Conference examines No-till for Life

By Larry Dreiling

It began 15 years ago as a government-sponsored soil residue management conference to a curious group of about 300 people.

Now, the farmer-managed No-Till On The Plains Conference is discussing the issue of "No-till for Life."

At its recent 11th annual conference held at Salina, Kan., NTOTP brought over 900 people together with the issue as the conference theme.

The keynote speaker called no-till a guiding principle for long term sustainability and profitability of modern production agriculture.

The speaker was Dan Towery, president of Ag Conservation Solutions, a Lafayette, Ind., consultancy firm. A former natural resources specialist at the Conservation Technology Information Center, Towery spent a total of 25 years with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service including 10 years at CTIC.

Towery said he is a believer in "letting the soil work for you rather than you working the soil."

To achieve that, Towery believes producers must evaluate their crop production decisions based on the long term and not on short-term profit.

"You have to get away from this one-year mentality because we can always go back to what we're used to," Towery said, "to the easy solutions that usually involve tillage."

No-till a "North Star"

No-till, Towery said, ought to be a producer's "North Star."

"Everyone needs a North Star. It can be religion or maybe your father or an adviser," Towery said. "When tough times and challenges occur one falls back on the guiding principals of continuous no-till or conservation agriculture and recognizes that some mistakes or failures are part of the learning process.

"I know it can be tough sometimes but it really comes down to not losing faith."

The basic premise of a no-till system, Towery said, is that it is dynamic--changing over time. It leads to goals for sustainable and profitable agriculture including minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and diverse crop rotation.

"I first learned about no-till in college in 1975. I saw no-till corn planted while on a field trip," Towery said. "Seeing fields today, I can understand where those three goals can be worlds apart depending on where you are at," Towery said.

Four phases of no-till

Towery then discussed what he called the four phases of no-till.

Phase one, initialization, occurs in the first five years. It is where soil structure starts to improve and microbial activity increases. Additional nitrogen is required to do that.

"As organic matter increases, you need the added nitrogen to make more of it," Towery said.

The second phase is transition from the fifth to tenth years. This is when organic matter accumulates, soil aggregation and soil microbial activity elevates, phosphorous accumulates, and nitrogen immobilization and greater mineralization occurs.

Phase three is consolidation, from 11 to 20 years. In this period, carbon accumulates and additional water is available in the soil. Further nitrogen mineralization and immobilization occurs and there is an increase in cation exchange capacity (CEC) and nutrient cycling.

"These years aren't perhaps exact, because this phase depends on your latitude and your soils," Towery said.

The fourth and final phase is maintenance, which comes after 20 years. It brings a continuous flow of nitrogen and carbon, greater availability of water and high nutrient cycling with increases in nitrogen and phosphorus.

"Twenty years is a long time. It's not like you've arrived at the Promised Land but things do change with the soil," Towery said. "It's because it is a dynamic system. The technology and management strategies you use changes over time as you go from phase to phase.

"One change we underestimate is the changes in soil biology. We can't see them but they're there."

Some progress,

more needed

The U.S. has shown incredible progress in the development of no-till, Towery said, with a 342 percent increase in no-till acreage since 1989.

"In 40 years no-till in the U.S. has grown to over 62 million acres as of 2004. That's almost 23 percent of cropland. That's outstanding," Towery said.

Still, Towery wondered why continuous no-till isn't used more in the U.S.

"The best estimate is that about only about 8 to 12 percent of U.S. cropland has been farmed with continuous no-till for at least five years," Towery said. "That's pathetic, folks."

Instead, rotational tillage is the norm in the U.S., a norm that a follows a road to nowhere.

"No-till is used in the crop rotation but somewhere in that rotation there's going to be full-width tillage. It puts you back to square one. You stay in the initialization phase," Towery said. "You may not be losing organic matter per se, but you aren't gaining any either. This is a long transitional period. It takes time."

In the last year CTIC survey results were available, 2004, Kansas producers planted 4.2 million acres or 21 percent of all cropland to no-till. This included 35 percent no-till soybeans, 35 percent no-till grain sorghum, 29 percent no-till corn, and 9 percent no-till winter wheat.

Why not more?

Towery said there are lots of reasons for the lack of continuous no-till. The primary reason is management adoption, which depends on soils, climate and crops planted.

"Some crops are easier to no-till than others. Some soils are easier to no-till," Towery said. "Soybeans work well in no-till. That's why we have such a high national adoption rate. corn is a little different."

Towery also blamed USDA farm program payments based on yield for the lack of continuous no-till.

"It was only until the 1995 farm bill before growers could deviate from their base acres," Towery said. "It economically allowed producers to go to more diversified crop rotations."

Academia also can be blamed, Towery said, because of university publish or perish requirements placed on faculty.

"A lot of university studies in no-till have been for one year, maybe three years at most," Towery said. "They fail to look at the long-term implications for no-till. We're lucky to have a few good researchers out there, but they are far and few between."

CSP "squandered"

The NRCS's Conservation Security Program, Towery said, not only is a reason why producers don't use continuous no-till, but it's the reason he left USDA after 25 years.

"I got tired of beating my head against the wall as they were designing the CSP," Towery said. "It was designed to reward the best and rest would follow. The only problem is that in the criteria they didn't just reward the good farmers, the farmers who were doing continuous no-till. They also rewarded farmers I'd call 'B' level and even 'C' level farmers.

"They were paying farmers on flatter soils who'd still do tillage. They are a lot easier to set criteria for. It had a heck of a potential and it was squandered."

Towery also blamed producers for being a part of an instant gratification society.

"We're talking here about five to 10 years before the soil changes," Towery said. "We want to see change now."

Other problems: The Puritan work ethic producers have combined with a love of high horsepower tractors. Producers also want a "cook book" approach to solving problems.

"You have the tillage gene in you and you want the biggest, most powerful tractor in the county as a prestige thing," Towery said. "Some farmers want a 'cook book' approach, but I'm here to tell you it isn't going to work in continuous no-till. You have to figure out what works for your farm. However, you need to gain the very good insight from other growers. That's why you are here."

Don't impress the landlord

Competition for cropland and the demands of absentee landowners also are creating a lack of continuous no-till.

"A lot of us still have the mindset of impressing the landowner," Towery said. "Coming out and seeing residue or even weeds in the field is bad. Having them drive out and see you stir up dust with your tractor is good. Plus, some people are so land hungry they aren't willing to go to no-till. The other thought is why go to all the trouble of improving the soil if the landlord will rent it out from under you for 10 bucks more an acre. It's a real issue."

Most importantly, Towery said, there are multiple agendas and a lack of national leadership expounding continuous no-till.

"There is a movement to grow hay for carbon credits, but not for continuous no-till," Towery said. "I would remind you that the people who did the models for carbon sequestration found out the data I gave them was for continuous no-till. No. No. Not practical they said. We really need some leadership."

Despite the reasons why continuous no-till hasn't been adapted as readily as he desires, Towery reminded the gathering, the results of continuous no-till are impressive.

"Remember, organic matter increases, CEC increases, the soil's moisture holding capacity increases and evaporation decreases, nutrient cycling of N and P increases, there's almost no runoff, there's additional moisture in July and August, P availability increases, N cycling improves and there's significantly higher yields in dry years," Towery said.

"Make the soil work you and you will be no-till for life."

Larry Dreiling can be reached by phone at 785-628-1117 or by e-mail at ldreiling@aol.com.

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2/26/07

4 Star NE

Date: 2/22/07

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