exciting to be part of the process.  The way things are progressing, I think I will be able to experience some of the fruits associated with improved soil health before I fade away.  In fact, I'm already seeing some of this happening through farm test plots but it's going to be a while before the processes are understood well enough to apply field wide.  Five years ago, if someone would have asked me when we would start seeing some positive results from improved soil health I would have said, maybe my children or grandchildren.

GROWING A CROP IN TALL STANDING STUBBLE

   

Last spring-----As I watch our spring canola grow, the question that keeps nagging at me is 'is the standing stubble interfering with the growth of the canola (and other crops).  Most of the winter wheat stubble is laid flat, but there are areas where our drill leaves some stubble standing.  I have observed that spring wheat growing up through winter wheat stubble appears to grow taller in the early stages and tillers less.  When I mentioned this to Dwayne Beck his comment was "yes, and that's fine.  I don't want tillering of spring cereals".   Crop maturity is extended 7-10 days for each tiller.  One or two tillers may add to the yield, but, more will likely degrade your crop.  They take moisture and nutrients from the main stem if there is a shortage of either or the summer heat forces maturity.
     This fall-----It appears that tall tangled residue does hinder canola branch development.  Canola plants in very tall stubble with some of the stems lodged was observed with less branching and fewer and mispositioned leaves.  Normal harvest height using a sickle bar appears to have little impact.

Low Disturbance vs High Disturbance DS drills

     All DS drills can seed and grow an excellent crop and improve soil health.  Farming too efficiently use the moisture we are provided, and the pace too improving soil health is the difference I see between high and low disturbance drill designs.
   High disturbance drills (the term I use for all hoe, double disc, and some single disc openers) all share a similar problem, --they move or disrupt too much soil which exposes the soil surface.  As a result they break infiltration channels, they accelerate decomposition of cover, they plant unwanted seed, and they damage the soil food web if any is present.  There are places in our field where even the CrossSlot fits into the high disturbance category, --on steep slopes where side pressure causes a wider slot, and where we turn.
     I distinguish between DS drills by the amount of soil surface they disturb.  They range from disrupting nearly the entire surface down to a narrow slot of <1.5 inches.  I would say that most hoe drills fall in the high disturbance category, and most single disc drills would fall in the low disturbance category and the CrossSlot in the ultra-low disturbance category.  Others may have their own scale.  By the numbers:
      High disturbance drills:  Their configuration disrupts a large percentage (>70%) of the soil surface and most or all of the surface residue. 
      Low disturbance drills:  Their configuration disrupts (<30%) of the soil surface and about 60% of the residue.
      Ultra-low disturbance drills:  Their configuration disrupts (<15%) of the soil surface and maybe 40% of the residue.
      Whether the numbers accurately describe the drill type performance is not the point here.  What is important is that they represent the concept that the more soil and residue that is disturbed, the more moisture you lose from evaporation, the less moisture your field can absorb from later rains because of disrupted channels, the more biological communities in the soil you disrupt which effects plant food production,  and the more unwanted seed that will be  planted grow and compete with the crop.
      To maximize moisture retention and absorption, you will want to minimize disturbance of the soil surface, grow and maintain the maximum amount of residue possible, and leave it as tall as possible in the absence of a growing crop. (see other posts for the reasoning behind this statement).  It's my belief as well that this statement is valid for all rainfall regions whether 7" or 70".

WHY WE HAVE GONE ULD

      A recent post referenced to why our operation has gone ULD (ultra-low disturbance) direct seed system.  I didn't elaborate on this because, although the two mentioned subjects of that post connected in my mind, the Richard Mulvaney article was my main interest.  On reflection I've decided that our reasons for going ULD should be posted.

