WHAT GOT ME INTO ZERO TILLAGE

Ron White, Lyleton, Manitoba

Actually, I got into 0-till by accident. I would like to try to explain how that came about.

In early 1980's, I started to 0-till winter wheat using a noble hoe drill. I 0-tilled wheat then because I wanted to be a 0-tiller. I didn't have an attitude adjustment. I have always used a system of very minimum tillage, using granular treflan since 1977 and fall applied anhydrous, with usually one pass in the spring.

Five years ago, I bought an air seeder with mounted packer wheels and a 9" spacing. At that time I wanted it to 0-till winter wheat and conventional till the rest of the crop. I had no intention of using it to 0-till the spring seeded crops. There was still no attitude adjustment. Somewhat in about the same time, a series of events happened that changed my way of thinking about conventional tillage. The usual reasons for a person to become a 0-tiller are moisture conservation for improved yields, reduced labour, less fuel, and less equipment. Soil erosion control is usually a factor, but although farming primarily on a sandy loam soil, most of my land is within the Lyleton field shelterbelt area. As a result, wind erosion was not as large of a factor as in some other areas. In our area, water erosion is almost a non-existent consideration. It hardly ever rains. However, I didn't really become a 0-tiller for any of these reasons, although I did get all of the benefits of these items. I still didn't really have an attitude adjustment.

There have been four other reasons that brought me around to becoming a 0-tiller. The same year I bought my airseeder, I happened to rent some land that had a lot of stones, which was a new experience for me. At about the same time, we started to experience problems with treflan tolerance in green foxtail. This was before we had heard of the new common phrases "chemical resistance and chemical rotations." If I wasn't putting treflan on in the fall, then there really wasn't any reason to cultivate in the fall. Fifteen to twenty years of continuous treflan use was just too much for our land. I was also experiencing poor quack grass control under minimum tillage system and I found I was using a lot of roundup to keep ahead of the grass. Because the fields had been fall tilled, the grass was slow getting going in the spring, and consequently, I usually ended up with only fair control using roundup and later seeding than I really wanted. This all came around at the same time as five years of what I call "below average precipitation in our area." To repeat again the four main reasons I got into 0-till: were stones, treflan tolerant green foxtail, poor grass control under minimum tillage, and five years of drought.

I found that I had the equipment to 0-till right on my farm and I couldn't think of any reason not too. I guess that this is when I finally got the attitude adjustment.

One big advantage that I had throughout this time was that a lot of my neighbors were starting to do so the same thing as myself, at the same time, and usually for the same reasons. This fall in my local area there was next to no fall work done and the majority of those acres will be no tilled in the spring or at least a very minimum till.

The following are some of the things that I do on my farm that have worked for me. I haven't had a problem with winter annuals so I have never had to spray with 2-4-D in the fall as of yet, but it is something that I watch out for every fall. I use Rustler at one litre rate for cereals and Roundup at half a litre rate for canola and sunflowers. When spraying at these burnoff rates, I use three gallons of water per acre, no surfactant, no ammonium sulfate, and whenever I come across a grass spot, I slow down. I like to seed early so I don't wait for ideal conditions in the spring as far as the grass is concerned, and yet, because the grass is growing earlier without the fall tillage, my farm is much cleaner of grass than it was under minimum till. Some land is always clean enough to seed without a burnoff, so I can still seed early, such as in 1990 when it was April 16 when I started. In 1991, it was April 20, and in 1992 it was May 1. I have also seeded D. Wheat stubble to H. Wheat , H. Wheat stubble to P.S. Wheat, and Canola to H. Wheat stubble. I have seeded these combinations without using a burnoff chemical and got away with it without having a volunteer problem, but it certainly is a potential problem. I have usually knifed in anhydrous in the fall but this coming spring I am putting on fertilizer and seed in one pass. I am still uncertain as to how to accomplish that but I will have something worked out by spring.

Something I have discovered is that I have a severe wireworm problem on quite a few of my fields. I guess this is something I've had for some time and didn't realize until I started to 0-till. I had always blamed poor emergence of cereals on either seeding depth or treflan damage. With 0-till I knew my seeding depth was good as treflan damage. With 0-till I knew me seeding depth was good as accuracy is easier to achieve and because there was no treflan applied I could eliminate that cause for the poor emergence. I have started using Vitavax Dual on these fields and it has completely solved that problem.

Something new for 1992 on my farm was 0-till sunflowers, solid seeded with the airseeder. For this year, at least, this worked out real well and I was very happy with the results. The crop was relatively clean except for some wild oat patches that grew from a second growth after I had sprayed. Roundup was used as a burnoff spray. The only spray used was a tank mix of Excel for wild oats and mild millet and Assert for wild mustard. Both chemicals worked very well for me. 1992 was a poor year for sunflowers in our area because it was a cool summer and it was too dry at the critical time for sunflowers, but the crop was clean. Cultivation of row crops probably helped to develop some heat this year, but I really don't see it as a serious problem. When you get into 0-tilling, something like sunflowers, which are a poor competitor at the best of times, you really have to have optimism and an attitude adjustment.

You have to be optimistic to be into 0-till. Some people speak of their failures, but an optimistic 0-tiller doesn't have any failures. We only know of a lot of methods that won't work.