News
Wet soils a challenge on no-till acres
East Central Indiana farmer Elaine Gillis said last week she feared the worst about the 2015 corn crop. “There was a feeling that there was a high probability that we wouldn’t be able to get all of our corn acres planted,” she says. “But we should finish with our corn acres soon.”
Because the weather caused so many delays to the start of planting – Gillis tells Brownfield one of her biggest concerns is their no-till acres. “We like to do conservation tillage in our farm operation,” she says. “Those are the areas that have held us back from additional productivity. More so because the stalks and the bean stubble is preventing the ground from drying the way that it needs to.”
She says the wet ground, combined with no-till practice has pushed back their planting pace – especially if they want to maintain the no-till practice.
For me, using no till actually speeds up soil warm up and drying, particularly when combined with a cover crop. The improved soil structure allows for better drainage and air penetration then a tilled soil which loses the plow-created airspace with the first rain. See my latest blog post for research backing this conclusion: http://blog.nwf.org/2015/04/why-you-should-use-no-till-and-cover-crops-this-planting-season/ I would highly recommend adding a cover crop (fly on cereal rye into standing corn at maturity and drill radish and oats after soybean harvest). See the Midwest Cover Crops Council for more options (www.mccc.msu.edu)