Part 3 of “No-Till, No Limits.”
Additionally, changes in plant breeding and incorporating herbicide resistance by seed companies have given no-till farmers more herbicide options to tackle the weeds in their fields.
Spraying equipment and disease treatments have also improved. Hi-boy sprayers have allowed for later season treatment applications combined with GPS steering resulting in less runover rows. The treatments themselves are better, meaning less fluid is needed per acre for applications. This has opened the door to more plane and helicopter applications as well as drone application of treatment on specific infected regions of the field.
However, one of the benefits of no-till is savings on fuel by eliminating a pass over the field with the tillage equipment. If a grower must increase the number of sprayer passes to control weeds, disease and insects, it negates the initial fuel savings.
The Importance of Crop Rotation in No-Till Systems
Throughout the process of researching no-till practices, it became apparent that crop rotation can be an effective way to reduce these pressures.
Beck’s primary research in central South Dakota was winter and spring wheat. He says there were not many options for other crops that would grow well in that region.
“We needed rotational crops, we needed to be able grow corn, sorghum, peas, lentils and those kinds of things,” he says. “Nobody was really making seed for our area of those crops and there weren’t people there to supply them.”
Seed companies have been developing corn and soybeans to grow in more regions of the country. They have developed varieties that grow faster and still produce a valuable yield allowing colder climate areas to raise them. They have also developed drought resistant varieties, allowing dryer regions to explore new crop rotations.
The challenge for no-till is that a corn-soybean rotation is not enough. While corn-soybean rotations perform better than corn on corn, adding a third crop like a small grain or vegetable to a corn-soybean rotation can make a significant difference in reducing weed, insect, and disease pressures.
Beck’s research showed that a solid crop rotation could reduce the weed seed bank by up to 95%, once there were the crops available.
Unfortunately, having a third or fourth crop that a grower can use in their area is only half the challenge. They have to be able to market that crop, sell the final product and make a reasonable profit.
“Economically, nothing works like corn and soybeans, at least it hasn’t historically,” Nafziger says.
In Illinois, his team has developed an effective rotation with double cropping winter wheat with soybeans and then corn the next season. That has been a profitable system, but what would happen if the region started producing two, three or even ten times as much wheat as they currently do?
Mac Ehrhardt, owner and board chairman of the Albert Lea Seed House in Albert Lea, Minnesota, explains they have seen a 300% increase in their business of farmers reaching out hoping the Seed House would be interested in purchasing wheat, oats, rye or barley seed that they grew to improve their rotations.
“The problem is, if you grow 40, 80 or 180 acres of wheat and you don’t have anywhere to sell it, that’s a pretty painful experience,” Ehrhardt says. “That’s the challenge of every one of these crops, making sure that farmers have markets for them.”
