|
Western Nebraska | All of our own has been in for 12+ years. We have been through the worst drought on record, and yet the results haven't been so poor that it would convince us to change what we are doing. What you will start to see after years of doing this is that your yields will not be able to be explained just by rainfall or fertility. For some reason the rain that we are getting is producing more yield than what the conditions can explain. I think at this point our soils are recovering to the point that we are getting a significant boost out of the increased biological activity.
All the other things about water infiltration and mellowing of the soil occurred on our soils as well. They are sandy loams. We have more than doubled the OM in our soils since we started. When we started the OM was .9%, and now they are over 2%. That alone will give our productivity a significant boost. We were told that we would see 80% of normal yields but we never experienced that. We were at the same levels from the very beginning and now we are surpassing the old yields. None of the neighbors believe it so we have quit telling our yields.
The old saying when the high plains were being homesteaded was that the rain followed the plow. We have become convinced that the new saying is that rain follows the sprayer. For some reason the most common thing we hear is that the reason we can no-till and others can't is because we get more rain.
Your rotation is crucial in having success in no-till continuous crop. The more research you do you will also begin to uncover crop synergisms. If you can use crop synergism to further boost your yields that is just one more edge that you will have over the neighbors that won't bother. | |
|
any long term no-tillers?
