No-Till Farming in the 80's

No-Till Farming in the early 80's
Created by NRCS to promote no-till in the 80s. Montgomery County producers examples of conservation success with no-till.
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[@thegraintruckguy4345]

My grandpa was no-tilling in the 70's here in Indiana, over the sand hills he'd sow wheat in the fall for erosion control and plant right through it the next spring, I'm 41 and farm the ground now, I've never plowed an acre of this farm or seen my hills blow on a windy day, no water gulleys or trenches and my fertilizer dealer says I have the easiest probing soil he samples in the fall, If it's wet I stay off the field so I don't cut trenches or ruts or cause compaction, I have a lot of respect for that farming practice due to saving the soil as much as possible, doesn't work for everyone but works for me I suppose

[@DiscGolfing]

My dad straight out of college early 70’s convinced his dad and gpa to plant one field no-till. He was the first in the county to do it. It was a huge success.

[@leepinlepin]

That beep you hear every few seconds is for the projector operator to put up the next slide.

[@lukestrawwalker]

Yeah fancy slide projectors would automatically switch to the next slide as the tones would activate the machine... Later! OL J R :)

[@johnallen5996]

I wondered what it was. Irritating for sure

[@3069mark]

Fascinating video and thanks for posting. I was born in '58 and grew up on an Iowa Farm. I remember the chemicals but Dad never let me be around them. Dad wouldn't even let me apply anhydrous. I was just his tillage hand and ran the plows and the disk and also the grain trucks or tractors & grain wagons back and forth from the fields to our grain bins. I always felt that those chemicals affected Dad's health.

[@saxman1969]

Just seems to me this is being pushed on us too hard. The same technique was used on us with commercial fertilizers in the 50's and 60's. I am a wary of all of this information blitz. I have a degree in Ag but it was 1971. I don't think the "science" taught then has changed, and has merit. I am out of farming now, but know farms flourishing with the "old school" farming methods of crop rotation and fallowing. JMO

[@robmiller2919]

It doesn't help with these big farms , no more fence rows , huge fields , monocropping, lots of dust and erosion doesn't look good to the general public. Notill is kinda a bandaid in those situations

[@roflstomps324]

Ironically, I have to till to keep my soil from eroding. It's hard pan clay. Not every method works for every farmer.

[@watthederp]

And that's hard to understand for some people. Doesn't matter what video you're on, if there's any means of ripping dirt, there's idiots screaming.

[@roflstomps324]

@@watthederp They scream because they don't know anything... And I can assure you, those that scream the loudest, farm the least.

[@roflstomps324]

@Somers Farm I agree. I didn't have to plow this year because I plowed last year and let most of my acreage rest for this year. I am focused on food crops this year. So, you know the drill. Cover crop. Little tiller. Manure. Let it rest a couple of months. Weed cloth and then plantings. That's what I have done and that is coming along pretty great. What I have done for the future is, I have planted over a thousand fast growing trees into the area this year, which is the same area I plan to farm next year. I have them spaced so that they are not close together but not so far apart that they don't matter. My goal is to get the roots down into the fragipan and have them bring all that good stuff to the surface. Every year leaf litter will help to build humis. At the same time, they will allow water to penetrate and hopefully, remove the fragipan as an issue. I know it will not go away completely but if I can remove the negative aspects of what it is, that won't matter. The issue I have is that the fragipan isn't six inches or a foot or two down. It is right there. It is right there on the surface. It is there because of the soil type but large scale farming practices before we bought the property did not help the soil in any way. I mean, it was devoid of life two years ago. Now we have so many worms I can't put a shovel to dirt without digging one up. We have frogs and toads and even salamanders and all kinds of beasties running around. Even wild rabbits have come back. Deer bed down on my back half. It really is amazing when you don't constantly mow or drive tractor over a plot - what was happening before we bought it. It's like the animals know where to go and hang out. Ultimately, my goal is to leave soil that my kids can farm without having the same issues I had. What I am envisioning is an orchard approach to our later farming practices. Cherry, apple, and plum trees with poplars, shrub blueberries (I have 2000 in pots now for the fall) and black walnuts - I planted about 300 black walnuts a year ago. The walnuts spaced away from most else, of course. All the trees in rows with the crops sown in the loose soil (because of the roots and beasties in the soil). Once the trees are big enough, I plan on introducing goats and rabbits to clip most of the weeds and excess plants I just don't need. I agree about the pork. I moved here from Canada ten years ago and I used to love pork. When I first tasted American pork I spat it out. It was gross. Where I grew up the pork is raised on small farms using organic methods. Not because the farmers want to but because big pork is just really expensive to do where I lived. So, as you know, the pork up there just tasted better. Since moving to the country, I have gotten to watch first hand how a local dairy and cattle farmer raise and feed their animals. No one can tell me that what they do is not poisoning the food supply. I watch it happen. They spray the weeds. They run the ground over with a roller/soil prepper. They seed drill hay. They spray the weeds. They come back and drill what they missed. They spray the weeds again a month later when they hay is about a foot tall. Even the hay turns a little yellow. They come back two weeks later and spray fertilizer. They come back a month later and spray the new weeds. When it all dies, excepting the hay, they bail it. Then they feed their cows that hay all the winter long. They do the same for corn for the cows. It is gross. We have resorted to buying from local, small farms that basically farm the way I do. I will continue to do so until I have enough pasture to raise my own. As for the guy with the rye that he just planted corn right into: I think you will be surprised. If those seeds got to ground and not eaten, you'll be surprised. I used clover, winter rye and vetch this past fall to over winter that resting plot. When spring got a little warm, the clover seeds got going real fast and pulled down just about all the rye and vetch remnants. I have clover two and a half feet tall and thick as soup back there right now. Within the past two days the flowers seemed to bloom all at once and it is a bee fest. I may just let more of it rest again this year. We'll see.

