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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ต.ค. 2022
- No-till is just 1 of the 6 Principles of Soil Health. I learned so much from the comments on this video that I assembled a list of the 9 most common misconceptions and presented them here: • Corn isn't food - 9 un...
Interested in learning more? See my list of Regenerative Resources:
bit.ly/regenresources
I'll admit, I used to run the chisel plow on our family's farms. But since learning about soil biology, it has become especially difficult for me to witness farming practices this time of year. Thanks to tillage, we've reduced our organic matter from 11-12% down to barely 1% in many fields.
To me, watching a producer drag tillage equipment across a field is akin to watching someone bash their head against a stone...
I am 55 and grew up on a Farm that we bought in 1972. It was located in Eastern Nebraska in hill country. We could not irrigate because the hills were too steep so we dry farmed. There was 21 acres of a bald knob . It is known as sugar clay and nothing , I mean nothing would grow on it. The rain and snow rolled right off of it like pouring water on grease.
As with everything the younger generation thinks that they know everything and that a college education means that everyone else doesn't have a clue and they were all doing it wrong.
I am Scandinavian and in my culture we respect the elderly and rely on their experience to help solve problems that we come across. My Ancestors immigrated to America because America needed experienced farmers. The Scandinavians learned to make very poor soil produce.
My Dad went to my Great Grandfather and asked him what he thought we should do. My Great Grandfather came out and looked at the area. He was in his 90's and had a difficult time walking in rough ground but he wanted to get out and see the land. After his inspection he told my Dad what he needed to do and how we could improve the Soil.
He told my Dad that the only way to repair the soil was to put the plow to it but in a very certain way.
He told my Dad that the Soil was dead and that it would take time to bring life back into it.
It took 3 years before anything could be planted in it and it took 5 years of building and amending the soil to improve it. After 10 years it was producing very well and it all happened without chemicals or irrigation and this is in sugar clay on a hilltop that even weeds did not want to grow on. It was steep with a few rocks here and there.
If it was not for the plow and the plow disk we would have never seen it produce. Here is the recipe for saving that land.
All contour tillage around the hill with no terraces to begin with.
First year in Fall and all Winter Spread cow manure all over area very heavy.
Next spring. plow from top of hill to the bottom in 40 foot strips with a 40 foot gap in between that was not plowed. In the 40 foot unplowed strip it was disked with a plow disk.
Nothing was planted in 40 acres of soil. We just spread more manure over it that summer and prayed for rain.
That land sat all winter untouched.
The next year as instructed we reversed the 40 foot strips. We disked the strips that were plowed the year before and plowed the ones that were disked and let the land stand for another season.
I asked my Great Grandfather why we were doing it. He told me that we were bringing life back to the soil and recharging the water and moisture in it. He said every year the soil would drink of the rain and the snow that melted and it would not run off. He said that it would soak down deep into the soil.
He told me that we were making places for the water to be stored in for the soil and plants.
The next year he instructed my dad to plow deep bands or strips about 10 feet wide and 20 feet apart all the way around the hill all the way to the bottom .
We planted winter wheat and alfalfa on the areas that were not plowed.
When it came time to harvest My Dad chopped it all and mixed it into a silage pile for the cattle .
My Great grandfather told him that this year you need to spread manure over the entire field in the Fall and deep plow the whole thing but don't disk it until spring. Let the snow sit on it all winter and in the spring plant the whole thing in Alfalfa.
That is what we did. We cut alfalfa off of that land for another 5 years.
After that 5 years we installed terraces to hold back water and prevent erosion. Then we planted oats. The next year we planted Soy Beans and then alternated with corn.
That ground started producing very well and without chemicals or fertilizer. We kept tilling all of the crop residue back into the soil.
We did not need to start applying all of the chemicals until we had to go no till and it is my belief that it has killed and damaged the Soils in our area.
My Elders got results and the professors and land management officials have destroyed what generations of farmers had built.
So excuse me if I don't agree with ( The Science ) because I have had firsthand experience with breathing life back into Dead Soil.
I have tried to warn other younger farmers that they are killing their soil and farming it to death with chemicals and fertilizers.
No Till is a mistake. The current Hybrids they use have made it worse. The plant material and bulk that used to go back into the soil was beneficial and helped build the topsoil.
If you are careful how you till you won't lose it to wind and erosion. If you don't tear out all of the fence lines and tree lines and farm mile to mile all the way up to the gravel roads you won't have the wind tearing away the top soil.
The new methods aren't working and it is costing too much to farm a few more acres.
We are loosing more and more knowledge and experience everyday.
I am probably one of the last in my family that still remembers how to run a sustainable farm where everything runs to benefit another part of it.
Corporate farming has killed one of the strongest legs of the stool supporting America.
When you can't feed your own country and people it is doomed to crumble.
Dayum old timer, low key the best reaction here! Your comment about tree lines totally hit it out of the park!! What Euro scum like me and your great grandfather know is that our farm lands here look very different from those in the new world, and many of those lands have been productively farmed for well over a millennium. What we don't have in Western Europe is hundreds of acres of consecutive croplands. Farm lands here are interspersed with tree lines, woodlots hedgerows etc, which not only provide a windbreak but also make precious habitats for the flora and fauna that support live on our croplands.
It's always interesting to see new world farmers talk about "innovating" their way out of the problems they created for themselves. And I just want to scream, don't try to farm 10000 acres with 3 people!
Fascinating real life story. Much to think about. Thanks for taking the time to write it.
I would never risk plowing a hill top to bottom .I think that would result in 4 foot deep wash outs . Every thing else I agree with
@huck stirred you did not read it. There were strips that were plowed, and in between them, it was not plowed. Plow, skip, plow, skip. From the top to the bottom and then reversed the next year.
We did not have wash outs, and the hills were steep on our farm.
The water hit the contour plowing and ran along the furrow and sank in under. The next strip was disked with the plowed portion in the spring.
Thanks for sharing your story. It sounds like your great grandfather had a lot wisdom. We do need to get back to diverse rotations, maintaining residue, and livestock on the farms. Where I am from, we still have soil blowing like it's 1930's Oklahoma. It is beyond frustrating to see how little we've learned since then.
I am 53 years old and have taken over my dads farm. I am second generation. I love farming with every part of my soul. My dad started with nothing but 80 acres and a IH 806 that we still use on our farm today. We now farm 2000 acres and have nice but not great equipment. In 1991 I was just married and we had 400 acres of corn still in the field when the Halloween Blizzard hit us with 32 inches of snow. We had almost no tillage done. At that time we were not tilling our bean ground and we plowed all our corn ground. In the spring we would cultivate everything one time and plant. After the 1991 fall we bought a notill drill, put notill coulters on our corn planter and didn't plow for 17 years. We also did several thousand acres of custom combining each year and still do today. 2009 was the last year we notilled anything. We couldn't compete. We lost land because our crops looked terrible. We couldn't get in the field in the spring because they would never dry out. When we got planted on time we had poor germination and uneven crop. We were going out of business trying to keep a practice going that everyone said was the best thing we could do for our soil. Then we would watch a neighbor start farming the land because the landlord was tired of our way of running the ground and in 2 years he would have great looking crops. We would combine for other farmers and their yields were always better than ours. So finally you look in the mirror and say I have been stupid. We went back to full tillage and our yields have been great again. Our farm is prosperous and growing. I have 2 kids interested in farming with me. All I have to say is plow on.
Your story doesn't make sense. Especially the comment about your fields being too wet. Good luck finding even a die hard pro tillage soil expert who will say tillage is going to dry up a wet spot. The sooner farmers who engage in practices like you become extinct the better off the soil and water retention will be.
@@bonzocleach2496 Hi Bonzo, Maybe I wasn't clear in how I presented my position. We couldn't get our fields to dry up because there was no black dirt showing. The ground was cold and wet even when we had reasonably dry springs. So our crops were always behind. Nutrient intake was poor. We did build some organic matter over the 17 years and it still exists on our soil tests.
Over the last 8 years we have been able to do a great deal of tiling and repairing wash outs and hill sides, terraces even in some cases retention ponds to prevent run off. I would bet we have much less soil loss to water erosion now than we did during our notill days. When we were notilling the wash out would still happen then the next year we couldn't drive through it so we went around it. The next year it was deeper and bigger. But we didn't have enough working capital to do a good repair. soon there was trees growing alongside it. It was a vicious circle. Soon a 45 acre field was 39 acres because of lost ground. Making us less and less profitable.
I know complete notill probably works in some climates but not where I live.
Finally you have the herbicide issues. When Roundup was less effective on broadleaf weeds it became even more difficult to continue the practice.
