Luther Berntson

Adams, North Dakota

January 1987

One of the most frequent responses that I get after a no-till presentation or discussion from someone that isn't familiar with a zero till cropping system is: "It might work on your farm hut it would never work on my farm with the type of soil that I have". Qualifying that statement with, "A soil type has to be plowed or tilled or it will be hard as a rock" , or "we could never get in it in the spring". Perhaps he is right. One of the difficulties for the engineers is designing a seeder is to design one that will work satisfactorily in all conditions and soil types. I feel, therefore, that this is a timely subject to discuss and I would like to share with you my experience with the soil types and crops that we have on our farm.

I live in Walsh County in N.E. North Dakota, about 40 miles from western Minnesota and 40 miles from southern Canada or roughly 140 miles SW of Winnipeg. Cur climatic conditions are very similar to what you have in much of the prairie provinces, here in Canada. Its too cold in the winter, too hot in the summer, too dry during the growing season, too wet during harvest, too much wind most of the time and frost usually comes to late in the spring and too early in the fall. More specifically, we have an average precipitation of eighteen inches plus. 75 % of the precipitation falls during the growing season of April through September and about 45 % falls during the months of May through July. We have an average frost free period of 102 days at 32 degrees and 128 days of 28 degrees. Cur average snowfall is 36 inches. Averages, of course, is something you can play games with. An example I like is If you have one foot in a tub of boiling water and the other in ice water, the average may not be too bad but under the situation, one is not very comfortable. It is the extremes in the climatic condition that play havoc with our farming plans. About the most predictable thing about weather is that it is going to be unpredictable. One of the pluses for no-till, of course, is moisture retention and this was one of the reasons why I was attracted to it. I felt that about eight years out of ten, sometime during the growing season, we would be short of moisture and it seemed that moisture was the limiting factor in higher yields.

I started no-tilling in 1972. In our corner of the world here in Sec 2 during this nine year span we have been considerably above our thirty year average. In one three year span we received 30 inches of precipitation per year during the growing season which is little more than double the normal. This past season we received 12 inches in a 45 day period from mid June through July. My experience therefore comes more of a surplus moisture condition rather than a normal or deficient condition. The first question of a drill manufacturing representative is, 'How does it work in wet conditions?" The surplus moisture has altered the system from year to year and we have learned to roll with what nature delivers to you. It has affected our weed control, it has resulted in rutting in the field, it has caused a slight delay in seeding, but overall the zero till cropping system has been positive as we have been able to maintain yields and very importantly have controlled beth water and wind erosion. Cur no-till cropping system has evolved inot what would probably be more correctly defined as conservation farming. Conservation of natural resources of soil is our goal with zero till still being the main thrust.

Cur fam is located on what is called the glacial till plain. The soil scientist definition of glacial till is an " unassorted, non-stratified glacial drift consisting of clay, silt, sand, and boulders transported and depoited by glacial ice. In other words, we have potholes, rocks, and gumbo.

The soil scientist have also given the soils differertclassifi-cation or naa'es. Cur farm has been identified to have mainly what they call the Barnes and Svea soils with isolated areas of creshard which tends to be slightly saline. In the Canadian system of classification, the Barnes and Svea are both black Chernozemn and the sodium affected Cresbard is a solod. The Cresbard tends to coipact very easily and is underlayed with a sodic hardpan. Ths oil also tends to alkaline with a ph value in the neighborhood of 7.5 to 8.0. In layman terms one way to describe our soil type would be to say that they are non-uniform. The soil map identifies eleven different soil types on our farm with one quarter section being interspersed with seven of them. In any cropping system this quarter would cause some problems and particularly under intensive cultivation. For the most part, we have a somewhat fine textured soil with a clay pan that will tend to compact when wet and subject to wind erosion if left exposed. We have lots of fields that have what we call gumbo spots. They tend to form a soapy or sticky mud when wet. A high water table is common. The gumbo tends to get hard when dry. They are often small in size. If you are acquainted with them, you know that as you go along working the field, these are the spots where your tractor or implement sinks out of sight. It has been these fields and our saline areas that have proved to be a very positive aspect for no-till. There is a very narrow window to work these soils "when the time is right". The window is much broader in zero-till and as a result these "spots" have become more productive and in most cases are hard to identify under no-till.

Will zero-till work on the type of soil you farm? I don't rightly know, but I do know that our farm has responded to a no-till cropping system. I should qualify this statement somewhat: from a pure no-till system, we don't chem-fallow anymore. Cur soil type may affect this somewhat, but the deciding factor is our high rainfall. The field retain too much moisture, making them difficult to get into in the spring in a timely manner.

Farming on the glacial till plain we also have to contend with the course fragments or rock. They range anywhere from pea size to boulders. We are often asked how it works when there are rocks. This again is very positive in no-till. When they are picked off you are done with that chore unless you till the field for some reason and more are pulled up. I have argued this point with many conventional till farmers. The common feeling is that rocks are pushed up to the surface by frost or other internal forces and unless you pick them every year that you will soon have a solid surface of rock. I counter this with the example of your yard. Have you noticed the phenomenon of rocks pushing through the grass? Of course you haven't. To be sure, the rocks don't magically disappear but they remain below the surface. To this point one farmer responded, "You don't have rocks like we do in our country".

We have grown quite a variety of crops under zero-till, with various degree of success. The crops we have grown are: winter wheat, spring wheat, durum wheat, barley, flax, rape, field peas, buckwheat, black turtle beans, red Mexican beans, soy beans, sunflowers, mustard and grass. The crops have responded very well with the exception of the soy beans and the edible beans. I would call you attention to our frost free period of 102 days, coupled with slightly lower soil temperatures. Beans don't seem to responds well as the other crops do in this environment. This isn't a no-till problem per se. Even under a conventional system the beans are marginal at best. Another year we may be looking at a ridge-till system for beans. We don't use no-till for growing our sunflowers for two reasons: 1) We grow confection seeds where you need a lower plant population for larger seed size and you lose the competition you need for weed control from the lower population. 2) The economics of using only chemical for weed control.

In summary, I feel zero-till has responded very favorably in our soil type with many positive aspects. The question remains however, Are we making it affordable? No-till is not a one way ticket to financial independence. The economic hard times are just as real for the no-till farmer as it is for the conventional till farmer. We have to be very selective in the decisions we make. No-till gives us another tool to work with and the more options we have to select from the better are our chances for survival. It is also important that we keep our options open in zero-till so that we can make the changes that are necessary for success and profitably. The price of farm chemicals will have a lot to do with the bottom line and in many cases will be the deciding factor. It is encouraging to see the cost of some of the more frequently used chemicals declining in price and some of the new chemicals being cost effective at the recommended use rate. On the negative side, it has been discouraging to see some of the chemicals rise in price, even though they have been on the market for several year.

For the short term I feel zero-till is on par or above conventional farming for economic return. We must ask ourselves: What is the value of an inch or two of additional moisture? What is the value of improved soil tilth and structure? What is the value of increased organic matter? What is the value of controlling water and wind erosion?

Let's hang in there, keep a positive attitude, and keep our shoulder to the wheel. As one farmer said, "When thing are good, they are going to get bad and when things are bad, they are going to get good."