Joe Breker, past president Zero Tillage Farmers Assoc.

Havana, N.D.

When using a no-till system of crop production, crop relations are important. You can minimize disease, better utilize fertilizer and moisture, spread out your planting and harvesting season, and control different weed species using many kinds of herbicides at different times during the growing season. The varieties used in any given crop can also play a big role in the success of that planting. A goodno-till variety should be able to germinate and grow properly in wet, cool soil conditions which are prominent in most no-till seedings .

The methods of weed control have to change also in no till cropping. Instead of using tillage for primary weed control we now use Roundup and Banvel or Roundup alone with surfactant which should always be used. The use of incorporated herbicides can no longer be used. They have to be substituted with rainfall pre-emerge or better yet post-emergent herbicides. Although good post-emergent herbicides are lacking for some no-till crops, especially row crops, their methods of raising these crops successfully. You can do such things as delay planting so the germinated weeds can be killed. Planting narrower rows at higher plant populations can also help the crop compete with weeds. Banding of fertilizer below and to the side of the seed helps the plant get a jump on weeds and at the same time starves the weeds for available fertility and moisture. This brings me to the reason why I own a Yielder drill. The ability of the drill to band fertilizer utilizing cold flow ammonia, which is the cheapest form of nitrogen and dry phosphorous made the drill attractive. The use of starter fertilizer in no-till helps young seedlings get off to a better start in these cool soil temperatures. We usually place 1/3 of the dry fertilizer with the seed and 2/3 in the deep band with the ammonia. It uses large diameter leading disk openers for good trash penetration and excellent clearance for obstacles and rocks. Because of the unique capabilities, along with excellent seed placement and good depth control. I decided to make this piece of equipment do more acres a year by putting an IH cyclo row crop blower unit on the drill so I could plant a wider variety of crops with it. By planting our small grains in 10" row width we can use every third opener for 30" row crop. The cyclo unit uses 3/4" hard plastic tubing that fits into the opener on the Yielder drill which enables me to plant row crop at up to seven miles per hour. Together with anhydrous ammonia, large fertilizer capacities and the versatility of planting a variety of crops at high speed has made the Yielder drill a very cost effective piece of farm equipment.

The last couple of years I have been using the paired row concept. The idea behind it is to get the seed rows closer to the fertilizer band. You get better utilization of the fertilizer by the crop and less by the weeds. Even though I have been recropping some winter wheat for five years or more. On the majority of my farm, I like to rotate crops. A good rotation for me is spring planted crops such as spring wheat, durum, barley, oats, and flax, followed by winter wheat followed by row crops. I have used corn, soybeans and sunflowers but millet, safflowers and buckwheat might also work.

I have found with the right equipment and good rotations, continuous no-till recropping may be an alternative to conventional tillage.

Presented at 1985 Workshop