I appreciate your desire that I go extinct but you obviously didn't grasp my position that I would be out of farming if I had continued notilling it is because I went back to plowing that my farm is profitable again and we are in it for the long term
Wish you the best
Mark
@@sherrysundblad8722 He doesn't talk about serious compaction from no till . Let it fallow What is the difference if it is in pasture or corn .What about the trash from the back of the combine gets incorporated . No till it just builds up . and washes off . The problem with college kids with no experience in real life . telling me that his way is for better, even though he has never even grew flowers in a window pot . Then convince all these other kids that I am a damn monster and destroying the planet because I don't do things his way and he is book learned . Next thing he will tell me to plow up and down a hill instead of across .Then they point to the dust bowl and blame farmers for the wind erosion , but fail to mention than some went without rain for almost a year and a half
In other words the resources available never could be spent in one season the planning must be at least 3 years.
@@nilosantos4862 I don't think you got the gist of SS's post.
I live in a small farm that is rented out for the tilling . I have not been taught the college way of farming . I am plenty old enough to remember local farmers did till & we had good crops . Then no tilling started . That’s when plenty of game disappeared such as quail & rabbits . Out soil is turning to a sandy consistency that produces less & less each year . I am sure you have some great things that can be taught & done better , but for me I will take the tilling and cultivating with plenty of game & our food is without roundup spray. I truly believe the no till is ruining our ground & poisoning us all with the constant chemical spraying .
No-till must be incorporated with cover crops and maintaining residue to suppress weeds. We follow the Regenified protocol that looks for consistently reduced rates of all chemical inputs. There are many more ways to manage weeds that tillage and herbicide.
The plants you're pulling out of the ground are devoid of nutrition and filled with poison. Most of it is being used as industrial inputs, not food. You're broken
This reminds me of when I was a software consultant. Preach a bunch of idealistic notions with all sorts of holes that the customer has to sort out after I left.
What am I selling? I sold precision agricultural equipment for 8 years. Now I know the truth, and am telling farmers they don't need all of that.
Roger you remind me of the old adage "it's easier to con a man than to convince him he's been conned" enjoy your ignorace and don't think too hard about why you and your kids get cancer from eating nutritional deficient food laden with petrochemicals
@@dungeonmaster6292 you're the ignorant one. I grow all my own food. This kid has no idea what he is talking about. It's all on paper with no practical application over the long term.
The dude is comparing plants like corn and soybeans to prairie grasses that have roots 8-12 feet deep. Nothing he says applies to the crops we grow today. I agree that tillage destroys many of the natural systems but we aren't growing anything natural.
@@claycountykillers you certainly aren't growing anything natural
@@dungeonmaster6292 here's the deal. Start a farm with these practices and put all other farmers out of business. Proof is in the pudding.
I've watched the factory dairy farmer near me direct seed after they spray to kill the grass and that corn struggles to come up and struggles to grow and in the end its the smallest stock and shortest cattle corn I've ever seen!! Meanwhile a couple towns over the old farmer still plows after he spreads manure in the spring and that corn jumps out of the ground and within weeks is double the size of the other farmers corn!!
Yeah sounds like a book guy. Not all great ideas are practical everywhere.
pesticides destroy microbiology as well. No-till is just 1 of the 6 Soil Health Principles. We can't use any one in isolation.
Well I hate to tell you this, but maybe it's time to stop treating corn as a normal crop, and more of a treat, and plant something else that doesn't need to be pampered so damned much (e.g. sorghum or millet). We should not be feeding vast quantities of corn to ruminants, we should not be giving ourselves diabetes with high fructose corn syrup, and we should not be making "biofuel" ethanol from it, all of that is complete insanity.
Yes we need to stop monocroping
@@dogguy8603 Are you a farmer?
I have reduced tillage on my farm drastically. But to say tillage in general ruines soil is kinda silly. I wonder if all the greenies know that reduced tillage means more chemical usage? I'd think most people will do is what is profitable. If no till is so superior and more profitable. The problem will work it self out.
The answers lie in regenerative ag practices not more chemical. Less tillage and having bare ground is the biggest issue here. The book Teaming with Microbes is a good place to learn more. Thanks for reducing your tillage!
You hit the nail on the head.
He doesn’t know crap!!!
Many many different forms of tillage
Compaction and anaerobic conditions will destroy also
You can not lump all soil types , growing conditions, warm/cold climate as one, but apparently you are. My yields for corn & soy beans increased substantially in my Northern cold climate with deep fall tillage. This incorporates tilth into the soil to break down, allows all top & subsoil to pass through millions of earth worms to aerate and aid with drainage. After soy bean harvest, we plant Winter Rye to hold topsoil. In spring this becomes green manure. This has reached a height ofmore than 6', very dense growth. The water ponding in a low spot along the roadway, does not have a place to drain due to a basin type of structure, not because of modern day farming practices. Arm chair generals attempting to gain subs by misleading the viewer is not acceptable. In conclusion, the American Farmer is a steward of the land, always trying to improve & protect, which also pays his bills. Nay to your impending climate change position,
What are your long term results? The long term condition of your soil? The nutrition of your food? How sustainable is it?
Absolutely. There is no magical blanket method. We each need to assess our own needs and respond to them.
Didn’t watch all of this propaganda but people should take note that “climate change” (formerly global warming) was invented at the Rockefeller’s estate in Italy tagged as “The Club of Rome.” There is not one peer reviewed scientific paper showing any contribution by man to CO2 which is only 400 ppm, which is close to the minimum required by plants. There is no so called "green house effect” as rather than having a warming effect, CO2 actually has a minor cooling effect on the planet and is even used as a refrigerant in some cases.
The powers that be want to compartmentalize farming globally.
This is a great point, Ronald. Tillage is a tool in our toolbox just like pesticides and fertilizers. Each has their own benefits and drawbacks. We need to carefully assess when to responsibly use such tools. I would encourage anyone interested in the historical use of tillage to read David Montgomery's book "Dirt: the erosion of civilizations" to learn a little more about the negative effects that irresponsible tillage can have. Even if one doesn't agree that tillage is detrimental, it's always a good idea to read things that are counter to your current beliefs!
After 45 years of farming broadacre in Australia about the only “truth” is to look at each paddock and critically ask “ what does this paddock actually need doing to it to give maximum improvement for the long term future”. And the only word that can’t ever be used is “ never” as in never burn, never till, never fertilise, never spray, never sow,… as over the long term you might need to do all things !!!
Yes, I can get behind tillage for some limited cases to make corrections and fix areas. Just not the regular practice like we're doing for corn and soybeans.
I'm a farmer and did the no till thing for a while and about lost the farm. Now I double rip to make sure there is oxygen in the soil. To control the weed pressure. And water infiltration.
Did you use cover crops? There are 6 soil health principles and we can't expect results from using a single one alone.
@@jwsoil yes I did . 7 different types of plants. That was just expensive. I think we are being drilled in a narrative that we farmers are hurting the soil so we feel bad and then change our practices . Well the fact is that plowing and ripping and disking made farming productive.
@@sethwoodland481 it can help in the short term
@@jwsoil farming is long term.
@@sethwoodland481 Right, so what are you going to do when you need to buy more and more fertilizer each year because you've killed your microbiology? Also figure for all the increasing fuel and equipment expenses. Once you get the principles down and prioritize the health the microbiology your plants rely on, you'll have a much more resilient system and be less dependent on buying things from off the farm.
It's a complex topic I know. I respect anyone daring enough to farm.
I am a notill guy, have been for 11 years. Major problems are weed control, Fertilizer transfer, cold soils at planting causing poor emergence, and lastly, yield drag. We are reaching historic yields with tillage and it has helped with weed control. Tillage can cause terrible soil erosion at times, but I have seen erosion in Notill as well. We need the yields, we need the food, it's your call farmers.
Do you add cover crops to your soil management plan?
About the problems of germination due to cold soil, don't you have any research ongoing to solve it?
@@r.guerreiro140 Its MN, don't need research to know the ground is cold in April.
Technology is working in our favor, strip-till, for me, is the happy medium for now. Every time iron hits the soil, we’re disturbing those very elements that create and release that same fertilizer we all talk about.
@@billcarlson1730 it's your kind of mentality which is making you loses the competition with Brazilian farmers
The point is not if it's cold but how to cope with low temperatures, and here comes the research
People poor minded like you already got out of farming at all here in Brazil because we don't have taxpayer money to subsidise incompetence
And you know what?
Year after year we improve our yields and expand our production outpacing you, our American colleagues
Now, whith my first contact with your mindset, finally I understand why
@@r.guerreiro140 Come farm in East Central MN right now and show me how....
As a farmer, I would like to say: SOME tillage is necessary. One should till WHEN necessary. Not too.much, not too little....
We've been no-till for 4 years.
I like blending in leaves about 4" deep every fall.
About a 6" deep leaf cover gets blended 4" deep and I never use chemicals.
I have a continually darker spot from ground water rising in one 20' circle but the garden gets richer every year.
