No-Till ?

BANDITFARMER · Dec 8, 2015

This is one to make you start thinking but hears the Question. Who really started pushing No-Till ? Was it farmers ? Or was it the Chemical Companies ? I could really see the chemical companies pushing it because they will make money off all the farmers who they talk into it. So what do you think, Farmers or Chemical companies or ? Bandit

Tim(nj) · Dec 8, 2015

Soil Conservation had a hand in it, too.

BANDITFARMER · Dec 8, 2015

True but who got them involved ? Somebody had to get this going in the first place, So who might that be and or who did they work for? Bandit

rrlund · Dec 8, 2015

I think the engineers at Allis Chalmers had a hand in it. They had ideas of one pass farming. I think it would have come sooner if chemical companied would have had the products that were necessary.

DeltaRed · Dec 8, 2015

All of your ideas are feasable. Good in theory.Good in practice if it works. Here it would just NOT work. We have to get the trash completely buried so the water will flow down the rows.Even so the bits and pieces that get pulled up during secondary tillage can really interfere with watering. Hate to think of what a total complete mess "no-till" would be here.

CenTex Farmall · Dec 8, 2015

I believe the effort came from the gov as part of conservation. My dad has talked about and worked for the SCS year ago. I think it emerged around the same time as the chemicals became more available. Probably a couple things coming together at once.

Janicholson · Dec 8, 2015

I go for OR? There are types of soil and climate conditions that respond to no till systems with less erosion because of plant matter/roots holding soil, reduced fuel consumption because of tillage HP needed, and equal or greater yields.
Not all soils or climates work perfectly and some are actually better with moldboarding. But I believe it is these factors, not sales pressure that drives it. Jim

fixerupper · Dec 8, 2015

Around here in NWIA pretty much the same chemicals are used regardless of whether it is tilled or no tilled. We don't irrigate though and we don't row cultivate, yet. No till is becoming more popular here because planters, knowledge and seed varieties have improved but It takes a long, long time for grain farmers to change their tried and true practices. Their yearly income relies on good yields and sadly, top yields trumps soil conservation. No till here in Iowa takes a new way of thinking and that is hard for all of us to do, I know it is for me.

Dieseltech · Dec 8, 2015

If I remember right AC was a fore runner. For some interesting no till info Google soil scientist Ray Archuleta. He makes a lot of sense about no till, and his ideas have worked well for my brother for years. The slake test and cover crops are very interesting.

Winchester1 · Dec 8, 2015

It started around here (Indiana) with double crop beans (behind wheat). Allis got the patent on the first planters. They were often the only piece of Allis equipment on the farm.
3 point hitch, 6 row was the standard if I remember correctly. Still a few in operation.

They were quick and saved soil moisture, rain in mid-summer can be anybody's guess.

Animal · Dec 8, 2015

So you gravity irrigate? When I was a kid in Idaho a good irrigater that new his job could just about name his own price when it came to pay.

centash · Dec 8, 2015

I think farmers looking for a way to reduce inputs. I can remember questioning my Dad why we had to work the whole field when we only needed a couple of inches worked into which to plant. Started here at least 30 years ago, now with improvements in machines and techniques, its practiced on most farms.

Ben

BANDITFARMER · Dec 8, 2015

This is one of the things that gets me to thinking Who really started the no-till movement? Now I know no-till dose not work every ware and some places it's been done 10 20 30 years with no tillage at all But there is ground (I have some) that no-till wont work no matter how hard you try. Our ground if the ground is moist and you cut a slit and pinch the soil closed with a closer wheel it will dry rock hard and the beans will brake there necks trying to brake threw. I do have ground that will no till with no problem so No-Till around me is hit or miss it's just that simple but go 10 miles from me and guys do it all the time year after year.

