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Story Idea?
Better Farming
February 2017
CROPS:
THE
LYNCH
FILE
coulters before your no-till planter,
this practice would typically be
defined as no-till. But if you use
conservation tillage the previous
year, this practice would be consid-
ered differently.
“For years I have debated with
Eric Kaiser from central Ontario
about no-till. Eric is a firm believer
in no-till. He once told me that he
no-tills all his crops. I called him on
it once. I said, ‘Eric, how much of
your corn ground do you apply
manure to?’
“He said, ‘Most of those fields
have manure applied the previous
summer.’
“‘Eric, you claim to be no-tilling
but you work all your corn ground
the summer before to work the
manure in,’ I said.
“‘Well in my defense I really am a
modified no-tiller. I don’t work the
ground because I want to but
because I have to,’ Eric said.
“And then there are the special
circumstances where no-till doesn’t
work. Dairy farmers will plant
alfalfa and leave it down for three
years. All this time the land is not
tilled. Then for numerous reasons,
including reducing compaction,
incorporating nutrients and con-
trolling weeds, these farmers will
mouldboard plow.
“These acres are adding more to
the general soil health and organic
matter levels than fields that are
no-till soybeans three out of four or
five years. But because these
near-continuous soybeans are
‘no-tilled,’ many people in our
Patrick Lynch is an independent CCA-ON. He has won a number of awards for his service in the industry, including the Certified Crop Advisers (ON) Award of Excellence in 2013 and the OACOutstanding Service Award in 1999. Patrick has written for Better Farming since its inception. Dale Cowan, CCA-ON, 4R NMS, won the International Certified Crop Adviser’s Adviser of the Year Award in 2016. He has advised growers on cash and horticultural crops for over 35 years. His areas of specialization include sustainable agronomy and precision agriculture. Andrea Gal is active in her family cash crop operation. She has worked with field crop research trials, focusing on responsible nutrient management. Andrea combines this hands-on knowledge of crops with a passion for writing, developed through the completion of her PhD in ag history. Meet Your Farm’s Own Crop Advisory Team Our Pledge to Ontario Agriculture: The World’s Best Farmers Deserve the Hardest-Working FarmMagazine Better Farming’s service to production agriculture is an every-day commitment. We’ve brought YIELD BOOSTING advice and insight to Ontario’s farmers since 1999, and our content team is now stronger than ever.Now we do tillage as we plant.