We, my wife Pat, son Ryan who is 18, daughter Bobbi 15 along with busy season help from my neighbor Jack Belcher, farm 1800 acres on 13 quarters 17 miles north of Brandon. I have been farming since 1967 and at the time of my marriage in 1971 bought the farm as it existed from my father. Since that time we have added 1\2 section and have rented an additional 5 quarters to bring us to our current size. We have been continuous cropping for 14 years and 0 tilling for the past three crops. I was asked to allow my name to stand for election to the board of this body and am now just finishing my 2nd of 3 years.

You may wonder why I have given this discourse the title Gullibles Travels - Jim's Fairy Tales? Firstly when someone goes into a new way of doing things because they have listened to-a few farmers telling them about the Gospel of 0 Tilling, step into it 100 % the first year and then proceed to sell off all their unnecessary equipment such as their cultivator, rod weeder, spare tractors etc. and then start to give their hired hands longer holidays they might be considered in some circles to be gullible. Also when someone is given the opportunity to stand in front of a group of distinguished people such as yourselves and give a report on how they farm its an open invitation to put their best foot forward hence the Fairy Tale part of the title. I hope that by the end of my talk, that there will be a small bit of information you might be able to use in making your plans for the future.

In 1971 at the time we took over the family farm, we also took over all existing debt, some in arrears, as well as assuming the new responsibility of buying my fathers equity. For the next couple of years we would from time to time have a visit from a few interested parties asking if we might be interested in making a payment on the arrears. Fortunately for us these loans for the most part were unsecured and we were not pushed off the farm. From that time till 3 years ago, when we decided to go into 0 Till, we were able to retire the arrears and build many assets around us with insignificant loans associated with these assets. Our farm was one of the lucky ones that even in years of hardship for many around us was able to earn more than enough to meet our needs sometimes abundantly more. A person at a time of reflection like this needs to give thanks and I truly do give thanks.

You may ask why I said all that. I said all that to say this. It wasn't because I was desperate that I went into 0 till. It wasn't because what I was doing wasn't working or wasn't profitable. The reason I went into 0 till wasn't even because I felt I would be treating the soil better, although I do believe that to be the case. The reason I went into 0 till is purely selfish. I wanted to make more money out of my farm. I suppose the probability of leaving it in good shape for my successors is something that should have an even higher priority, especially when my successor could be my son; however in order to have a farm of value to pass on I believe it must be profitable.

How do I hope to make better returns because of my 0 till farming practices? Well there are of course 2 ways, lowering costs and increasing returns. I believe that most farmers would accept the possibility that there could be a lowering of input costs such as fuel and labor. There is an attitude that chemical costs will rise dramatically, a view I don't wholeheartedly subscribe to. These topics are good coffee shop topics but they really don't cut it when it comes time to compare yields in the fall. For some reason we are all driven to have the higher yield. For me, and I suppose for all of us it is imperative that we measure up when it comes time to compare the yields. On our farm we have placed both objectives on the priority lists, that is we want to lower costs and at the same time maintain or improve yields. I believe both are attainable.

Let's list some facts that will help get a good yield. Well there is good seed, good fertility (adequate well placed fertilizer), proper seed placement (quick emergence in a good environment), early seeding, good rotations (to avoid unnecessary disease problems), adequate moisture (water conservation couples with good drainage), good weed control (timely spraying along with good crop competition), early even ripening, quick efficient harvesting and effective field preparation for the next year.

Now lets look at some facts that will reduce costs. Eliminate as many trips across the field as possible. Use as few implements as possible. Do as much with the implements that you need as you can. Control your fertilizer inputs by soil testing and placing the fertilizer in the most effective way you can. Control spray costs by being up to date with the different chemicals, tank mixes, price breaks etc.