But with all the new technologies we have now better seed better planters better chemicals and better understandings of how everything works together it still begs the question of who really started pushing no-till in the past. Bandit

RandyB(MI) · Dec 8, 2015

Even before "no-till" came " minimum tillage" or as we all called it..."plow/plant" and I believe it came about from the Universities farm programs attempting to make farming more profitable with less inputs and less labor. The younger farmers all tried it. We had a neighbor who tried it. Moldboard plow with "clod busters" behind it and then come in with planter.Spray for weeds and done. Worked good on a wet year but it dried out right down to furrow bottom in a dry one. Nothing works all the time on all soil types.

TractormanNC · Dec 8, 2015

Hey Bandit,

A guy named Harry Young of Hopkinsville KY is credited by some as being the father of No till. I have been doing No till since about 1975 and I remember pictures of him using an Allis Chalmers planter. As others have said, things had to come together, equipment, chemicals, techniques, etc. An Allis planter is the ONLY piece of Allis equipment on this farm.

andy r · Dec 8, 2015

Here is what I think and lived through - Paraquet from Chevron Chemical Company (herbicide that killed everything - none selective) and the Allis Chalmers Company with their no - till coulter were the first promoters. These two followed by the Soil Conservation Districts. Eventually farmers began to figure out that it did truly save topsoil as well as saving time while using less horsepower. Farmers could farm more acres in a more timely fashion.

JD John · Dec 8, 2015

I don't know who really started pushing no-till but live just 7 miles from a farm that perfected it here in michigan. After they're name got known they sold it to Unverferth and don't no-till anymore. They are farming 20,000 acres now and last year I saw them plowing again. Was talking with a salesman about it the other day and he said they are doing something different every year don't even try to keep up with what they do. Just seems odd that some one that was that involved with it quit.

VicS · Dec 8, 2015

When I was in 4H. I went to the Dixon Springs experimental farm. Just South of Eddyville Il. In deep Southern Illinois. George (can't remember last name now). He had started with a JD 2 row mounted planter. Made a heavier frame. Had regular plow coulters. Remember round weights stacked on it. Was trying different packing wheels. And coulters. Maybe 3 on each row. I am 70 now. Was not 16 then. At least 54 years ago. IH had a planter on a SMTA before this. It worked the ground with like a middle buster. It was two row also and mounted on the tractor. They planted a field not over 3 mile from my house. Weed control was not good.

Eric in IL · Dec 8, 2015

The name might have been George Kapusta.

Dick2 · Dec 9, 2015

Had a fellow hobble into my office one day looking for a comfortable place to sit down. He came along with a dealer from Ohio as he wasn't able to do anything else. He was a crop duster pilot and had been spraying Paraquet in Hawaii. He got so much of that chemical in his body that all of his fingernails and toenails fell out, so he had a hard time walking even in soft slippers. Often wondered how long that fellow lived after that?

jm. · Dec 9, 2015

I go by a small sign on the side of the road there at Harrys farm that claims it was where NO TILL was invented. About 30 miles north of where I am. I do know AC planters made it really take off in this part of the country.

Harry Selleck · Dec 9, 2015

A man by the name Edward Faulkner wrote "Plowman's Folly" which was published during WWII in 1943.
He was a strong proponent of no till and provided research and experiments to prove his point that plowing was not good.

http://soilquality.org/history/history_notill.html

My wife picked this book up at an antique store several years ago and it was an interesting read.

DeltaRed · Dec 9, 2015

Furrow/water 'mark'. Gated pipe or syphon tube

mijohn · Dec 9, 2015

I remember john deere using a four row lister planter that the front frame was made out of a rw disk and it planted in the furrow throwing the trash and sod in a hill between the furrows. this was in 1958. oliver also was working on notil planters in 1965 or 66. And allis was one of the first to use single coulters in front of the planting units. the guys that farm the 20,000 acres, I knew their uncle that started it all. His planter was a 6 row and he pulled it with a 4020. He said that was all you needed for power. I use to kid him because before he retired he was using a couple of 8630s to plant with. I believe that the big boys like it because they only have to go over it once and they are done until harvest. So they can farm several thousand acres. They couldn't do that if they plowed and cultivated. And what is really funny to me is they don't make any more money then they did when farming 400 acres. Jus twhat I've seen, John

No-Till ?

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