You talk about runoff and the soil not having the capability of absorbing the water after a heavy rain. I’m currently in a soils class at college where we would run experiments of water infiltration. The areas that weren’t plowed had way less absorption than areas that were plowed. We also looked at water filled pore space, and the more it was compacted, the less available area for the water to soak into
Earth shattering concept right🤣 think third graders could predict that result
What would you think non plowed land used for grazing animals? Like buffalo or cows? Do you think they'd loosen it enough to prevent what you've seen in your class?
@@NoirMorter The majority of compaction comes from machinery. So if there was only grazing livestock, the compaction issue would be less severe
We're talking about "infiltration", not "absorption". A loose fluffy tilled soil can quickly absorb moisture but once it's soaked it starts running away. Below that fluffy tilled layer is the "plow pan". Water won't get past that. Ask your professor if they've ever measured "aggregate stability".
How are you doing this test? I test it regularly out in the fields and I see the same result that the NRCS test concludes time after time. Without soil aggregates, you won't get infiltration. Here's NRCS's simulator: th-cam.com/video/Ovy1DCxN340/w-d-xo.html
@@jwsoil pretty profound
We've tried all chemical no-til for our dryland winter wheat for years and our yields per acre dropped significantly. Plus, the costs for the chemicals to do no-til on our small farm was cost prohibitive. After we went back to minimum till did our yields came back to normal.
You'll be more profitable by integrating all 6 Soil Health Principles: www.noble.org/regenerative-agriculture/6-5-4-3-the-fundamental-principles-of-regenerative-agriculture-and-soil-health/
Thats why Worms are our friends :) I raise millions of worms for fertilizer for my garden and to teach others how to care for them for this reason! Thanks for the informational video!
Worms are great! Thanks for what you do.
Do you know worms are invasive? Only in the deep south is there one native species. Look at the research of the destruction of forests via worms. And the deer/sugar maple/worm triangle is devastating. Some things we believe aren't correct.
@@jwsoil Research worms. Not necessarily a good thing. Introduced from Europe. Invasive and damaging. Some positives but not part of the natural system. Anyway- good video.
@@finallyfriday. I have heard this. I thought we had a native species in the north too.
@@jwsoil Not to my knowledge. It may be an inconsequential species as there are a multitude of worm species. But only one out of hundreds (if that one) in our soils- says something, doesn't it? As a quick fyi: the worms come up and consume the valuable leave clutter that deprives the vegetation of that nutrient source. The State of Michigan has done a lot of research on their liability to the ecosystems. Fisherman dumping their leftover bait has been a major contributor, along with worm farms for gardeners.
Tilling hard packed down soil is very beneficial. Breaking the soil up and tilling in plant material helps seeds to germinate better, roots spread a lot faster, and also helps the microorganisms flourish. Just like in a home garden. Tilling the grass and plants back in creates a rich loamy soil where earth worms can take hold.
Roots are nature's natural tillage mechanism.
@@jwsoil Roots cannot rip like steel!
Your exactly right 👍
Mark, maybe ask yourself why the soil is hard packed? Some is definitely, and comes the challenge how to make it better. Sometimes lanes helps, so every few meter a lane that you don’t till and try something different like spreading cow manure or apply cover crops. Every farmer makes his own choice what works best for the situation
@@marckimbrell4645 oh they really can and we have used roots to do so
"We treat it like a medium to hold plants and a chemical set, but really it's a biological SYSTEM." Very well put. Just found you when you liked my Midwest Seeds substack, noticed you had a substack too. Thanks, Erik van Mechelen
Thank you for the work you're doing on elections in Minnesota Erik! I'd love to work with you to make changes in our county. As one of the smallest counties by population, it might be easier to make changes that other counties could then emulate.
Ya'll a real smart fella. Hard to believe humanity survived for the last eight thousand years farming the wrong way.
You must not be informed of humanity's long history of famine and turning large swathes of fertile farmland to desert due to monoculture tillage.
Just how fertile is the fertile crescent these days?
One of the most educational videos I have ever seen!!! Totally agree with you ,the question is ,how many of us will get this. Thanks for sharing
I’ve been farming for 6 years now and I definitely feel where your coming from. Personally I run no-till and plan to ramp up my cover crop usage majorly. The only issue is, in Minnesota sometimes the only way to get in the fields the following spring, is to do tillage. Not all of us can afford to buy an expensive no till planter, nor do we have the resources to plant cover crops on all of our acres. One part I really feel you left out for non producers is what happens if it snows late and you can’t get into the field because the residue keeping us out. The farmer you showed clips of, can’t really plant no till because his planter is not equipped to run no till nor does the tractor he uses have the power to pull a heavy planter through a bunch of cover crop. Granted he (that specific farmer) has spend most of the money he saved throughout high school and college on that equipment and ground. Leaving him with a lot of loans and debt that he has to pay of before he can consider some of these no till and cover crop options. I feel that this video has left out many parts and factors that go into tillage and why us a farmers do it.
I feel we definitely need to make a change but we as farmers have a lot on our shoulders with the large amount of capital it takes to start farming. But we need to help farmers and educate and give them resources so that it makes it easy and they feel they have help when it comes to the money side along with the education. I think this could help a lot with create a lot of change in our practices.
You should join the Minnesota Soil Health Coalition mnsoilhealth.org/. Farming according to the 6 soil health principles requires less equipment, less expenses, and makes it so small operators can thrive. If you make your cover crops as great a priority as your cash crop, you'll be out in the field earlier than any tilled field. Remember we're building soil aggregates. You can't have these with tillage.
Hey I just wanted to add something here because I think it is not clear to the average viewer. You seem to imply that tillage alone reduces the amount of organic matter in the soil.
While introducing more oxygen into the ground does speed up the decomposition and mineralization of organic compounds, by increasing microbial activity, this is not necessarily a bad thing. The speed these compounds are broken down are a factor in the amount of organic matter in the ground, but there is more to it. Another factor is the amount of organic matter that you introduce into the system. For example, if you grow white mustard after harvesting in the summer you can bind a lot of the highly mobile nitrogen, and prevent it from being washed away. The mustard dies in the winter and can be tilled under, or cut and mixed in with the first 4 inches of soil. This also increases the amount of organic matter greatly.
Not plowing is not a guarantee for a healthy soil. And plowing doesn't necessarily mean your soil is degrading.
There also are huge differences between different tilling techniques, and while I agree that we should get rid of deep plowing, others do have good uses.
There are also cases where no till farming was very successful. But in agriculture, not everything that works somewhere also works somewhere else.
No-till farms most of the time also use HUGE amounts of herbicides, since there is no plow to uproot weeds, or shallow tillage to get weed seeds to germinate prematurely.
I do not mean to put down your video, since there is a lot of great valuable information in it. I just find it a little one sided, more precisely too focused on the biological side. Farmers have to bring the interests of the soil in harmony with their own interest to produce crops.
I would love to hear your view on this, if you have the time to respond to comments.
Thank you for watching the video and the thorough reply. I can tell you've studied or have some experience. I agree with most of what you're saying. Where I think we differ is on the importance we attribute to biology and our understanding of fungal networks like mycorrhizal fungi and their mycelium.
Farmers are in the business of growing plants. Growing plants is a biological process first and foremost. We were errant in our thinking for the past 150+ years in believing the NPK theory which is a reductionist idea of soil as purely a chemical medium for the plant.
Secondly, knowing what I know now about fungal networks, I don't believe ANY amount of tillage is helpful, no matter the depth. Most biology lives in the top 6 inches of soil. Fungal networks grow and grow over decades. They are the super highways that transport biology, nutrients, and moisture across a field and to plants. Tillage is like taking a CAT D8 bull dozer through the center of a bustling city and destroying all of the major buildings and streets. It takes years and years for it to regrow. The problem with mustard and other brassicas is that they do not form connections to nor support mycorrhizal networks. So a monoculture of any brassica, really slows down building soil aggregates and soil health in general.
I am sure some no-till farms over apply herbicides. However, most producers who truly understand soil health also understand herbicides kill biology as well. The best regenerative farmers know how to use the allelopathic effects of cover crops and maintaining residue to suppress undesirable forbs (weeds). I would much rather see a light herbicide application once every few years than a single tillage pass. I see it as the difference of chopping off someone's limbs vs exposing them to second hand smoke.
@@jwsoil Of course you are right with what you are saying and I think we just have different ideas of what to expect from a system like this. I would love to see more no tillage farms everywhere.
The biggest problem in my opinion is the amount of knowledge you need to be successful, the lack of experiences made by actual farmers and the small amount of research we have in the field.
I can only tell you the farmers side of things here, this is not to dismiss your point, since you are absolutely right, but to explain why so few people have made the switch so far.
