Art Cowan, Hartney, Manitoba

Reta and I, our two sons, Doug and Bill and their wives Cathy and Nina, our son-in-law Kelvin Jenkins and his wife Debi farm near Hartney in the south west corner of Manitoba. I would like to take this opportunity to tell you of the people and events that have helped us unlock the door to the no-till advantage.

We started farming in 1953 and at that time we were in a conventional type grain farming operation of 1/3 summer fallow and 2/3 crop. We continued on like that for some time. As it became more and more obvious that these years of black summer fallow and the burning of straw to enable seeding the second year's crop was destroying our soil resource. In the 70 or so years since the prairie had been broken, the organic matter was already half gone and we were having a perennial problem with wind erosion, poor water infiltration and expanding alkali areas. In my view this was unacceptable and we had to find some method of crop production that would maintain and improve the soil for future generations.

By this time there were some herbicides available and some better machines to handle the residue. We decided to adopt a continuous cropping program. This kept some material on the surface to help stop the wind erosion and improve the soil structure to help stop the wind erosion and improve the soil structure so that ponding from summer thundershowers was reduced. This was working very well, so in the early sixties we decided to

expand our original 800 acres by purchasing a 1/2 section of highly eroded abandoned farmland nearby. I should tell you that under our land classification system of "A" being the best and "J" being the poorest, our original farm is classified as "C", the 1/2 section we purchased is "H". This turned out to be a very good decision for two reasons.

1) Everything that had ever been done to it had been wrong, except maybe letting it go back to grass.

2) It was pretty well hidden from view and we could experiment there without being laughed at too much.

We continued on with our continuous cropping, minimum till type operation for some time. Then we started to direct seed some fall seeded crops. We bought an air-seeder in 1980 which allowed us to seed through a lot more material on the surface and we started to pick our cleanest fields to do some direct seeding in the spring, with very good results. With the use of Roundup, which was very expensive in those days, along with other herbicides and fertilizer we were producing as much off our "H" land as we were at home. Because this method seemed to be improving the soil structure and eliminating many of our other problems, we started doing some zero tilling at home on our better quality land with very rewarding results.

The next major event was in 1986 when we happened to be in Minot and heard there was a zero till meeting on. I hadn't heard of the association until then but was very interested; so attended the sessions and was lucky enough to sit at the same table for the banquet as Joe Brecker, a long time no-tiller and one of the founders of this organization. By this time we were pretty much committed to the no-till system so appreciated the forum to exchange ideas to enhance the system.

At the 1987 workshop in Regina, Jim McCutcheon made a fantastic presentation on the pricing and marketing of Roundup that would have a huge impact on the amount of tillage that is done in annual crop production. It was so well done he got a standing ovation from the 1200 farmers that were present and even Monsanto had to pay attention.

I like to say quitting tillage is like quitting smoking, you have to be convinced that tillage is bad for the health of the soil, as smoking is bad for your health. This was dramatically demonstrated in a presentation at the 1990 workshop by Jim Kensella, Manager, BASF Agronomic Development Centre, Lexington, Illinois, entitled "Long Term Effects of No-till Farming". The slides showing soil structure, earth worm development and water run off on comparable slopes between no-till and conventional till were fantastic. If you weren't a believer before his presentation you should have been after.

We have found that crop rotation is very important in no-till crop production and always look forward to Dwayne Beck's presentations at many workshops. It seems to me that Dwayne is the Billy Graham of the save the soil crusade. (It's amazing what changing a "U" to an "I" in a four letter word can do.)

I have found the workshops and the "show and tell get together" very important in keeping you focused. Bob McNabb's keynote address, in Brandon in 1995 "Soils and Men - A Partnership Over the Centuries," shows what happens if you lose that focus and destroy the soil that our whole civilization is built on. Everything else is secondary if you don't have anything to eat.

It can't be stressed enough that rotations play a big roll in disease and weed control. Robert Stevenson of Oak Lake keeps us up to date on the interaction of the different groups of chemicals, crops, disease and weed control. With the introduction of the genetically altered canolas we have another very important weapon for weed control in no-till crop production.

Over the years, with Doug and Bill and Kelvin coming on board to help make the decisions and do the work, we have brought about 6000 acres into our no-till cropping system. Hopefully that will continue. With all the development in air-drills, openers, herbicides, and crops it seems to me the door to the no-till advantage is much easier to open now than it was 20 years ago. I say go for it!