Taking the above two paragraphs as a base I want to tell you what I do to influence my yields and cut my costs. With a little reading between the lines I'm sure you will see why the growing environment can be established most economically in a 0till program. To begin with I need to give a short description of our land. The farm is quite rolling and is in the middle of the Minnedosa pothole area. About 1/3 of the acres were at one time potholes and unworkable. Over the years almost all of the potholes have been drained giving some of the most productive land we have. My land is situated on the north slope of a valley and is quite prone to early frosts. If it gets past the first week in May and I don't have any seed in the ground you've got one excited farmer on your hands. These facts created a small problem for me in that frequently in wet spring the lower areas (old potholes) could and did hold water. My objective is to hold as much of the water on the hills to bring up the water table, good stubble management is key to this. Any of the excess water which would tend to pond I drain off with as positive a draining system as possible. With this combination I attempt to create as even a moisture reserve as possible in the spring. I have installed on a few of my main runways flow control structures that will allow me to hold back or even dam off the water flow. This puts me in control of the spring runoff and in some instances allows me to create waterfowl habitat which I can manage. Getting back to soil moisture management by having more moisture on the hills and quicker drying in the hollows I should be able to get on the land quicker in the spring and thereby meet one of the higher yield potential requirements. Two other profit factor come into play with proper moisture management across the whole field. One is that even ripening is encouraged, leading to higher crop quality probabilities. The other, the most important, is that my yield potential is increased by the extra water available.

I'm not going to dwell long on my fall and spring weed control and burn off except to say that it is very important, and that I try to ensure that my field's identified for later seeding in the spring are treated to a shot of 24D in the fall. Also my preference is to burn off my fields in the spring rather than in the fall. I feel I get a better bang for my buck and that a little shot of Roundup or Rustler is enough to control what little grass problems I still have even if the plants are only just starting to grow.

Next on my list is the seeding program. I am the proud owner of a seeding unit called a Conservopac Seeder. This unit attempts to place the fertilizer below and just to the side of the seed and at the same time place the seed into a firm packed shallow well sheltered environment. To me this single operation for both fertilizing and seeding is important not only because of the cost savings in trips over the field but also because of the fertilizer use efficiencies that I believe will allow me to lower my fertilizer inputs. Well managed stubble to avoid plugging is important to this operation but I believe it is manageable. In 91I pulled an anhydrous tank and applied NH3 at the same time as I seeded. This was pure and simple a cost cutting measure. I didn't try any NH3 on my oil seeds for 91. I will most likely continue using NH3 next year and hope to try it on my oil seeds as well. I didn't observe any germination problem with the use of the NH3. I did however have some application problems that will have to be solved. Last year with my seeder I had what I would say was the best germination I have ever had. The seed was placed with a good degree of accuracy with 3/4 - 1/2 inch depth of moist soil above it. Emergence was very uniform and for most crops was quite evident on the 4th day. This result I am sure saved my bacon since I was very late in starting my seeding operation last year. In years to come emergence like this will add bushels in the fall. One more point on seeding, I was quite happy with the seeding operation last year even though we had a year that was wetter than I would have liked. I believe had conditions been a little dryer the seed placement would have been even better than it was.

This spring as I looked out my front window across machinery row I realized that I had a lot of money invested in equipment that was not doing me any good. I decided that if I couldn't turn it into cash I could at least trade it on equipment that would more meet my needs so into the Co-operator went the adds and off to the dealerships I went. Over the course of this past year I've sold or traded almost every machine on my farm the net result of all this action has not been a great outlay of cash but rather a transformation to equipment suited much more to my 0Till farming. One of these acquisitions was a 100 ft Bourgault sprayer equipped with their air curtains. The reason for the 100 feet was to get a sprayer that was multiples of my seeder. One of the more important features is the ease with which this sprayer floats, the springs and shocks help to stop it from self destructing on 0 Till fields which tend to be rougher than the conventionally tilled fields are. I believe that next year I can obtain a 3% savings in chemical costs because I intend to put a marking system on my drill which along with a tramline mark left by the seeder will allow me to minimize the overlap. As an added note this same saving will be obtained for seed and fertilizer as well. This sprayer I felt did an adequate job of protecting the spray pattern from the wind allowing for longer days in the critical times. The crop this year got off to a great start and provided good competition for any weeds. The conditions were great and excellent weed control was obtained. I feel I was able to use pre packaged chemical combinations to reduce costs. Resolve a combination of Muster and Poast was much cheaper than using the individual components to make a tank mix. By using Rustler I was able to cut my burn off costs or at least give more punch to the burn off. My dockage this fall in all crops was very light with 2% in Prairie spring wheat being the highest I've had to date.