I live in germany, where every inch of farmable land is used, every year more of it is lost due to "development", more and more chemicals are being banned every year, prices for produce drop and of course the weather is making it harder every year.
Since 1990 more than half of farmers have sold their land and stopped farming. The ones that still exist are either big cooperations or small and usually struggling.
They are very dependent on reliable harvests, and even though no-till can give you the same or even higher yields, the possibility is high that you get much smaller yields every once in a while.
It is very tricky to start no till without glyphosate, which will be banned here soon, in some regions you already can't use it.
I'm not saying that you need to use herbizides in no-till, but especially in the beginning it is very very hard to go without it.
I do not know the word for it, but farmers also need different seeding machines, a good used one here goes for around 80.000Euros, if you are already struggling you do not have that sort of cash.
If every year of farming could be your last you think twice about which risks to take.
Also I think most farmers here know about mycorrhizal fungi, the function of Microorganisms in the soil and soil health. The ones that don't have had to sell their land already.
Many use their plow simply because the way away from tillage is very risky, even though necessary. They do not want to till, but don't see a way without it.
I do not want to excuse this behaviour, but these are desperate people, just barely hanging on to their way of life. All to often I see people who know nothing about agriculture pushing for policies which have the effect of collectivizing agriculture.
This is a very simplified explanation but I hope you can see where I'm coming from with this.
Also thank you very much for replying. I do not expect an answer to this comment, but feel free to reply if you wish.
I'm just a plant technologist in training so there is of course a lot that I don't know.
I believe that tilling crop residue in, then planting a winter cover crop and tilling that in the spring improves soil structure and health.
Do you understand what mycorrhizal fungi and soil aggregates are?
@@jwsoil I think he is right. Tillage has many benefits. It destroys weeds, especially effective against perrenial weeds.it can also kill some diseases, detrimental insects, larvae, it can effectively remove residue from soil surface and bury it down, it can move the fertilizer deep down, which is especially important for potassium and phosphorus because those are essentially immobile in soil. I don't know how do you manage these two nutrients in no till system long term. It would just concentrate them on the soil surface and make them inaccessible to plants.
Of course, tillage also has downsides. It destroys soil organic matter, makes soil prone to erosion, but on the other hand, it's the most effective way of adding organic matter to soil too. So it's all about balance. We should till before plants that respond well to tillage, add phosphorus and potassium in large amounts when we till so we can have them for next crops too, we should keep as much residue as possible and till it in, we should practice no till on crops that respond well to it and that's it.
It's all about balance. Both practices are good and should be implemented.
Your are mixing in crop residue but at a heavy cost. Do you have any earthworms? A couple of great books to help understand how the system works: Teaming with Microbes and The Soil Owners Handbook by Jon Stika. Good luck with your operation, you are doing some really good thing's, of course as in life there is always more to learn.
@@regenerativegardeningwithpatti What is that heavy cost at which you till?
@@locybapsi174 Well, destroy the soil structure and kills the microbes (fungi) that are making good soil structure. Kills off the fungi that are helping the plants with nutrients and water. Plus when you till the soil you are over-aerated, and this causes nitrogen to burn off and it releases carbon into the air and will go on it reduces organic matter, kills the earthworms, destroys their barrows, and rudies the wormholes which help the soil to stay oxygenated, making water infiltration, and helps the roots to grow deeper and tillage cause soil compaction, and soil erosion both kinds wind and runoff. 🙂 here is a short video.th-cam.com/video/SWvjsa5_k-E/w-d-xo.html Best of luck
Depending on what state you farm in!! When I worked on a dairy farm many years ago.. Soil never got touched into planting was ready..
Further to my earlier comment, i meant to add we tried chopping corn stubble ASAP after harvest as my ground is gently rolling. This was short lived as it laid like a wet mat due to winter rains & snow melt. This seriously delayed spring planting by retaining so much moisture. I will add we will NOT under any circumstances use Anhydrous Ammonia as this is so cold it freezes (kills) all earthworms & after a few years, the soil becomes like chunks of concrete with obvious yield reduction. Liquid fertilizer is a little bit more money, but the benefits are so much more. btw, i am not getting into long dissertation to respond to M's questions. I wanted to finish my earlier statement & i feel that i have.
Another thing that anhydrous ammonia is doing is setting your C:N ratio way off and fueling the consumption of your organic matter.
You did not suggest a better practice for winter months between crops. Would it be proper to leave the corn stalk roots in the ground until spring then till the ground for planting?
Most areas in the mid and high latitudes do not have a winter crop capacity.
We have got to get cover crops in there and mix up the rotation to allow for them to get some growth before frost.
Very interestin JW can you make a vidio as to the right way to farming with acceptable yeilds?I am open to other points of view.How can I get more info on your concept?
Thanks for watching Brian. I'm following in the footsteps of farmers that have been doing it this way for decades. See my resource sheet: bit.ly/regenresources
What about all the roundup being used on no till operations ? How are weeds going to be controlled without roundup ?
Search for the 6 Soil Health Principles. We manage weeds with cover crops, residue, and livestock.
If you moldboard and put the plant matter under ground you create hummus which creates a healthier soil. I'm still trying to figure out how this data computes, computer keeps kicking it out as bad data?
Research mycorrhizal fungi and the 6 Soil Health Principles. Vastly important to healthy plants and one pass of tillage can destroy a network that has taken decades to form.
Keep up the awesome work JW!
Thanks, you too!
does the soil bacteria and fungi survive in tundra type climates with permafrost?
yes, they can go into dormancy
No till can be a good thing. I work on a raspberry farm and we can't no till. We plow under alfalfa before we plant raspberries. Then we maintain the field with a cultivator to keep the weeds down. It would be interesting to plant some kind of cover crop or grass between the rows of raspberries to see if that helps with weed control in the summer.
try clover , but to much nitrogen will increase the leaf and size of bush but decrease the amount of berries
remember the C:N ratio and mix teh clover with some grass species. Clover sequesters nitrogen and will make the ground tough.
Hey JW I looked over the comments that are here. I too have the same question. What is your solution to take the place of tillage? And what I mean is everything supposed to go to no till and have the glyphosate to burn things down for the weed control? There is one issue on the organic matter and residue if you don't have the specialized planners to work with it. That is this laying on the surface and decaying on the surface will result in the nitrogen and whatever else going away in the air. I found out researching a long time ago that if you want to have a green manure crop to recover this wonderful nitrogen that certain legumes and other plants are supposed to create you need to get the plants under the soil. I like the idea of no till but there is no easy simple solution that I know of and it would like to get an answer from you and anybody else that knows. I can think of a way to control weeds and let's say beans or soybeans or corn but I cannot think of what you're going to do elsewhere where weeds will compete and you are going to put the crop in and have to do something to kill the weeds before you plant even with a no-till planter. I just can't figure how you can plant into weeds. Yes I know they talk about rolling down cover crops and I think that's probably a great idea but cover crops don't always kill that easy and trying to plant into them doesn't always work that well. I would just like to hear your comments and explanations and bring some of this knowledge here together to move on from a good video that really left a lot of answers from the obvious dissatisfaction and I agree with it a lot. But if you have a complaint it is also best if we can have some kind of solutions to knock around to make it all informative. Anyway I just think this would be a good series of videos to bring up some of these things. Thank you
Thanks for the comment. I wasn't expecting this kind of response. I just made the video to vent. Now its apparent that I should have explained a lot more about regenerative agricultural practices. I will continue to make and post videos. But in the meantime, you should really check out the 6 Soil Health Principles and the resources at UnderstandingAg.com. Also, the documenter 'Kiss the Ground' on Netflix is great introduction.
Great stuff, thanks. Good comments too... I think the easiest way to " no till ( i matock too much grass out by hand) is to add the perfect soil mix straight ontop ( i do this after mattocking out the grass) . I get a great mix for approx $50 per cubic metre, spread that with a front end loader/ machine if possible and wouldnt need to till, then you are adding lots to the system aswell each time.
mattock/ fork
problem is you can't do that on50 acres much less 2000
I think the comparison of synthetic fertilization to a hydroponic system is probably the most accurate comparison we could make. The hydroponic medium is basically dead/inorganic.
Thanks very educational. I never had a scientific. Talk. I always filled a small garden spot. To grow a few plants. Turnips are my hardest to grow for November and December. I remember soil bank. In the 1960’s. Farmers where paid by the government not to plant crops. Just move the fields 2 times a year. Nixon opened the trade with China .. soil bank ended. Farmers planted everything to get money. Any suggestions on what to do. Thanks.
I think we need to educate producers on where their crops are actually going. Farmers and rural communities stand to be much more vibrant by following the 6 Soil Health Principles.
A lot went right when I did tillage. We grew green tillage crops every three years and tilled it in a maturity.it added a whole lot of organic to the soil and reduced nitrogen use significantly. I had a sandy loam soil, not clay
Do you measure water infiltration? Soil type doesn't matter. We can grow topsoil in deserts with the 6 soil health principles.
