No Till Notes: 'Enjoyable day'

Last Friday I was invited to Alton Lerwick’s farm.  Alton works with his sons, Grant and Dean, on their no till crop production farm and ranch.  They integrate cattle into their farming operation with the use of forage crops as part of their cropping rotation.

Alton and I share a similar educational background having both graduated from the University of Nebraska with degrees in agronomy.  Alton had invited Dr. Gary Peterson to tour his farm.  Dr. Peterson taught Alton and I soil science classes.

Along with Dr. Peterson, Dr. Joe Brummer, a Colorado State University range and grazing specialist, and Meagen Schipanski, a dry land cropping systems specialist, also attended the tour.   Dr. David Nielsen also joined our group.  He is a research agronomist at the Agricultural Research Service located near Akron, Colo.    

We all met mid-morning at Alton’s farm yard and Alton gave us a brief summary of how they moved their operation from a tillage-based system with conventional winter wheat/tillage summer fallow into a continuous no till crop production system.  Alton had come to the conclusion that in order to increase profitability they needed to better utilize their resources of soil and precipitation. 

Alton also saw the benefits of continuous no till crop production systems in preventing wind and water erosion of his soil.  The Lerwick’s implemented continuous no till crop production on their irrigated acres in order to conserve their groundwater resource.  Their farm is in the upper Pumpkin Creek watershed and ground water conservation is a high priority on their farm.

The Lerwick family also stressed the importance of education on their family farm.  Grant and Dean both graduated from the University of Nebraska before returning to the family farm.  We all felt that attending higher education institutions instills a lifelong desire to continue the learning process throughout your farming and ranching careers.

After a lunch provided by the Lerwicks, we began a tour of the farm.  All of us were very impressed with the management skills of their operation.  The cropping rotations and attention to detail were evident by the outstanding crops growing in the field.

As we toured the fields of winter wheat, sunflowers, corn and proso millet, we discussed numerous topics.  This field tour was based on sharing ideas and concepts.  I felt the researchers in attendance were interested in the producer’s ideas on improving agriculture throughout the High Plains region. 

We ended the tour visiting a field of diverse forage crops being grown for grazing of cattle.  The amount of forage being grown under irrigation was very impressive.  The forage will be grazed by the cattle prior to winter wheat seeding this fall.  We discussed introducing forages into dry land cropping rotations as a good possibility in improving profitability and soil health on our farms.

As the day progressed, I think all in attendance were in agreement that no till crop production systems will become more widely adopted throughout the Great Plains.  The benefits to utilizing and protecting our soil resource and conserving our groundwater through continuous no till crop production systems will speed the adoption of no till crop production.  At the end of the day increased profitability along with conservation and better utilization of our resources is a real driving force behind the adoption of continuous no till crop production systems.

I want to thank Alton, Grant, and Dean Lerwick and their families for hosting a very enjoyable field day.  I would also like to thank Dr. Peterson, Dr. Nielsen, Dr. Brummer and Meagen Schipanski for taking the time out of their busy schedules to tour the Lerwick farm and visit with producers about their ideas and concepts on no till crop production systems.