No Till Notes: 'Different approaches'

Last week I talked about our soil health tour to North and South Dakota. We looked at all aspects of high quality no-till crop production and grazing practices implemented on farm and ranch lands in the region. Everyone on our tour came away with a greater appreciation for the work these individuals are doing to improve the health of the soil they work with on their farms and ranches.

We started our tour in Burleigh County, North Dakota with Jay Furher and his Burleigh County Soil Conservation team hosting our group. Jay took us out the first day to view four different farms and ranches who are implementing practices into their operations to improve soil health and profitability.

Our first stop was Seth William’s farm where Seth has implemented high quality continuous no-till cropping practices on his farm. Seth stressed the importance of maintaining residues on his fields to protect the soil and feed the soil biology in his fields.

Seth has adopted a diverse cropping rotation which includes cool season grasses with winter and spring wheat and barley. He also produces field peas for his cool season legume in his rotation. Seth produces corn for his warm season grass component along with soybeans for a warm season legume as part of his rotation. Seth feels it is very important to include all these diverse grasses and legumes into his rotation to feed the different soil microbiology on his farm.

Seth and his father also have a cattle herd which they are utilizing on their crop land acres. Seth and his father have teamed up with a neighbor to combine their cattle herds. Together they are designing forage crops into their rotations which the cattle will graze during the fall and winter. They feel this is an important step towards soil health as they continue to diversify the crops they produce for grain and forage and introduce livestock into their farming operation. They also expect to see improvement in their rangeland as their pastures receive some much needed rest from continuous grazing of cattle.

After leaving the William’s farm we drove to the McPeak Ranch near Driscoll, N.D. We met up with Todd and Penny McPeak in a hay meadow on their ranch. Todd and Penny visited with our group about changes they have made over the past several years on their ranch to focus on soil health and profitability.

The first change they implemented was to change their calving season from January to a May/June calving season. They felt this had improved their profitability by reducing disease and labor during the calving season. This resulted in reduced veterinary bills due to less stress on the herd during the calving season. They felt this also saves on hay and bedding costs and they no longer have to heat their barns during calving season.

Todd and Penny have also been leaving half the grass on their grazing pastures for the soil. They have begun moving cattle more frequently so as to not over graze any pasture. Over time they have noticed improved productivity in their grazing pastures. They have also introduced forages for grazing on their crop land acres to relieve some of the pressure off their grazing pastures. Todd and Penny have also been seeding some of their former crop land acres to perennial grasses and legumes for increased grazing on their land.

Another very interesting practice they have adopted is on their hay meadows. They had noticed declining productivity on the meadows they hayed. They were moving the hay off the fields to the winter pastures. This practice resulted in removing all the carbon and organic material from the meadow. Over time the productivity of the meadows declined.

Todd and Penny decided to reverse this trend. They continue to hay the meadows but now bring the cattle to the meadow to utilize the hay. They are also careful to move the cattle around the meadow when they roll out the hay. They are now replenishing the meadows with the carbon they had formerly been removing. The result has been increased productivity in these meadows. Over time they have seen the meadow we visited increase from 155 bales of hay to 265 bales of hay on average each year.  

These producers have seen firsthand the importance of building soil health on their operations. They are seeing increased productivity by focusing their practices on increasing the amount of carbon being returned to the soil.