      On our quest to improve our soil we have encountered many obstacles, mistakes, disappointments, questions on how to proceed, and yet, having enough success to continue the quest.
      Soil EROSION, and removing fallow from our rotation was the initial driving force.  Any operation that reduces soil disturbance compared to what we are doing with conventional tillage will have a positive impact on the soil.  Direct seeding is a big jump in reducing soil disturbance.  Past history of direct seeding shows that the soil surface is left, more or less in a state of nakedness, and channeled.  Nakedness is correctable; however, I can't envision how you can 'drill' a crop and not channel, whether it be double disc, hoe, or a single disc, including the CrossSlot drill.  In the Palouse channeling can be a serious erosion issue if not considered when drilling the field.
      As we progressed, saving MOISTURE became the driving force.  Although we still have some erosion at times it was mostly contained, --at least visually.  As time passed and information gathered it became clear that we needed good soil structure, more soil organic matter, and more cover on the surface, to maximize the retention of moisture.  WSU-OSU research back in the 70-80's indicated moisture was used in four ways, -----1% to deep percolation, 4% to runoff, 12% to plant transpiration, 83% lost through evaporation off the soil surface.  Research is clear that a soil profile with a cool surface temperature and a calm surface, retains more moisture compared to a hot surface with air moving across it.  The more we reduce soil disturbance, the more residue we keep on the surface, and the calmer we can keep the air at the surface the better our soil moisture will be.  Taking these parameters to the maximum create a serious challenge for drill design.
      In 2012 we moved to ULD by buying a stripper header and hiring our seeding done by a CrossSlot drill.  Now, our ULD direct seed system consists of a Shelbourne stripper header, GVM 90' suspended boom self propelled sprayer and the CrossSlot drill.
Shelbourne stripper head: --maximizes vertical intercept of snow and wind.  The taller the stubble the more snow catch (very effective in the winter of 2016-7), and the taller the stubble the calmer the air at the soil surface.  (measurements are showing that to be very effective also.  The only down side is that we can't harvest every crop type with this header.)
GVM 90' suspended boom self propelled sprayer: --it's value is in reducing tracking in the field.  It's very evident that tracks of any type promote weed emergence compared to the untracked portions in a field.  We regularly see this in our fallow fields.
CrossSlot drill: --the machine that makes ULD possible.  The header and sprayer are the supporting cast.  When we were evaluating drill technologies, and our operation, trying to match a drill to the specifications and limitations that we faced, the CrossSlot opener was the obvious choice.  The CrossSlot has the ability through its depth and pressure related sensing capability to place seed in good earth at the assigned depth while passing through complex soil types and textures, residue types and amounts whether standing or laying down, without stopping for adjustments.  It's a remarkable technology, and we have learned not to move unless it is all working.  Until the residue became too heavy to manage, our other hoe or double disc drills, could start a good fall crop; however, we never had a very good producing spring crop because of voids left by hair pinning or clumps of residue that shed off the drill, or seed not being placed at the proper depth.
      We are now set up to do ULD, and with the CrossSlot we are ready for the next stage which is building soil health.  (which is becoming a whole new story)

Erosion Spring 2017

           The winter of 2016-17 has been long, windy, cold, and with significant snow.  With frozen ground, and piled up snow I was sure that we would have horrible erosion in the area.  I was sort of looking forward to how our operation handled a fast melt condition.  As it has turned out, the heavy rains predicted didn't turn up, so we had as gentle of runoff as one could hope for.  At this point in time we have lost nearly all the snow except those areas that drifted heavily.  All of the cultivated fields seeded to WW have significant sheet and rill erosion, but it could have been a lot worse.

This pic shows conventional tilled field with a long slope showing significant erosion, --pretty typical.  It's noticeably more ugly where the corner was turned and vertical seeding took place.

This pic shows our CC seeded to WW.  The WW was seeded close to freeze up so it is just emerging now.  The ground is in great shape with most of the CC dead, but the late seeding will cost us yield.  I don't see any grassy weeds at this point in time.  The radishes appear to have done their job by intercepting water and helping penetrate the frozen ground.  We were able to intercept most of my neighbors water coming off a conventionally tilled field.  The thin standing radish residue did help intercept snow.  This greatly reduced the drifting.  The snow coverage wasn't as even as in the more dense, taller grain stubble.

This pic shows erosion in our field where there is virtually no ground cover and seeded vertically.  This is WW on WP ground.

This pic is the same field (WW on WP) but in an area where the seeding was done on contour.  Even with our ULD-DS system using the CrossSlot drill, erosion will happen if you don't have good surface cover, or if you are seeding vertically.  There were no radish holes for intercepting and moving water through the frost layer.  The pic shows staining in the lower half.  You don't see the erosion tracks in the top half but they are there, --following the drill rows and breaking out, going down the slope.  The soil was redeposited down slope leaving this track, and most of the water lost had a low sediment load.  It will be a challenge to maintain adequate surface coverage when low/no residue spring crops are grown.  In this situation if we would have seeded earlier and also seeded a low rate (0.5-1.0#?) of radish with the WW, less erosion would have resulted.  I would like to see radish going into the winter about 1" diameter and ≈24" long, and ≈48" apart (it's a guess).  That's doable if seeded by first of October in our climate.  When radish freezes(dies), the tuber shrinks quickly.  I'm convinced this will be a good practice.  It's the plant population that is the unknown for me.