@@jwsoil lol the more you say the 6 soil health principles the more I hear drink the Kool-Aid.
@@jarstore just spreading the truth. principle = a comprehensive and fundamental law
@@jwsoil lol, I have no skin in the game, just can't pass on a good opportunity.
@@jarstore anyone who eats has skin in the game :)
what tractor you got?
We've got all sorts. The JD 6400, JD 4010, and Farmall C get the most use.
OK SO,,, you laid out how we are screwed up and continue to screw up, what should be happening then? How does a farmer farm healthily?
Sorry Tom.. Major oversight in the production of this video. We should all learn the 6 Soil Health Principles and it should be taught in grade school. See www.understandingag.com to get started. 'Kiss the Ground' on Netflix is pretty good too.
Another problem with fall tillage is the total elimination of cover for any wildlife that might be left in areas of intense modern Agriculture. Modern agg with no fence lines and fall tillage has pretty much wiped out most small wildlife such as quail, pheasant and rabbits that relied on all these fields and fence rows for a place to live.
Yes! I can't tell you how many racoons and deer are scrambling and hit on the roads during/after harvest! Yet the vegans feel good eating their pea protein.
So how do I do no till root crops?
I'm not sure about all types. But for garden potatoes you can lay mulch or straw over them on healthy soil.
Interesting pov i just wish you would of spent time on how to replace tillage and ways to improve the soil in a real practical way.
Thanks Roberto. There's lots of great information out there. Check out www.understandingag.com to start.
The commercial farming method is to use lots of herbicide to kill the weeds and no-till planters to put seeds in the intact soil. Personally I'm not a fan of lots of chemicals, and I'm dealing mostly with pastures and hayland. So the perennial forage keeps coming back as long as you don't destroy it with overgrazing or tractor ruts. But that is just a small piece of the agriculture system.
I wish you could of make some comments about what to do. Good video.
Good observation Roy. Some of my other videos address this and so will future. So much of today's agriculture suffers from our "solutions" and most of what we "need to do" is actually to find ways to STOP the harmful practices and get back in line with nature.
This is big, Self education is the best thing people can do. The answer are out there, they just are not getting sold to you by a salesman or agronomist. That is why the movement is slower than it should be. Teaming with Microbe and the Soil Owners Manual by Jon Stika are great places to start. Good luck
I’ve seen some big equipment no till planting and they lost some corn seed that didn’t sprout and stayed above the ground
gotta know what you're doing and incorporate cover crops
I was waiting for "Thank you for that question?" and "I approve this message"
Wow i didn't know that! Thanks for sharing and making this video 😯
I wish he would have talked about the alternatives. I mean what are the other options to plowing?
Single-disc seeders and planters don't need tillage. Cover crops keep the soil conditioned. Learn more here: bit.ly/regenresources
@@jwsoil I think the video would be better and complete when you make a video like this is to include what you see the alternatives to be. Your vid was the first time I've ever even heard that there are issues with the standard practice.
@@trlyons761 check out the documentaries 'Kiss the Ground' and 'Sacred Cow' on Netflix
What comes out of the soil must go back in. Every crop depletes the soil regardless of what you grow, that is why cover crops, crop rotation & some form of nutrient are so important. I disagree that tillage is unnecessary yet at the same time I know from experience that no/till drilling has it's benefits depending on the crop. Not all ground is the same & some is downright hard to work with. I am inclined to think a more metered approach is the right solution. You can go years without tilling but sooner or later it becomes necessary due to compaction. Then there are crops like potatoes & I don't see how you could possibly avoid tillage growing them & still maintain your yield.
Thanks for the comments. Did you know 97% of a plant's make-up comes from the atmosphere? Check out the resources at www.understandingag.com and watch the documentary 'Kiss the Ground' on Netflix.
Where are you located?
Western Minnesota
Wow, you are a bundle of sunshine!!
haha, sorry I was kind of venting after a drive and seeing all of the tillage happen. I'm optimistic that people will open up to trying some different things.
Is regenerative agriculture an alternative to tilling?
As a farmer........ for 45 years......milking cows...pasture.....hay. I can say....there is no such things as " regenerative " . Its degenerative ! Your taking something from the soils. Unless you put something back in the form of fertilizers.....you drain the land !
With cattle there is no real way to put back fertility unless you use ( so called chemical fertilizers ) They are not chemical at all....they are all natural fertilizers ! Spreading cattle manure on a field will not allow cattle to graze that same area.....because.. imagine........eating beside your own manure ? Takes at least two year before cow will eat in that same area. Its the " smell " not the decomposing time.
The famous " Greg Judy " preaches this. Take a look at how his operation works. Needs numerous incomes to call it ...... " regenerative " ! In other words to stay above water financially
Yes!
Good job! The storms wash the soil so that many farms need barrier for rain water. My family has 4 properties that were used for pasture for a long time and the compacted soil decreases production and facilitates the spread of nematodes. therefore, the deeper the plowing, the better for the production of food for livestock. The alteration in the region close to the multinational Itaipu hydroelectric dam greatly worsened the difference in temperature of the lake, created constant winds and reduced the frequency of rains in the region. The Paraná river has two years in drastic shallow water the rain is not enough.
Tillage leads to greater compaction, not less. If those pastures were overgrazed they will also become compacted.
www.researchgate.net/publication/364183844_Long-term_no_tillage_alleviates_subsoil_compaction_and_drought-induced_mechanical_impedance
Just curious. Does the gentleman actually own any farm land? On whose land was he kneeling as he pontificated?
yes, that is my family's land where we are working with a tenant to change practices
I highly recommend "Humus and The Farmer" by Friend Sykes,
published in England around 1950,
as he turned a worn-out chalk downland farm
into fertile and productive ground again.
I was born 65 years ago on a beef farm in South Devon in England,
and although never a farmer myeslf,
I have owned land,
and have always tried to treat it as well as possible.
Now without land,
I grow potatoes in buckets and bins,
having started with a vert small amount of Earth,
and a lot of crumbly old bricks and mortar,
as well as chalk ( I am in Sussex now ).
I broke up Earth, bricks, mortar and chalk,
and ran it through a fine sieve,
which makes handling the Earth very easy.
When planting,
I would add chopped up twigs and cardboard,
and as the potatoes grew,
I would add more Earth, twigs, and cardboard,
with a mulch finally on top.
My ground is mainly concrete yard ( sadly ),
with borders and one small earthen area,
so I put sheets of cardboard on top of a sprinkling of Earth,
on top of the concrete slabs,
and worms soon find their way in,
allowing me to steadily add to each pot or bin
as many worms as I can possibly find.
When I harvest,
even if the 'Earth' is a first blend,
and was recently old bricks and mortars, chalk. etc.,
the action of the worms
in converting the twigs and cardboard into compost,
turns the entire contents into very good Earth.
I see Earth as my friend.
I use Working with Earth
as a healing meditation -
far better than the idiots prescribing horrid pills
for those whose minds are not happy.
And growing potatoes
is so simple,
anyone can do it.
And enjoy eating fresh potatoes -
far better than from the supermarket.
.
beautiful 😇
Thanks I think so.
I'm wondering how carbon will reach the microorganisms if it's sitting on the surface. Is it available to them, or do the germs come to the surface?
Imagine the wind depositing the surface litter unevenly before a rain helps anchor it, and the composting begins. To what extent do the thicker layers of the plant matter's decomposition on the surface affect the soil? Would it be an environment for organisms which are detrimental or predatory on the crops to gain a foothold?
Wow Ric, those are great questions. Have you been studying this stuff? Microbes include not only bacteria but also fungi. All of this life exists in just the top 6 inches of soil. Saprophytic fungi and anthropods are largely responsible for breaking down the material on the soil's surface... as long as it is left UNDISTURBED. That means undisturbed by both tillage and chemicals. For every 1 pest insect species there are 1700 beneficial insects. So once we cease practices that disturb these natural processes, the beneficial organisms will consume those few pests.
Most insecticide and fungicide chemical applications are unnecessary. Most producers are dousing their soil in these chemicals when pests have not even met the economic threshold resulting in damage to the crop. But the applicators and chemical makers make a killing off of these producers.
I learned through you
Some farms in Oklahoma have started to use none tilling methods. They have had good results. Monsanto is a problem though.
Cool, are they using cover crops and maintaining residue in accordance with the 6 soil health principles? I agree less Monsanto = more profit for the farmers.
@@jwsoil Some are. It is a new thing for most. Monsanto has a hold on the Co-op farmers though. Lots of roundup on the fields that are not. And the cotton farmers wont change. But many are going natural none tilling. I so hate Monsatano . Some farmers got sued because their crop infected their heritage seeds. Seems it should be the other way round.
you have to work the ground ,for farming , for the plant roots to get down to the moisture . And open the ground up , ripping let the water get down to the subsoil , where the root need it .
