No Till Notes: 'Reminiscing'

I recently attended No Till on the Plain’s Whirlwind field day at Steve Tucker’s farm near Venango, Neb. These are educational field days on all aspects of continuous no till crop production.

I was invited to speak on crop rotations on dry land acres in our semi-arid region and I also spoke about water conservation on our irrigated continuous no till production acres. No till crop production has allowed producers in our area to continuous crop with the extra moisture stored in the soil on our dry land acres. On our irrigated acres we have been able to significantly reduce our ground water pumping thanks to the water storing capacities of no till crop production.

Joining me as presenters for this field day were Dan Gillispie, NRCS no till cropping system specialist, Ray Ward, soil scientist and owner of Ward Laboratories, and Paul Jasa, University of Nebraska extension engineer and manager of the Roger’s Memorial Research Farm near Lincoln. I first met Dan and Ray at an organizational meeting with the Nebraska No Till Cadre and No Till On The Plains. The two groups were organizing educational efforts such as these Whirlwind field days to promote no till crop production in our state.

Paul Jasa had invited me earlier in the year to speak at the Western Nebraska State No Till meeting in Holdrege. This annual meeting is sponsored by UNL extension. I had never spoken to an audience about no till crop production and was extremely nervous about the idea of getting up and talking to the audience. Apparently Paul liked what he saw as he asked me to join the Nebraska No Till Cadre and be a part of the education of producers to the benefits of no till crop production.

As it turned out Dan and Ray were also significant contributors to the Cadre’s effort on educating producers across Nebraska on the benefits of continuous no till crop production. Since this first meeting Dan, Ray, Paul, and myself have worked numerous no till field days and winter conferences across the state together.

We have all become good friends during this time and I have really enjoyed the experiences I have shared with these gentlemen. I am also certain that I have learned a great deal about no till crop production attending all these events with these good friends of mine over the years.

Dan, Ray and Paul really know a tremendous amount about how our soils function and what we as producers can do to improve the health of the soils we work with. I have taken many of their ideas and implemented them on our own farm and have been very pleased with the results.

Looking back over the years of no till crop production these gentlemen have really been mentors to me and shaped our no till operation on our farm. Many of you who have attended no till field days and winter conferences have also learned a great deal from these gentlemen.

It has been a great privilege of mine to work with Dan, Ray and Paul. I would like to think that over the years our efforts to educate producers on the benefits of no till crop production has contributed significantly to soil and water conservation across our state. Promoting soil and water conservation practices with these gentlemen is something I’m very proud to have been a part of and will continue to be a part of for many more years to come.