No Till Notes: 'Panhandle Partnership'

I am the chairman of the Panhandle No till Partnership. I wanted to share with you more about our partnership, our educational opportunities and an exciting new project that I think the producers in our region will find very interesting.

The Panhandle No till Partnership members include the Upper Niobrara White, South Platte and North Platte Natural Resources Districts, representatives from the local offices of the Natural Resource and Conservation Service, Panhandle Resource Conservation and Development and myself. Our mission is to provide educational opportunities to producers, landowners, students and agribusinesses about the benefits of continuous no-till crop and forage production.

The PNTP hosts field days during the summer at various locations throughout the Panhandle of Nebraska. These field days are informal meetings at various no-till producer’s farms where we look at and visit about the benefits of continuous no-till crop production. We strive to move these around throughout the Panhandle so everyone has the opportunity to attend these field days at a local producer’s farm or ranch.

We visit about all aspects of no-till crop production during these field days. We always strive to answer any and all questions from producers considering switching to no-till to producers who have been using no-till crop production practices for years in their operation. We often talk about the different crop’s producers are growing to add diversity to their crop rotations.

We also discuss everything involved in producing these various crops. We’ll often visit about the successes producers have had on their farm, and the occasional failure. The idea is to give producers who attend these field days a good understanding of how to improve their own no-till crop production system.

These field days focus on dry land and irrigated crop production practices. No-till crop production has shown to better utilize our resources to make these operations more profitable. No-till crop production has also shown to reduce soil erosion and conserve our groundwater resource. If you would like to have us visit your farm for one of our field days give me a call at (308) 760-5259 so we can begin planning for the upcoming field days next growing season.

The PNTP also holds an annual winter conference to help educate producers, landowners, agribusinesses, and students about the benefits of no-till crop production. We bring in speakers from around the region who share their knowledge and experiences about no-till crop production practices. This year’s conference will be held Feb. 10-11 at the Gering Civic Center. To register for this year’s winter conference contact the Upper Niobrara White Natural Resources District office at (308) 432-6190.

The PNTP has also hosted tours to Dakota Lakes Research farm near Pierre, S.D., as well as tours to the Burleigh County Soil District office in Bismarck, N.D. Dwayne Beck is the manager of the Dakota Lakes Research farm and is the leading authority on no-till crop production in the High Plains region. A day spent with Beck is always very entertaining and educational.

The Burleigh County Soil District is headed by Jay Fuhrer. He has been instrumental in promoting no-till crop production, diverse forage crops for livestock grazing, companion crops, and rotational grazing to increase soil health on farms and ranches.

In my opinion, every farmer and rancher should take the time to visit Beck and the Burleigh County Soil District team. After spending time touring these research farms and the producer’s in the regions farms who have adopted these practices, I can almost guarantee it will change the way you view your own production system.

Next week, I’ll visit with you about an exciting new venture the Panhandle No-till Partnership will be involved in. I think this new venture will be very educational to producers in our area for years to come.