No-Till
What is No Till?
No-till is a farming practice in which the seeds are directly placed into untilled soil which has retained the previous crop residues. Special no-till seeding equipment with discs open a narrow slot into the residue covered soil which is only wide enough to place the seeds into the ground and cover them back up with soil. The idea is to move as little dirt as possible in order to not disturb weed seeds and not expose the soil to undue evaporation. No other soil tillage operation is performed. The residues from the previous crops will remain mostly undisturbed at the soil surface as mulch. Check out the No-Till advantage quick link in the left column for more reasons why we choose this method.
Sprayer
Our sprayer is the busiest implement on the farm. The sprayer we use has a 100 foot boom and we usually spray around 10-12 mph, which then allows us to complete 500 to 700 acres a day. Hauling our sprayer to each location creates better efficiency for optimum acres. GPS has become a necessity in modern farming as we can set our heading and each pass will be set throughout the field. A map of the field will display on the monitor to show finished and unfinished applications.
We can also save on over-spraying as the boom sections will turn off over previously applied parts of the field. The sprayer booms will also detect spray height and keep them at the desired setting. Technology will continue to improve as time goes on as there are already sprayers equipped with sensors that will detect weeds and just spray over the top of them. Also there are drones that can do that as well. When it becomes cost effective to move that direction, we will take a closer look.
Weather Permitting
Nebraska weather can make it challenging for the spraying process. We don’t spray when temperature exceed 90 degrees and when the wind exceeds 10 miles per hour. A hand-held meter carried in the sprayer is used after each field is sprayed. This gives all the information needed for our log book. The log book is filled out on every field on what was sprayed. It also gives the rate, field, farm, applicator ID, wind speed, wind direction, temperature, humidity, and acres sprayed. These records are required by the State of Nebraska but are also very useful in billing and monitoring chemical performance. All of the operators of the sprayer are required to have a pesticide applicator license. This is issued from the Nebraska Department of Agriculture.
[slideshow_deploy id=’352′]Benefits
The benefits of no-till farming are economic as well as environmental. This method will result in more organic matter in the soil. Also decreased amount of erosion, and ultimately more fertility, less fertilizer, and higher yields. No-till might not work as well in areas that receive 40 inches of annual rainfall or have a different soil makeup. However, in our area of silt loam soils and 20 inches of rainfall on average, it has proven to be very effective.
Phil Bamesberger Home