|
Tour Schedule
Day 1, June 17:
Jim Millar,
Soil Scientist, Precision Soil Management
Redfield, SD 57469
(605) 460-1033
precisionsoil@abe.midco.net
Jim worked as a soil scientist for 20 years with
the Natural Resources Conservation Service in South Dakota. The majority of the
work consisted of soil survey mapping over 400,000 acres along with
demonstrating the soil quality test kit. In 2005 he joined forces with Francis
Schaffer and started Precision Soil Management. Precision Soil Management is a
precision farming business which creates detailed soil management zones, GPS
soil sampling, fertilizer and seeding recommendations and prescriptions. He has
been working with different cover crops since 2005 collecting plant data and
soils data. Jim has monitored the impact different cover crops have had on soil
moisture utilization, soil nutrient levels, and soil salinity levels. He has
also collected and analyzed cover crop biomass to better understand the impact
cover crops have on nutrient cycling. Jim is currently recommending a number of
different cover crop seedings to help utilize excess soil moisture, to alleviate
soil salinity issues, to increase soil organic matter, to help cycle crop
residue and nutrients, to help alleviate soil compaction, along with providing
extra forage for the cattle producer.
Managing Wet Soils - Leading Edge interview with Jim
Millar
Day
2, June 18:
Dwayne L. Beck,
Research Manager; Dakota Lakes Research
Farm
P.O. Box 2, Pierre, South Dakota
(605) 224-6357
dwayne.beck@sdstate.edu
www.dakotalakes.com
Dwayne
Beck will guide us through his plots of corn, soybean, sunflower, field peas,
lentils, garbanzos (chickpeas), canola, winter wheat, and spring wheat.
Sometimes milo, flax, alfalfa, millet, mung beans, pinto beans, and black-eyed
peas (or cowpeas) are also included, as well as cover crops such as hairy vetch,
sun hemp, Indianhead lentils, and canola. These crops comprise numerous
rotations being studied for water-use efficiency, water storage, allelopathy,
disease cycles, soil microbiology, nutrient cycling, weed control, and
profitability (and volatility of profitability). All plots are continuous
no-till, with an emphasis on ultra-low soil disturbance the main farm has been
no-till for 15 years now. Plots include both dryland and irrigated. Dwayne
originally began studying no-till as a method of improving infiltration under
irrigation. Later Dwayne managed the Redfield, SD experiment station, producing
startling results from continuous no-till, including higher infiltration rates
and cropping intensity than previously thought possible for dryland production
in that area. Some of the infiltration boost is attributable to night crawlers
(not your average earthworm), which are having a major impact on the nutrient &
water cycling at Dakota Lakes. We’ll also see Dwayne’s Concept Seeder, a
continually evolving but fully functional showpiece that incorporates some of
the most imaginative yet practical ideas to be found anywhere in the industry
(the bridge hitch, parallel-link single-disc openers, true hydraulic
down-pressure for each opener, a depth-limited spoked closing system, etc).
Expect to see industry adopt some of these ideas.
An
Emphasis On Rotations - Feature Farmer Article,
Leading Edge 2004
Dan Forgey
30431 167th St., Gettysburg SD 57442 605-765-9287
dcforgey@venturecomm.net
Dan has been with Cronin Farms for almost 40
years and is the cropping foreman for the farm. During their 16 years of
No-till, Dan acknowledges that mistakes have been made, but that Cronin Farms is
gaining and learning from them. Dan has the attitude that as long as you keep
learning from your mistakes, No-till will work. He is a firm believer that you
should take care of the land, and it will take care of you. He attributes much
of the farm’s success to the teachings of Dwayne Beck. To continue their
success, Cronin Farms is now working cattle into their no till system with the
use of cover crops. Cronin farms receives approximately 18 inches of rainfall
per year and the soils are silt loam sandy loam clay. Crops in their rotation
include corn, soybeans, spring wheat, winter wheat, sunflowers, field peas,
oats, lentils, forage sorghum, German millet and triticale. No-till was chosen
to help with soil conservation and to conserve moisture. Successes experienced
under No-till include that fact that Dan’s county leads the state in the percent
of acres under No-till. They have seen a 20% yield increase over the last 15
years. Cronin Farms is farming 100% of its acres with no summer fallow. Dan
relates that it is a proven fact that no till will work in their area.
Rising
To The Challenge - Feature Farmer
Article, Leading Edge 2006
Day
3, June 19:
 Craig Stehly
601 Roseland Rd., Mitchell, SD
57301 605-996-8466
stehly@mit.midco.net
The Stehly brothers have ‘been there, done that’
when it comes to crop rotations and cover crops. Corn has replaced their milo,
and soybeans their sunflowers & fallow, but that is just the beginning. Craig
continually adjusts their lengthy rotations in response to his observations of
what is happening on various fields and soil types. Stacked wheat is a standard
practice for them, in an area now typified by a corn >>soybean rotation, and
Craig & Gene have the financial data to support those cropping decisions.
Stehlys are now moving into cover crops on a larger scale, after many years of
experimentation. Stehly’s have been 100% no-till for nearly two decades, and
were early adopters of 22-inch rows for corn, but they never stop looking for
improvements to their system.
One
Step Ahead- Feature Farmer Article, Leading
Edge 2002
|
!