Some plant roots are capable of exerting over 1000 psi. Ever seen a root growing through a concrete sidewalk? Some grass species grow roots over 14' deep. What tillage implement can compete?
@@jwsoil with respect, yes have see a root growing threw a concrete side walk , usually a tree , not a wheat crop , and deep ripping can go way more than 14 inches .
@@josephatherton2781 I said 14 FEET, not inches.
I have farmed my whole life and beg to differ..
Have you noticed that as more farmers follow your theory the more erosion happens, more weeds that are harder to control and the need for more chemical fertilizers we see.
What we need to see is more crop rotation, more manure usage for fertilizer and the complete turning of the soil over periodically by moldboard plowing. These practices all help build up the top soil by restoring organic matter to the ground and using the insects and bacteria to break it down.
Fewer than 5% of farmers follow the 6 soil health principles. Inversion tillage isn't the answer. Heard of the dust bowl? Most insects are on the surface and bacteria only live in the top 6 inches. You're missing fungi as a major player in decomposition. They don't handle tillage well.
The problem stems from this attempt to feed millions cheaply and uniformly. We really don't need to grow as much corn, soy, wheat and rice as we do here in America. Humans do best on a fruit/ veg/ clean meat diet. These grains that we have to process so much just to make edible aren't our natural diet anyway. We are destroying the soil so we can easily grow crops we aren't even designed to eat. Great video man
Most of the commodities you mentioned are only used for feed lot crammed together animals. When enough people vote with their dollars in the marketplace and demand only grass-fed products things might begin to evolve.
@@donnavorce8856 its a crazy world. but its getting better.
We grow a lot of corn because that is what is most productive for the markets. Land owners must pay back the loans, farmers have small margins at best. If "we" (its not me) stopped growing so much corn and soybeans, then corporate investors would buy up more of the land because thousands of farmers with fallow land would go bankrupt. If there is anoher way to remain viable in farming besides what they are now doing,then somebody needs to show how to do things differently and remain in the business of agriculture.
@@timothykeith1367 that is a fantastic explanation of the problem. Corporate investors who only see corn and soy as viable. Also the stomachs of the masses loving their grains. Also the valleys and plains are for shortrooted grains so that land will always be for that. the hills and elavated lands are for fruit trees which is the natural human diet. the hard truth is corn and soy farmers are just drug manufactures. wheat/corn/soy is an opiate, so to speak. but we see it as a food source. so maybe the answer is trends. let the big corps buy up the farm lands. that would fail if people would switch to a largely fruit diet which is natural. let them buy up land which will devalue as farmland in a future where people dont eat that crap anymore.
@@timothykeith1367 are corn and soybeans more "productive" or more "subsidized"? By acknowledging the role of biology, producers are finding much higher profits by reducing input costs like tillage, fertilizer, and chemicals. If you look at profit over a 3-5 year time frame, a corn/rye/soybean/wheat rotation will be much more profitable if you take advantage of the biological enhancements (reduced pest and weed pressure, improved water infiltration/drought resistance, nitrogen fixation, improved nutrient cycling, etc.).
You might be interested in checking out the work they're doing at www.understandingag.com.
wonderful source of information, fascinated with all the comments too, a great way for me to learn. Thank you all!
Thanks for following along. Here's more resources: bit.ly/regenresources
No till farming requires more stronger fertilizers .thats why our rivers here in ind. Are being ruined by green algae
.
No-till requires cover crops and livestock integration really helps. If you support your microbiology you don't need fertilizer. Our soils have more than enough nutrients. What they're lacking is healthy biology.
@@jwsoil Only enough nutrients if you sell nothing off the land and return it all to the soil, soil does not make it's own nutirents, you can mine it for a short while but eventually you have to replace what was taken off in produce.
@@silverdale3207 soil does make its own nutrients. soil is alive. It is a biological system, not a simple static set of elements.
Tillage interrupts succession. It is perceptual first stage. Totally interrupted, releasing the seed bank. You sound like a soil scientist and ag historian. Good info.
Right. Tillage releases the seed bank of first succession plants (forbs) that then "require" heavy doses of herbicides! lol
@@jwsoil He complements you and then you laugh at him? smh....
@@michaelmead2496 no, I "lol'd" because of the irony that so many producers use tillage as a means to control weeds when actually, tillage propagates more weeds.
@@jwsoil What ever dude. Your intentions are noble but you need to address yield drag, cold soils and yes chemical use due to weeds. Good luck, god speed nevertheless.
@@michaelmead2496 Yield drag is a myth promoted by producers who don't want to change and big ag companies who want you to keep buying their products. In a normal rainfall year regenerative systems can equal or beat conventional yields. In a drought, the regenerative yield can be 28-34% higher!
academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/55/7/573/306755?login=false
Context is everything and no one thing works for everyone. Where I live in the SW USA bare soil temps can reach 140 degrees. nothing can grow in soil with that type of temps it kills all the life in the soil. We have done some keyline contour plowing on our pasture land to great benefit using a V ripper with curved shanks. This stopped run off and soil erosion but did not leave bare ground.
Earlier this spring we were driving through dryland farm country in west Texas and the blowing soil was so thick it was dangerous to be on the highway. I would feel horrible if I were one of those farmers and someone lost a life driving through that blowing dirt. Having all your soil blowing off your crop land cannot be profitable.
Some people are having very good results with no-till into rolled cover crops. Each farmer or rancher has to do what is best for the land they are trying to make a living on. We did find out a couple of years ago that planting alfalfa in bare ground was a losing proposition the stand was very poor. The next year we planted into haygrazer stubble and had a wonderful stand. My opinion is that no-till and chemicals kind of defeats the purpose of no-till. When we farmed 25 years ago we used much less chemical and just spot sprayed the parts that were infested.
Thanks for sharing Dana. I agree context is very important, however, it is only 1 of the 6 Principles of Soil Health: understandingag.com/soil-health-principles-with-context/
It is fruitless to debate practices, when one doesn't understand how soil biology works.
Sorry, we read 3 books and are specialist in soil conservation.
When you have clay and you do no till your soil will get extreme compacted, and in the spring it will not dry up to go seeding.
In Clay you need the plowing or cultivating, to get the rest plants under and make space for water in the winter so it can go to the drains.
If you have light clay or sand, the rules are different, but also here no till proved to have different outcomes.
When you are in an area where there is no more then 400mm water pro year, it can be good to have no till, because compact soil gets water better up then with plowed soil.
When you have a 700mm pro year you don't need the soil to be to compact, and you plow.
No till is NO guarantee for success, it depends on a lot of things.
I agree. MUST use cover crops.
I have heard other no till guys also says that tilling leads to sour smelling “dead” soil. I am a fifth generation farmer. I have never smelled sour soil in my life. Saying that tilling causes soil to smell sour is total propaganda. It is a strait lie. I have no problem with the promotion of no till. It works well in some systems. Assuming no till works in all agricultural systems is a fallacy. Assuming farmers that till aren’t aware that their soil is their greatest assets is ridiculous. Every farmer knows their soil is their livelihood. I think we can all agree that cover cropping is great. It does help prevent or slow down erosion but it certainly does not stop erosion. We see heavy erosion in forest and in pastures…..places that are never tilled and always covered.
The problem with most no till/regenerative ag promoters is that they do not run a commercial scale farm as their primary source of income. What works great in a market garden or raised bed in someone’s yard isn’t feasible/realistic on a 2,000 acre farm. Saying that commercial farming is the problem and shouldn’t exist is a total ignorance of reality. Commercial scale farming attempts to feed the world, but as yet does not, as there is still starving people in this world. Reducing commercial acreage = more higher prices for everyone at the grocery store and more starving people.
I think your reasoning stems from one basic error. I address it in this video: th-cam.com/video/_rnRdoBvxek/w-d-xo.html
SO WHAT IS YOUR SOLUTION???
The 6 Soil Health Principles. See www.understandingag.com to get started.
So what I gather from this is we CAN till, just make sure to take care of your soil afterwards by adding organics. Maybe give a field a year to recover with worms and cover crops right?
Tillage destroys soil aggregates and mycorrhizal networks that continue building over decades, centuries. One pass of tillage takes you back to zero.
This information is exactly right. But you can't take away the tillage equipment away from these old timers that farm. It's all they know, they don't know better. It might be healthier to allow tillage, so these old guys don't have a heart attack
@@brettmason1942 😂
@@jwsoil don't let them get to you. I follow your soil practices. Don't worry, once they go bankrupt, people like you and I can come in and fix there terrible mistakes
Thank for caring ❤ about the soil no one person is same and neither is his soil. All live on earth 🌎 is changing. Look to heaven
Thanks for watching and the comment. God bless.
