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No-till Notes: 'Brown revolution, part 2'

The “Brown Revolution” is a term given to the emphasis that is now being placed on improving the soil’s health on the farms and ranches across our country. Agriculture went through the “Green Revolution” years ago which helped shape modern day agriculture. During the “Green Revolution” commercial fertilizers were developed and crop varieties were developed through plant breeding to site-specific growing regions. Herbicides to control specific weeds were developed. These technologies continue today and are the reasons we have seen improved yields throughout modern agriculture.

Today we are in the middle of genetically modified technology which allows for the genetic altering of plants to enhance production. Plants are being modified to provide an infinite number of possibilities such as oil content in soybeans, herbicide resistance, drought tolerance, etc. to improve on our ability to provide food, fuel, and fiber for an increasing world population.

The “Brown Revolution” is looking at ways we can also improve the soil in which we work with in growing our crops. These other technologies are great for improving production but it just makes sense to start from the soil and work our way up the production ladder. Improving the health of our soil is fundamental in producing healthy crops to feed the world.

So how do we begin adopting a system to improving the health of our soil? No-till crop production is the building block leading to soil health. The first step in improving soil health is to adopt a continuous no-till cropping system on your farm. It has been widely proven that no-till crop production leads to improved soil performance. But this is only the first step.

To really expand your soil’s health you also need to adopt a diversified cropping rotation. This rotation should include a variety of legumes and grasses which will allow for a balance of soil microbes in the soil. Different soil microbes prefer different crop species. In order to have a balanced soil microbial population you need a balanced cropping rotation.

This is where I see our farm at after 20 plus years of no-till crop production. We have a good balance of crops on our farm grown in rotation every 3 years. On our dry land acres we have winter wheat, corn, and field peas. On our irrigated acres we have winter wheat, corn, and edible beans. I think our soil health has improved during our years using these no-till crop rotations, but I also think we have stalled at this level of soil health.

To expand upon our soil health I think we need to introduce forage crops into our cropping system. We began looking at this possibility last summer on our farm. Following our winter wheat harvest on our irrigated acres we planted a forage crop. We planted a mixture of field peas, flax, sunflower, and radishes. We leased these acres to a neighbor’s cattle herd for grazing this forage mix during the winter and we will plant corn directly into this residue.

Next week I’ll talk more about our experiment with improving soil health. I’ll also look at where I think we will look at further adoption of the “Brown Revolution” on our farm.

 

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