Anyone watch this guy

Interesting, although he never really said how to improve those ratios. I have a BRIX meter but never really learned how to use it yet as a diagnostic tool. 

He mentioned at the start about big companies never really wanting to fix things and I have heard fungicides have a negative effect on plant health long term. Never really understood that one but I have been trying to back off the use of fungicides and certainly excess glyphosate directly on a crop. There are many cultural ways to reduce pesticide use and benefit the bottom line.

As for the air in the soil and correct water and air ratios I wonder if tile is the solution?

excellent info! I have found zero tillage has decreased my soil pressure from 400psi down to mid 200spsi. Having green cover to freeze up has helped. My goal is to get below 200psi.
If you guys do a water absorption test with 1 inch and two inch and so on to measure how fast the water soaks in you will see the soil pressure makes a huge difference and actually cultivation creates a hard pan which stops the water absorption in its tracks.

I know some farmers say zero tillage makes your soil hard. I dont find that the case. I find my soil is the exact opposite as to that way of thinking.

Its kind of amusing, before last years drought everybody in my area worked there land. Last fall very few worked there land. This fall all the land is worked up again. Is there any science to that? I think old habits die hard!


I was told even 20 years of zero tillage can be wrecked by a few years of tillage. Reclaiming soil health is a much bigger project than we think. I think getting your hands dirty , smelling your soil and using measuring tests will help you understand your land better. God , we pay enough for it ,we should get down on our knees and study its health.

The issue I have seen on my land with tillage is not just compaction in the ground, but when having heavy rain events that move loose soil on the surface and seals off the top also. I used to run around with a discer over ruts or weedy patch after harvest on occasion and if there was a heavy rain not long after the discer then it was easy to see the soil washed down a slope. And sealed off soil surface is not good for things in the soil. A discer type of tool makes a compacted zone under the discs just like any other tillage tool plus more at risk of soil movement on the surface. That is where the chisel plow entered into farming. The ridges were a big step toward getting away from that issue. But new farmers have since moved back to what other farmers got away from a long time ago.

As mentioned over the years, I have become quite aware of compaction on my wet ground. Have been training myself how to operate equipment better to avoid compaction around sloughs. Don't know if tillage vs no tillage makes a difference on hills and such but I think simply leaving plants on hills is better than exposed dirt regardless if compaction from a tillage pass weighs in at all.

Doing tillage right now on dried sloughs so can't say I am a full on no-till guy. Am trying a few different things this fall on sloughs to see if a tandem disc is different than a cultivator vs just mowing down the vegetation.

I do often wonder how much our weather varies. Historical data is also very questionable. Getting back to writing stuff on a calendar and saving those calendars is probably still the most accurate way to track "climate change". For instance I was looking at precipitation data a few weeks ago and came across a couple examples like this one where average rain in June and July is around 1.5". That is not much. No years given here for time period so questionable. Saw some similar data that gave a period range of 1985 to 2015 with similar amounts. We have been getting 1.5" of rain in 30 minutes in many recent years. What I do remember as a kid was the lawn usually never needed moving in August because it shutdown. That was for many years. The 1980s were dry years but what is uncertain is were they exceptionally dry, or just slightly dry. 1987 and 1988 were very dry, but perhaps we need to rethink what we have been accustomed to recently. Last year was quite dry, that's a given. But if we do actually average around 2" of rain in June or July then that means the years that bring the average down are going to impact your yield a lot.


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