I have no idea why we would tile land in Wellington north Ontario Canada to grow crops. Your right we should just leave it no till so the dog wood and fox tail can thrive.
Some one as naive to believe in a one solution fits all, will never find at all a solution that fits.
No-till is just the first step. Did I say it was the ONLY step?
I till I want 18 inches to 2 ft down loose soil. I find if the roots can’t go deep the plants don’t do as good.
It takes time to repair the soil. Most of us have never seen health soil. Cover crops are necessary and reducing fertilizer. Some grasses grow roots 14 FEET deep.
I was watching a documentary on the native Americans that settled in the Amazon basin. The previous thinking was the soils in the Amazon were too poor for crops to flourish. But scientists have now analyzed the soil and have found that the natives used charcoal, animals/fish bones and compost materials to enrich the soil, so in fact they were able feed themselves after they had enriched the soil using these strategies. Not only that but the scientists can survey a village area and determine when the farms were active, so for example a village on a hill would have several tree species inside the city like cocoa,coffee or a nut tree etc. then down the hill sides they planted other tree species that grew other tree food products. I only mention all this because I think we can do a much better job of managing soils across the board.
I also saw some good documentaries on what China is doing to help farmers on arid lands with better land management practices, stopping centuries of over grazing by sheep, goats, pigs etc. At first the local villagers were against the programs, but they decided to give it a try after a ton of meetings. Today they live a higher standard of living. They had many projects terracing, and trapping water and slowing run off water so aquifers could be replenished etc, they had to get it out of their heads that wealth was measured in heads of goats. Now they are producing way way more food in the villages, they have water and are overall happier.
If you look back for example on how the native Americans that lived in the Phoenix area created canals, irrigation ditches, retention traps they were able to feed large populations cooperative work efforts on a grand scale with hundreds of miles of water management projects. It can all be done using modern equipment but it takes leadership!
Look at California today, for past 5-10 years near drought conditions, lots of people complaining, wild fires etc etc. but how many water retention projects were completed to help channel water into our drying reservoirs….near ZERO!! Why? no leadership, no big thinking just endless talk. Did anyone plant a billion trees? Did anyone go to the reservoirs and look at methods to channel more water into them? I mean why spend money on prevention when you can flush it down the proverbial toilet with ignorance?
Without good science, plus leadership, and a willingness to act decisively all you get is committees that talk talk talk
Great points. I think that's why we need to start with education.
I've got no till farms that haven't seen a plow in 20 years that are still 1% organic matter. It's my understanding the act of harvesting crops alone depletes the soil of this. I've also got a hay pasture with low PH that I've tried like the dickens to bring up with lime for about 3 years straight but lime is just not as effective when it's top dressed. You really need to work these things in to see the full benefit.
my brother in law is an agronomist. he's been in the industry for 40 years. a couple weeks ago we were talking organic matter. he told me that if you could increase organic matter in our soils by 1 to 2% in 75 years than you are doing good...
@@thinkamajig I know regenerative farmers that have grown 18" of topsoil in 12 years. Integrating livestock is a big boost.
Adaptive grazing livestock will boost that organic matter.
@@jwsoil 18 inches on how many acres? farms are quite large in my area.
@@thinkamajig They run about 2000 acres, but I'm not sure how big that particular field is. If our farmers earned more profit per acre they could downsize and focus on getting more profit from fewer acres.
You had way to much school and you are dreamer!
They don't teach this stuff in school. Dreamer.. maybe.
@@jwsoil Monsanto likes Notill. Tilling doesn't derstroy the soil when done in the right way.
You understand your soil perfectly and I applaud your video,unfortunately most farmers who till the soil won’t understand the benefits of no-till and cover cropping until it’s too late.What really woke me up is attending a soil health clinic sponsored by the soil water conservation district. Seeing it firsthand made me a believer.
lol thanks Merle. I know its a uphill battle. I hope you'll subscribe and continue to follow me on the journey.
Rivers are full from rooftops and concrete. Drain tile is definitely not hurting rivers. Rivers move rivers silt in even with no human impact. Buffer strips terraces and waterways have long surpassed damaging soil erosion problems. What is hurting rivers is mass amounts of chemicals and fertilizers washing off the top of no till fields when it rains. And the more you no till the more input you need creating a top 2 inches of dirt that is almost volatile.
Agricultural land comprises of vastly more space than urban development. No-till farmers incorporating cover crops needs far less chemicals and fertilizers than conventional methods. Our soils have all the nutrients our plants need. What is missing is the biology to convert those nutrients to a form plants can use.
@@jwsoil undisturbed cornstalks take up to five years to decompose into the soil tillage allows fungus and enzymes to attack the stacks and turn them into usable fertilizer for that coming spring and no till farms incorporating cover crops use a substantial amount more chemicals how do you think they plant there cash crop in the spring they have to burn down the cover crop using chemicals then use chemicals through the summer to control weeds and again in the fall before planting the cover crop not to mention all the fungicides i till in the fall and have no weeds in the spring then I cultivate through the summer and have no weeds I use no chemicals no fungicides and apply half the amount of fertilizer the no till next door does and not to mention I out yeild them
@@colewilson1682 Most of us, our fathers, and our grandfathers, have never seen healthy soil. The slow decomposition of residue is a symptom of biologically dead soil. Growers implementing all 6 soil health principles have trouble maintaining any residue after a few years.
I thought tillage is good to keeps weeds away ? So whatis the best way to control weed??? Burning????
Seeding cover crops and maintaining residue will suppress weeds. Weeds are just forbs and they need sunlight immediately upon emergence. They don't have the energy to push through residue like other plants. Tillage actually stirs up the latent seed bank and cause more weeds to germinate.
You can't apply this to all soils. Because of modern farming methods and irrigation, we've built up infertile soils throughout the world that previously couldn't be farmed.
Before the Army Corps of Engineers designed and had flood control dams built throughout the country, flooding and erosion was a real problem and very common; many areas that are farmed today were not even habitable. In my area of WA state dams on the Columbia river opened up the entire area for for prosperous farming. Before these systems were built, nothing would grow.
As a kid I watched my dad build up the infertile soil through tillage, trace minerals, and cow manure.
I couldn't even grow a garden in my back yard before tilling and building the soil up with maple leaves and compost.
“One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise.” ― Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac
Notillers depend much more on pesticide, herbizide and chemical fertilizer. We should sent you to a land with thornbush and then I would like to see how you are going to grow a garden.
I'd use goats on thornbush. Regenerative farmers consistently reduce pesticides and fertilizers.
@@jwsoil I agree with you on the goats, they clean up brush but what will you do after so you can plant a garden?
amen preach brother!👍
Thanks!
If tillage is so bad how can we get record crops we do. I helped a farmer out for around 25 years. He always ripped his corn ground. When I started out there he got about 170 bushel corn and now he gets about 230 to 250 bushel corn. If ripping is destroying ground he should have got less bushels instead of getting better.
Does he share his profit figures with you too? Yield does not equal profit. You can use synthetic inputs as a crutch for a long time. But once government subsidies are gone and input prices adjust to reality.... its game over for the folks who haven't supported their microbiology.
The genetics of the seed you’re planting today is not the same as it was 30 years ago.
Well I also know people who no tilled for several years and started to till again and made big gains on bpa
apparently scarifying is the go, like airating / fork , putting holes
then add ontop till your hearts content :)
“One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise.”
― Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac
aww, one of my favorite quotes. Thank you.
Great video, and a massage that we got to get spread across the land, for farmers, market gardeners and home gardeners (and University's every where). We growers can help change the world fast. Thanks, Patti
LOL
He brings up a lot of valid points, but when you have serious compaction issues (in clay heavy soils), you don't have the luxury of no till...that's just the reality of clay soil, using modern heavy machinery, and the demands of an artificially blown up world population dependent on technology and mass production...It's unsustainable, Yes, but tell that to the billions of people out there who just have to pump out a bunch of kids they can't afford and refuse to change their ways.
Cover crops and no-till will fix compaction. You want to build a O-horizon of health topsoil on that clay. Worms and roots will continue adding organic matter to the clay over time and improve water infiltration and break up compaction. Most of our crops are not used to feed people. They go to industrial uses like ethanol, biodiesel, plastics, road treatments, high fructose corn syrup, etc etc.
@@jwsoil I don't disagree but that takes many years to happen and when you have huge plots of land (row crops) it's a nearly impossible task to add that much input to it
@@moogman5 it doesn't take near as long as the NRCS has been telling people. I have a friend who built 18" of topsoil in 12 years. Livestock integration was a big booster.
