Latimer, Iowa (north central) | Good post Joel. It needs to be a systems approach to be successful and has to be intentional. For us cover crops really make notill work.
I find it frustrating when people say "I notill my beans" but they do tillage ahead of their corn. That is not a notill system. Farmers will struggle with that approach because the soil does not have the opportunity to be notill. Many of the issues from ground "warming up", "staying wet so needs tillage to open up" to "uses up my moisture" can be overcome with a plan and a deliberate approach.
If someone asks me if they should try notill and covers but says they only want to do this ahead of their soybeans I tell them not to do it because they will not like the results and then we will hear "Notill and covers doesn't work here!!" |
Switching to no-till is most successful when planned well
