Farmers are giving conservation tillage a try

By Melinda Warner
Special to Ag Alert

Conservation tillers are an experimenting bunch, willing to work with unfamiliar equipment and try new ways of planting a bed. They want to avoid needless tillage trips across the field, trips that add up in labor and fuel costs. Growers are also looking for ways to farm in a more environmentally sound way, and no-tillage and minimum-tillage systems help stave off erosion and reduce emissions.

Bob Prys, agronomy manager at Borba Farms, was one of several growers on hand at the annual Conservation Tillage Conference in Tulare to talk about their successes and challenges in reducing the number of passes they make over their land.

Most farmers who try conservation tillage experiment with different methods to find out which one fits their needs. Prys had trials in cotton with no-till, striptill and ridge till. Strip till, where coulters cut residues in front of sub-soiling shanks that loosen the soil ahead of the planter, seems to work best in his particular situation. Prys said yields are comparable to conventional tillage practices and he has reduced the number of passes from nine to five. By 2005, the farm will have 500 acres of cotton in conservation tillage.

Prys said he thinks the biggest problem growers have with changing the way they do things is fear of the unknown.

"Growers have an established practice," he said. "They've done it a particular way for years and have no problems with plant stand. Sometimes people don't want to change and have that uncertainty. I know that if I prepare my fields like I've always done, I don't have to worry about having a plant stand, other than weather problems.

"But I also look at the other side of the ledger," he added. "I didn't have to have as many guys or equipment."

Prys first got involved with conservation tillage three or four years ago on about 150 acres of sandy soil in Riverdale, and calls the move a purely economic decision.

"The ranch we are doing this on has been one on which historically we haven't been able to get our production up and inputs are pretty high," he said. "We tried everything under the sun: every type of fertilizer and water, different cotton varieties. But 2.5 bales (per acre) was all we could get no matter what we did; it was just not happening. So, I decided that since we can't get output to go up, we need inputs to go down."

The biggest problem, Prys said, has been getting a comparative plant stand. He decided that one standard operation he couldn't forgo was rolling the seed line a day or so after planting.

University of California Cooperative Extension farm advisor Jeff Mitchell agreed that the top problem with minimum-till cotton is stand establishment. Issues include getting seed into adequately moist soil and keeping the soil moist around the seed, water penetration and soil cooling from all the residues. There could also be subsoil compaction over time, because of no primary tillage between crops.

In his Westside trials, Mitchell had problems with rough furrows in tomato/cotton conservation-tillage rotations.

"Very rough furrows can lead to non-uniformity of water distribution," Mitchell said, "so in some situations we went in with a machine that swept out the furrows. We also had to make sure the field had a proper slope."

Despite challenges, farm advisors in the Central Valley see a rising interest in reduced-till systems. Carol Frate, UCCE farm advisor in Tulare County, said several growers approached her about doing on-farm trials with reduced tillage in corn. Many growers in this dairy-rich area find the idea of double-cropped corn appealing.

One such grower was Gil Replogle in Visalia, who in 2003 grew 1,000 acres of double-cropped corn on land leased from a dairy. His goals were to get corn in earlier, reduce tillage, allow for manure spreading and minimize yield loss. Strip till, he said, does all this and also reduces the amount of variability and solves sub-soil compaction.

Replogle said he ran into problems with irrigation because of all the trash or extra plant material. In retrospect, he said, a simple light disking for clods may have facilitated a furrowing pass. He also found that strip tilling prior to preirrigation held the moisture longer and made a better bed than no-till. The manure also helped keep the moisture in.

Another grower, Tom Barcellos, started with 300 acres of no-till corn in 2002 and found yields were comparable to conventional plantings. In no-till the only tillage is the soil disturbance in a narrow slot created by coulters, or seed openers.

Everyone's experience is indeed unique, he said.

"If there are 10 farmers in a room, they will tell you 10 different ways to get results," Barcellos said.

In 2003, between his own field and those that he manages, Barcellos had 4,000 acres of no-till. He found in certain instances he was better off planting with a GPS autopilot on the tractor at 2 a.m. when the moisture is strong. Planting began on April 20 into 5-year-old alfalfa with a John Deere planter and Yutter no-till attachments, applying fertilizer and an insecticide spray at the same time.

For earliness, Barcellos said, "It is very important to have a rubber-belted planter that allows you to get on the field as soon as five to seven days after the water is off. This is a key component to getting a good, sound stand."

One of the most consistent fields was behind baled oats. There were no compaction issues to deal with, possibly because this field was naturally field cut and dried.

"This is an opportunity that everybody can apply; it is definitely something that you can work into your program," he said. "But, people do need to understand their own soil."

Dominic Patino, a pest control advisor in Bakersfield for the Wilbur Ellis Co., said his customers from Tipton to Arvin provide him with a wide range of soil types and different types of growers. The rotations he's been working with are corn/corn/wheat. On the second corn plantings, he does see worm problems.

"We're still learning about non-till or minimum till and every field is different," Patino said. "The best thing to do is make a plan and research it really well."