@@jwsoil I don't have access to enough livestock where I'm at but that would be ideal for anyone I'm sure...I wish I didn't have so much clay but the advantage to clay is a lot of locked up nutrients and minerals we have to tap into short and long term
Wow.....Great info. I am not a farmer, but still love learning as much as possible about this stuff!
Looks like you got some good farmers for neighbors. Take some notes from them.
What have peope to offer which are only few years out of university. There are some major problems in agiculture today , the availability of power , fertilizers and chemicals. I farm in Germany and during the last 40 years I tried a lot things. I sold my plough , thinking it will work with less tillage. This ended up in soilcompaction ( we have mild winter ) and my potatoes , my main cash crop showed low yields and poor quality ) Than
my soil consultant got on my nerves with mulch .
luckily I tried only a few rows.
Most of the time we have mild but dark winter and long and cold
spring . Sometimes there are few days with 77 degrees in march but 50 degrees in april.
Soil doesn't warm up very quick and mulch will conservate low soil temperature up to end of may. So it never worked.
What I want to say , each farmer has to find his way , matching his type of farm , product he grows , what soil he has and which climate. I grow delicate potatos in stony soil and remove stones before planting. Since a couple of years I seperate the soil after grain harvest and put rye on it for covering in wintertime.
The ground is permeable and i can start planting earlies first weeek of march direct into beds.
No disturbance of worm population and keeping moisture.
If I am not willing to try something new I fail in my job.
"If I am not willing to try something new I fail in my job." Amen, I wish more farmers thought this way!
I haven't seen a college classroom in 14 years.. I farm and travel America testing soils. I don't know how to do production potatoes without tillage, but I have grown them in the garden by covering them with straw.
Dude i know that already since whole farmer climate change drama begun, trough my life i had a cactus, and a chillie plant, both died, but since this whole farting cows and nitrogen drama begun i did my research and i know that for like 5 years now. Gonna grow some onions in jars now on my window. Clover produces nitrogen ;]
I know it's weird but us farmers weren't taught how plants grow...
Problem is some people think they know everything may know about his own soil that has he been all around the world everywhere to grow something I think not
I know guys growing topsoil in deserts.
I feel your pain. Farmers are some of the most steeped in tradition people.
However, and this is the first video of yours I have watched, you did not cover anything about rotation. Remember, no till does not make up for no rotation, no animal activity, and no trees. Clearing the soil for modern agriculture, no-till included, does more damage, and more difficult damage to undo than tillage. Clearing the land for agriculture is permanent.
We are learning every day, new ways to grow acceptable food stuff in warehouses. Hydroponics and variations is making headway. Etc. So really, the soil was already doomed the day it was cleared of it's natural vegetation. Unless you are organic no-till, you can either kill the soil with oxidation at tillage, or kill it with synthetic chemistry. Either way, the true long term balance is disrupted. May as well use it for what it has left and hope the young people today can come up with an alternative means of supplying food.
Over half of the soil I farmed 45 years ago has very nice asphalt with lumber and concrete structures growing on it now. That's considered real no-till.
Knowing that the rest of soil I farm now will be asphalt and concrete soon, I use no-till planting equipment, (notice I referenced equipment only) as a means of reducing costs more so than saving the already doomed soil. But when I screw up a field that has not had tillage for over 10 years, economically I have to use tillage as a reset button. Maybe someday that can change, but for now tiz wut tiz.
Thanks for empathizing. We can rebuild soil though. Have you ever heard of Allan Savory? Farmers and land managers who get holistic management and the 6 soil health principles are building new top soil over deserts.
So in reality what we should be doing is . Using all available organic material and composting it and returning it to the crop land ? The grass clippings the leaves the brush broken down . the food being thrown away . It all needs to be composted and returned to the fields ? That seems like the first step we should take a massive effort to relocate the dead organic materials safely to the farm land. Instead of tilling we drop an inch or two of compost over the top !
Got a question should we compost it or should we just incorporate it back into the soil? I think everybody worries about the carbon and carbon dioxide and the methane for the cleaner green Air people. Composting should give you that and I'm wondering is it better than to just put it directly into the soil and let the soil compost it? Unfortunately we're now talking about tillage to incorporate it back into the soil. Would like to hear your thoughts
@@robertschumacher472 So most of what a plant is made of comes from the atmosphere (97%). Compost is beneficial and will quickly be broken down in a health soil that supports arthropods, fungal networks, and bacteria. If compost is not quickly being broken down the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio is out of balance. Planting a high nitrogen sequestering legume will speed up the process.
So much of the narrative focuses on saying how bad tillage is. A major disconnect in that several other issues aren't being addressed. Tillage has been reduced drastically with the advent of synthetic chemicals. Instead of cultivating now conventional farmers just spray. The first question- is no tillage better if chemical inputs go up on the health of the soil?
So, many other factors like farmers having to till/disc/plow cause the soil is so compacted and mutilated from regular additions of fertilizers, pesticides, etc.
The modern narrative in that better farming practices requires no till is not addressing the underlying reasons why farmers are having good results( albeit being short term) by using tillage.
It's like telling a guy down in hole, that he needs a rope to climb out instead of giving him that rope.
The talk of no till is a one way conversation. We have to be able to provide that " rope" through knowledge dissemination and real world examples.
Thanks ed. Yes definately a shortcoming of the video. No-till is just one step to honoring the 6 soil health principles.
You have read books. Have you ever grown a field crops?
I grew up on the farm working with my family to grow field crops. I worked in ag technology after it became apparent the farm couldn't support me with our conventional methods. I just returned to the farm after learning the regenerative approach and 6 soil health principles. I follow the likes of Gabe Brown and the farmers at Understanding Ag so I don't have to reinvent the wheel.
Me and my brother had theorized for decades now that tillage is the cause of lack of micronutrients in vegetables now
Some smart hombres! It's absolutely true. Here's one study off the top of my head: www.psu.edu/news/story/soil-tillage-reduces-availability-longevity-vitamin-ergothioneine-crops/
@@jwsoil thanks he will like this my bro is a 65 yo hermit no electronics except a radio lol 😆 it's just a knowledge of history that me and him both made our assumptions about especially diet look at disease rates and diet changes
It bugs me too...
Most Illinois producers would solve they’re poor structure, and plow-pan, drainage issue with-you guessed it, more tile!!! Ugh.
Good producers put a pencil too their expense to maximize profits. Most farmers are multimillionaires. Do u think they got that far with bad accounting?
@@garrettheyerdahl4123 Most farmers are operating multimillion dollar operations but they are not profitable or sustainable in their practices or operations. Profit margin are almost none existent. The Agribusinesses are the ones making all of the profit in farming in America. Check the farmer suicide rates in America. This is a deep subject, but a little research will dig up a grim story.
What the hell is wrong with tile? It’s hugely beneficial and 100% pays and produces for itself.
My point is; it’s not a substitute for good soil management-root channels, microbes, organic matter, etc. Yes, it can force roots deeper but, you’re also asking the crop to expand energy it may not have or will exchange yield to do so. We need tile to raise crops, not to improve water quality-that’s B.S.
@@scottschaeffer8920it’s main purpose is yields but it has the added benefit of improving water quality by preventing runoff and erosion.
Meanwhile you ignore the windmill behind you which harms the wildlife and environment far more than tilling the land.
I'm not a fan of them either, but they don't have near the impact tillage has across all of America's farm land.
The soul up around Fargo is hard pain and puddles the rain
But the girls in the farm service agency they don’t seem to know about chiseling
I lived in Fargo for 15 years. If they figured out how to increase water infiltration through no-till and cover crops, they could save billions of dollars from all of the flood infrastructure....
When you live in northere climates on the edge of cropping. Some tillage is essential to be able to seed in the spring. Imagine not being able to seed 2-3 uears out of 10. Bankruptcy is what would happen. Nice to have pie in the sky ideas. But farmers dont like spending money or useless ideas like tillage. They do it cause its needed with theor soil types. I do agree on using the least possible to get the crops seeded and harvested on a year to year basis.
Producers using no-till and cover crops improve water infiltration 10x-20x. We're able to get into fields way before our neighbors.
Who do you think taught them how, too, and those who taught them knew better than us. Work the land for 6 years leave fallow for 1. The only way to build the soil structure is to put sewage and manure on it. It shows that north America is 30 years behind on farming practices
Leave crop residue and you don't need sewage and manure. That stuff has way too much salt and antibiotics in it to replace soil.
This sounds like a college project video influenced heavily by modern environmentalists. A blanket statement made by a student parroting what they've heard in the classroom.
Tillage and no-till have their places depending on situations. Tillage is great when you have a large quantity of leftover organic material to turn under. No-till is nice when you have very little and you want to plant grass. Really all depends on your area/situation though.
Haven't been in a college classroom in.....(calculating).... 14 years. I want farmers to break-free of their dependence on equipment manufacturers, diesel fuel, chemicals, and treated seed.