Make your crop residue an opportunity, not a problem

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

That's the philosophy at VanMeer Farms, in Tillsonburg, where using residue to control erosion and give back nutrients to the soil is routine practice

by TONY BALKWILL
 

When you enter the office of George Vermeersch and his sons, Greg and Jeff, of VanMeer Farms, Tillsonburg, you will notice a key feature: a whiteboard displaying different tillage tool headings and fields specifically labelled to require a certain tillage pass based on cropping history, harvest and previous tillage.

"We look at vertical tillage as a tool in our toolbox," says Greg. "We use the best tool for the job, or sometimes more than one," adds Jeff.

Residue balance has become a household term over the past few years on this operation, which grows a large acre base of corn, soybeans, wheat and rye. Here, each field is viewed and managed specifically with an eye to ensuring that residue remains both beneficial and manageable.

The Vermeerschs are among a growing number of farmers who are starting to understand that proper residue management gives great long-term returns.

Crop residue is normally defined as the plant material that remains after harvest and can include leaves, stalks and roots. Soil can use these residues biologically to feed its beneficial fungi and bacteria. These organisms break down organics, including residue, into available nutrients for your crop and help give your soils performance and productivity. Productive soils have a great ability to exchange inorganic nutrients, such as commercial fertilizers, as well.

Residue on the field surface also helps to control erosion related to wind and surface run-off, and is also important to utilizing moisture. The layer of residue acts like a sponge, holding water and moisture during dry periods and delaying soil evaporation.

Studies have shown that, in heavy soils, residue acts as a sort of soil expansion mechanism by making clays less susceptible to compaction, by opening up more pore space and increasing aerobic function.

Greg and Jeff have found that tillage, on its own, is not usually effective for managing residue. "Excess tillage does more harm to soil structure than good," Greg points out.
Instead, they use mulch tillage tools to do a pass that leaves some chopped mulch on the surface and incorporates the remainder into the soil zone.

But residue management doesn't stop there. The family applies its equipment with clear goals about what they want to accomplish. They use wavy coulters up front while planting, employ chopping heads while harvesting or tillage-specific tools.

Following a field that has been combined with a chopper head instead of a conventional header means that the same piece of tillage equipment is going to have to be set up differently to get a similar result, they point out.

"We try to think a season ahead," says Jeff. "Each time we are in the field, we want to get as much out of it as possible." But, adds Greg: "Trying to do the best job you can with the least amount of passes is challenging."

Combine setup is one of the most overlooked ways of managing residue and they suggest that the first thing, regardless of crop, is to make sure you have an even spread coming out the chopper. "We constantly make sure our combines are set up for crop conditions at both ends," says Jeff.

A 30-foot swath should have an even distribution of residue all across the surface, both in cereals and soybeans, he notes. Check this all season long and make sure your chopper knives are sharp and have the right setting, advises Greg. And, remember, a combine has two openings, so pay equal attention to each.

When harvesting corn fields, there is very low amount of chopper residue, the brothers say. The majority of residue focus is at the head. Proper roller speed, roller knives, harvest speed and even the corn hybrid itself play a factor in taking a 10-foot stalk and reducing it to a handful of beneficial residue.

"Chopping heads save us a tillage pass, but we have seen an increase of about 10 per cent in combine fuel consumption" says Jeff.

In short, for the Vermeersch brothers, residue is no longer a problem; it's an opportunity that is a byproduct of high-yielding crops. That 200-bushel corn crop does a lot more than just take nutrients from the ground, they point out. It gives just as much back. BF