No till farming

Haz · May 27, 2003

I have read about no till farming on this website but I don't know exactly what it is. Is it more expensive or more difficult to do? What type of equipment is needed? What are the benefits and disadvantages?

Haz

Anonymous Poster · May 27, 2003

Notill is basicly BIG horsepower on big acerage. There are plenty of disagreements on the cost effectivness of notill over conventional, where the ground is turned with a plow and worked in a conventional manner. Notill is basicly grain farming.

Egon · May 27, 2003

The reason for notill is reduced erosion, reduced moisture loss and reduced costs as the equipment has to make only one pass for the seeding operation. It's dependent on spraying for weeds.

As per Franz's statment: Grain farming- big horsepower- big acerage- takes about 5 or so acres just to get the seeding train turned around.

Egon

MikePA · May 27, 2003

The guy who used to farm the 3 acre and 36 acre lots next to us used no till farming for soy beans and corn.

Egon · May 27, 2003

Mike:

I'm presently trying to get an oversized foot out of my mouth or off the keyboard.

Egon

MikePA · May 27, 2003

/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Some localities also offer incentives to use no till farming. You're right about the spraying for weeds. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif It wasn't unusual for our back yard to get either some overspray or, if it was wet, some run off. Did a number on the lawn. We solved the problem by buying the 3 acre parcel next to us. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

cowboydoc · May 27, 2003

You can no-til farm with smaller equipment. The equipment is rather expensive though and you do need to know what you are doing to do it. Everything is more precise and you most definitely have to rely on spraying. There is no way to no-til farm without spraying. On the short of it it's definitely more expensive and more difficult to do.

Haz · May 28, 2003

It doesn't sound like that is for me. I definitely do not want to spray. Thanks everyone for the info.

Haz

MDNick · May 28, 2003

My dad has been no-till farming his corn forever (30 yrs). He does not own a corn planter. The local Soil and Water Conservation District rents the planter. Very reasonably. It's an insentive to do no-till, as farmers of my dad's category (22 acres tillable) could not afford to do it otherwise. The seed suppliers have developed some excellent cultivars (cultivated varieties, selectively engineered strains of crops for a specific trait) for no-till farming. One that has impressed me is round-up resistant soy beans. Unless you really sock it to 'em, they ignore round-up. Amazing.

One of the problems with no-till is much like the over use of antibiotics. Slowly the weeds are developing resistance to the spray chemicals. Mother nature and natural selection doing what it does, in the same way as the scientists did in the lab. She just works a little slower, but did show the way for the scientists.