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Post by Oatking on Aug 27, 2020 22:34:54 GMT -6
Farming my whole life in the Red River Valley near Morris , I never thought I would seriously consider zero tillage. Last fall was so wet , I only got one quarter worked. Worried thru the winter how bad seeding was going to turn out. The first spring day I went out to seed I noticed , the land was smooth, and had a perfect seedbed. Best seeding with my disc drill I ever experienced. Crop came up even and since we were on the dry side my crops are turning out better than the neighbours who heavy harrow or worked there land before seeding.
So my question is , how do you zero till guys manage stubble in the fall to prepare a firm even seed bed.
In the spring I burnt most of my fields black to get rid of straw and that helped our heavy gumbo land dry out so, really not a true zero tillage approach but a hybrid sort a say.
I plan on parking the cultivator this fall and giving it another shot. Neighbours in the spring looked at me side ways for not harrowing or tilling all my fields but now I see the advantages and results of 50-60 bushel canola and neighbours canola yielding 35.
Any ideas would be great to hear ! thanks |
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Post by SWMan on Aug 27, 2020 23:15:26 GMT -6
Hard for us to give advice if we don't farm your RRV dirt, but here is my thoughts.
Every year it pains me to drive down there and see the heavy tillage begin right after harvest, that's when precious moisture is lost. Also hard to watch all the dirt blowing around in winter/spring, even though I know you guys have fifty feet of it... Unless it were to be super wet I would leave it until second half of October and band fertilizer into it. I think here we do best when some black dirt is showing in spring, but one pass in fall and a harrow job in spring is as good as multiple fall passes from what I have seen. This way if you knife fert in on 10-12" spacing 80% of your dirt is intact and provides a good seedbed. Elmer's harrow has been an awesome tool for me to manage straw and chaff, even after the combine does a good job.
I tried zero till in the 90's, did not like the results in some wetter years and our heavy straw load. Equipment wasn't as good then either. Personally I hate burning, huge dollars in nutrients lost and precious organic matter.
So basically a min-till system is my preference, somewhat based on moisture levels and based on crop intentions(soybeans and corn need black soil).
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Post by slipclutch on Aug 28, 2020 5:59:16 GMT -6
It will work for two or three years. Then the ground gets very hard. I tried 15 years ago. This valley is a weird animal. Ether you get unbelievable yields or F all.
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Post by Oatking on Aug 28, 2020 7:49:24 GMT -6
I agree slip clutch , SWman I like the min till idea but the problem where I farm by morris is the rivers flood quite often and water backs up and can be 6 feet deep during a flood. If I applied Nh3 in the fall I would lose to much. I usually do a one pass nh3 seed in the spring with a disc drill. What type of vertical tillage tool would do the minimal soil disturbance in the fall. Our osbourne clay land takes a long time to dry out and packs very hard so that is why I like burning most of the straw off. I found running my jd 9510 r with 6 psi in my 800 metric tires to work quite well to prevent tracks during seeding.
Also don't you find high amounts of stubble during seeding cause hair pinning and increase the risk of frost in canola and flax, or beans.
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jaymo
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Post by jaymo on Aug 28, 2020 8:42:06 GMT -6
Zero/No Till is a long term strategy from my experience. In the fall it's just a heavy harrow pass as soon as the field is combined.
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Post by meskie on Aug 28, 2020 14:29:38 GMT -6
I prefer to leave the harrows parked. Spread and chop with the combine and seed into it in the spring.
We do harrow some if the straw is heavy and didn’t get spread from the combine as good as it should from being tough and we are seeding canola into it the next year.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2020 15:47:35 GMT -6
I let my neighbor put oats into my fields. before he seeded, I hooked up my twisted spikes to repair some washouts and work some grass that was encroaching on the field, from not going to the edge every year. He commented about drying out the land, but now with a bad shortage of rainfall, the areas I worked are the greenest. All we can figure is that loosening up the deeper parts of the soil, it let the rainwater soak deeper in spring and made for longer storage. we have thin topsoil and hardpan nothing can penetrate. No-till in my immediate area really controls erosion, and good productivity aid, but the crops even after 20-years no-till have not had an advantage yield wise with the guys burying the trash to make for better moisture retention. without knowing all the inputs it's pretty hard to truly understand what's happening, but the best canola in the area is tillage. Also, I really believe there is a moisture loss from no-till with leaving plants completely intact to draw moisture out into the dried plant stem. I believe they call it capillary conductivity. But that is my area. I think soil structure can be optimized by plant roots, but also by mechanical means. I always try to imagine how to make the field like potting soil that won't erode.
just an observation.
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Post by stockton on Aug 28, 2020 18:38:47 GMT -6
A heavy harrow pass is beneficial here even if the previous crop residue isn’t an issue. It helps get a volunteer growth in the fall and cleans things up for seeding on wetter days or damp conditions in the spring.
We always harvest on an angle and harrow with the seeding heading. The harrows act like a comb and make it easier to seed between the rows the next year.
I don't know if this would help on RRV clay, she's a different battle you got over there.
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Post by SWMan on Aug 28, 2020 21:42:17 GMT -6
I agree slip clutch , SWman I like the min till idea but the problem where I farm by morris is the rivers flood quite often and water backs up and can be 6 feet deep during a flood. If I applied Nh3 in the fall I would lose to much. I usually do a one pass nh3 seed in the spring with a disc drill. What type of vertical tillage tool would do the minimal soil disturbance in the fall. Our osbourne clay land takes a long time to dry out and packs very hard so that is why I like burning most of the straw off. I found running my jd 9510 r with 6 psi in my 800 metric tires to work quite well to prevent tracks during seeding. Also don't you find high amounts of stubble during seeding cause hair pinning and increase the risk of frost in canola and flax, or beans. The over-land flooding thing is definitely a consideration on the fall fertilizer, probably rules that out. Usually with a harrow pass in fall and a banding pass, followed by a harrow pass in spring is enough to prevent excessive hair-pinning. I'm seeding canola after May 20 to reduce frost and beetle risk, so a bit of stray isn't the end of the world. You should have seen the mess we went into this spring after the corn! Ended up banding with 2" spikes super deep against the rows, then protill pass and disc drill at 2.5#/acre seed rate. I thought it might not make a crop but it came real nice, almost too many plants. Here is a heavy wheat crop with one banding pass and a follow up harrow pass both in spring, same seeding rate. I usually do the final harrow pass in the same direction as the seeding operation is going to be, reduces hair-pinning.  |
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Post by Oatking on Sept 6, 2020 16:27:26 GMT -6
Driving across the western prairies every year on our way to Banff I see field after field not tilled past Brandon and wondered how guys deal with the ruts. Does a heavy harrow work well to cover ruts. I am going into year two min tilling to zero tilling slash burning to clear off excess straw but wondered how useful a heavy duty built heavy harrow would smooth out the land.
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jaymo
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Post by jaymo on Sept 6, 2020 20:42:44 GMT -6
Don't expect too much from a heavy harrow for cleaning up ruts. Obviously it makes a big difference what your soil conditions are like. If soil moisture is in that ideal range, where its moist but not muddy, heavy harrows can really do some damage to ruts. This fall though, with the ground being rock hard dry, they don't do very much to any ruts from this spring.
We've got a Degelman with the carbide-tungsten tips, so pretty aggressive and does a nice job but for really bad ruts we will get out the disc and touch up what we need to.
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