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Dr John Baker talks about no-till in CRP ground

The Do’s and Don’t’s of No-Tilling Arable Crops into CRP Ground

 Dr C John Baker, CEO, Baker No-Tillage Ltd, Feilding, New Zealand and Pullman, Washington, USA

Cross Slot in CRP

It seems that everyone is astonished by those who claim that no-tilling into sod is easy. But it really can be so with the right equipment. Nonetheless, let’s be clear what we mean by sod. The fairway of a golf course is a vastly different proposition from Conservation Reserve Program land. But both could be described as sod and the same machinery can be used for both. The key element in both is a dense network of fibrous roots close to the soil surface. The difference lies in what is above the soil surface. Mown grass is characterised by tightly-packed short orderly plants. CRP land might be better described as a “low-flying jungle”.

In relation to CRP, there are two main considerations.

The first is how to physically cope with the tangle of grasses, weeds, legumes and perhaps pests without (a) blocking the machine, and (b) destroying all the good biological things that have happened to the soil in the past 10 years?

The second is how to create a biological environment that favours and protects the newly-sown crop, but also harnesses the wonderful biological assets that 10 years of non-production will have carefully created and nurtured?

Sadly, the problem of physically handling the biomass often compromises the issue of making best use of it. But it need not be that way.

To understand how best to handle the situation, it is necessary to understand where this particular author comes from and what has dominated his no-tillage experiences to date. The author is from New Zealand where most agricultural production centres on pasture production even although arable cropping is also viable and plays an important role. It is the interface between these two systems that is of most relevance to re-cropping of CRP land because that is essentially what New Zealand farmers have been doing virtually on a daily basis for a couple of hundred years.

The structure and productivity of New Zealand soils deteriorates just as quickly, and its tillage methods are just as destructive as in North America. But New Zealand has the advantage of a benign climate that allows two things to happen: (1) Grass-fed animals remain on fields all year around, and (2) New Zealand seldom sees lying snow on agricultural land for more than a few days and it is seldom so cold that winter growth stops altogether. It just slows down compared with spring or autumn. Animal production is therefore regularly integrated with cropping by the same farmers. Double cropping is common. Rotations often start when cropped soils deteriorate so badly (after, say 3 - 5 years of double-cropping) that farmers revert to a similar period of continuous pasture in order to attempt to repair the damage. Rotation and integration are therefore household words in New Zealand farming.

Some of the newer New Zealand systems involve substituting a succession of short-duration forage crops (including hybrid grasses, cereals, bassicas, legumes and herbs) for long-term pastures in order to maximize meat, wool and milk production from sheep and cattle. Such intensive, high-production forage crops may have growth-cycles of less than 6 months, making reseeding a frequent and repetitive undertaking that relies heavily of fail-safe no-tillage. But 50+% gains in dry matter production are common, compared with long-term pastures, and this translates directly into profitability.

Still other systems involve pasture renovation in which long-term pastures are improved by injecting improved species at regular intervals into the base pastures without their total destruction.

All of these systems either benefit from, or are totally reliant upon “fail-safe” no-tillage. In some cases, seeding takes place twice (and even three times) per year. More importantly, because pastures play such an integral role in New Zealand agriculture, much of the no-tillage seeding is into sod. Indeed the original objective of developing New Zealand’s Cross Slot® no-tillage system in the first place, was to find a way of seeding successfully into sod.

Applying these every-day undertakings to the specific case of seeding into CRP land, the following principles will apply: 

Let’s hope that current famers do not simply repeat history

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CROSS SLOT now has video library

Check out our website for a new feature - the Cross Slot Video Library!  There are short video sequences of machines working, farmer interviews and a series of 3-minute explanations of some of the key features of Cross Slot's unique technologies.  So grab a coffee and enjoy!

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Cross Slot features in Grainews

Scott Garvey recently shared his thoughts on Cross Slot in Canadian agricultural journal Grainews.  Whilst we are pleased to see Scott taking an interest in Cross Slot no-tillage technology (and might argue about whether the Canadian Prairies are “ground zero” for no-tillage!) we would like to make a few technical corrections to the article.

The article focuses heavily on mechanical aspects of the opener and perhaps misses the point about agronomic benefits.  At the end of the day, yield is king!  Farmers will generally increase profit much more cost-effectively by increasing yield than by decreasing costs.

The power requirement comparison that Scott makes is rather broad.  Most farmers know that power requirement varies with soil type and conditions (dry/wet) and with forward speed.  So power requirement comparisons ideally need to be side-by-side in the same conditions at the same speed.  Many of the openers in the Alberta Ag Tech data create considerable soil disturbance and this factor often limits forward speed (reducing power requirement).

The maximum down force figures quoted are a little low and are mis-leading.   Individual Cross Slot openers are capable of exerting up to 500kg (over 1,100lbs) of down force, providing the machine is heavy enough to resist this.  This down-force varies automatically (see below) in response to ground hardness and remains constant throughout the vertical travel of the opener (see below).  This is totally different to the “maximum trip pressure of 400-600 pounds” referred to by Scott.

More importantly, each opener has only one hydraulic cylinder (not two as stated in the article).  These employ a unique “Memory Valve” hydraulic system to give them a dual role of providing down force and the raise/lower function thus eliminating the need for the drill frame to raise and lower.  These cylinders are nitrogen-cushioned, but not just to “minimize ground shocks”.  The openers can move through 18” vertical travel without change in down force and, when coupled with Cross Slot’s unique ground sensing Auto Down Force (ADF) system, can automatically adjust for ground hardness on the move.  Sampling occurs 10 times per second and the system adjusts 3 times per second.

And yes, that amount of down force is often required in some of the conditions Cross Slot works in around the world, as seeding into sod is common in many of the 15 countries in which it operates.  And if you’re unconvinced about Cross Slot seeding into stony soils, check out the video on our home page!

Finally, remember when comparing prices that, with Cross Slot, you have a true ultra-low-disturbance one-pass system.  The opener separately places fertilizer at seeding and handles previous crop residues spread directly off the back of the combine.  The opener itself is about $3,300 and the control system for say 40 openers adds about $400 per opener.  Apples with apples!

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