Harvest for us went quite smooth this fall considering the fact that we were handling a heavy straw load. We like to straight combine and were able to straight all but 580 acres that were in canola. Last year I cut my stubble too high and paid a price this spring by having too many plugs in my seeding operation. It was evident that I needed to have a stubble height no higher than 8 - 9 inches and definitely not the 12 - 15 inches that most of last years was left at. The fields that were cut at the 8 - 9 inch level posed very little problem this spring. I put a height indicator on my combine and paid close attention to the height the stubble was left this year. In an area where rainfall is often adequate I feel the sacrifice of not having extra snow trap may well be an asset at least as often as not. Straight combining wherever possible certainly is a cost-effective way to harvest. An added advantage of straight combining allows us to haul the grain to the edge of the field with the combine avoiding unnecessary field traffic which cuts down on soil compaction and volunteering grain.

Another part of our harvest is ensuring we have good straw and chaff spread. This is an integral part of spring field preparation. A good job of spreading can eliminate a need to harrow which is cost saving. I have been an avid believer in good straw and chaff spreading for many years and almost cried, when I saw the dealer where I traded my last combine off, throw the chaff spreader away because he felt it would detract from the resale value of the combine. This combine wi11 never see that fate. The cost of removal of my home made conversion will be far too high for anyone to attempt that. I can effectively cover the 27 ft width of my header with my chaff spread simply by trapping and redirecting the wind from the sieves. My straw spread is adequate but, with a Gleaner Rotary, its hard to not have some gaps unless the wind is perfect because the straw is all released on one side of the combine.

One thing I tried this fall was to spray my flax with glyphosate to hurry the ripening process. It's a 14-day dry down but the field which was seeded late did seem to ripen evenly. I sprayed at 1/2 the recommended rate and I believe for this circumstance I would have been better off to use the full rate. One of the prime reasons I tried it was to see how effective a tool it will be in controlling Canada Thistle. I did spray the thistle areas at the recommended rate and if control is adequate I could see a significant saving in Thistle control over Lontrel costs. The type of control that is being hoped for is similar to that of Lontrel at the heavy rate. Next springs regrowth will tell the story.

In the past few years I've seen a serious quack problem dissolve into a minor problem and with the drop in the cost of roundup my fuel savings more than pay any additional costs for the burn off chemicals. My fall program is very small concentrating on drainage and winter annual control.

Rotations are becoming an important part of my plans. I see the probability of greater savings if I change my 5 year rotation of canola, wheat, flax, wheat, barley to a 4 year rotation with an oil or pulse crop alternating with a cereal.

I tried to get into 0 till and still have some of the old methods as backups. Using an air seeder with sweeps was an example. I hoped I would save the cost of burn off but in effect reaped the problems of two systems rather than capitalizing on the benefits of either. I am convinced that the way to get into this racket is to educate yourself before you plunge and then plunge. There is a wealth of good substantiated data available to prove that the system is more than just viable. I firmly believe that the wave of the future is toward this type of farming and that those that get in now will gain the most. We didn't have to do all the experimenting and yet we benefit from the experiments. The old stories that the drill costs too much or that the cost of chemicals are too high or that it won't work on my land are easily refuted. The truth is that your equipment costs will go down even if you own an expensive drill. The truth is the savings on fuel alone will more than pay the costs of any extra chemicals. Examine your land closely I'm sure if you study your problems there is a way for 0 Tillage to work on your land no matter where it is. There is one story that sends a chill up everybody's spine and that is you will have to give up yield to 0 Till. In examining the evidence I'm convinced that that is Just not so. On my own farm yields have not suffered to date. The past two years crops represent the best ever and a close second. Fields that 3 years ago were almost totally quack infested with a list of weed problems as long as my arm were able to grow 37 bushel rape with 1% dockage. When I go to the coffee stop from what I can ascertain my yields measure up. Now I've learned from my wife and family and a few others who have had the nerve to tell me, I'm no better and certainly no smarter than they are; and hence no better and smarter than you. So my question is this, to steal a phrase from a famous town that promotes itself by saying "Why Not Minot". Ask yourself the same question "Why Not am I Not" 0 Tilling.