[@brendenperry3770]

My grandpa didnt no till because his planter was too old but we have sandy soil in northwest indiana

[@pigtailbbq1982]

I'm on my sixth year of 100%no-till in North Eastern Oregon. Our soil is more mellow, full of worms and the wind can't blow it. We have yields that keep up with the neighbors and our time & inputs are way less. I'm not saying that there are no challenges just different. The fun is overcoming them.

[@againstthegrainfarms]

Back when you could make a living on 400 acres now the Feds want mega farms

[@bobbyjones9017]

400 acres is still large. And they were using pesticides/herbicides. You are right though about the federal government.

[@massimopecile9666]

400 here where i live its huge ahahah

[@crossfogleman9162]

Big is at least 10,000 here

[@bobbyjones9017]

@@crossfogleman9162 Farms should not be that big. Farms should be 1 to 400 acres.

[@massimopecile9666]

Here in italy 10000 acres its impossible, the biggest is 4-6000 acres i dont remember, but we have better prices, corn for example is 13euro/ton, i think in america the average its 9 euro/ton. And the land its over 3 euro/square meter, not 0,30 cent/square meter like usa, i have check last week a full farm with irrigation sistem. You guys in america are lucky, dont say otherwise

[@crookdogg1356]

If you could put some of these new farmers back in the 70s.. They wouldn't know shit.

[@farmingfishingfamilyontari2814]

I would like to see a video on combining beans with a corn head next

[@Cordell-]

I dont think thats a corn head. I believed it is a 653 allcrop head

[@bryanginder5903]

Would be interesting if their ground is being notilled today!?

[@ted5128]

Alot and I mean alot of farmers still no till including me

[@Co_5590]

@@ted5128 yeah my friend no tills

[@veronicawest3749]

ahh the 7000 and its dam Seed timers ... Deere wanted $400 each row to calibrate them and they walked out on their own or if you changed seed they needed calibrated... thank goodness eventually they let out the info so others do it for less...

[@liamalan2531]

What's up with the combine using a corn head on soybeans at 0:36?

[@cementer7665]

That was John Deere's row crop head for soybeans and milo. kzbin.info/www/bejne/p4GVn4WVbNSGock

[@kristenschepp1355]

It was an all crop head

[@thegraintruckguy4345]

653a head, used for soybeans and sorghum around here but don't see them much anymore

[@davehughesfarm7983]

It dont hurt to till a little...We are 2/3rds no till..But will usually work it where corn is going and like to chisel in where our groung gets flooded..

[@rzellmer219]

My dad would work the ground till it was powder.. disc, chisel, disk again, add anhydris, then plant. If it got rained on before planting, disc again…

[@traderjoes8725]

Can some senior farmers say anything about the chemicals used in this video? Seems very toxic compared to the ones used today.

[@cilliangalvin8646]

Im not a senior farmer but i might be able to tell you something about these herbicides. Bladex and lasso are both not real healthy for people or enviroment so theyre outlawed in most countries im not quite sure about sencor but i have looked it up and it seems like its still in use. Paraquat and 2,4 D are still widely used today. Paraquat not so much because it isnt the healthiest stuff either but for burndowns and dessication it does a good job. 2,4 is becoming more common as a combatant aigainst glyphosate resistancy. Hope i could help a bit

[@cilliangalvin8646]

Oh yeah and lorsban is still a popular insecticide today👍

[@aidencrawford5977]

Gramoxone is one you need to be careful with

[@bestfriendhank1424]

@@cilliangalvin8646most of them are still around as generics

[@M60A3]

We do no till and guys in my class asked why and its like, cause it works

[@oldtruthteller2512]

Poison

[@rosewhite---]

No-till leaves the plant roots i the ground to feed the worms and as they eat they make holes for air and rain to sink in.

[@tylernason7797]

I cringed when he said paraquat. I know too many old farmers with Parkinson's or Alzheimer's linked back to that stuff.

[@garethbarton6095]

Yup, my dad's just got his Parkinson's diagnosis. Right on time for farmer in his 70's. As a whole, we need to move away from all pesticides/herbicides, but for now at least the stuff we've got is a lot better than what these poor souls were using

[@cdjhyoung]

@@garethbarton6095 Few farmers from the era in my experience paid much attention to the warning labels on these herbicides. They're nasty chemicals, but the farmers I knew would seldom if ever use any type of personal protection gear when handling these sprays. Mixing the chemicals with bare hands or letting the chemicals splash in your face was common. I'm not sure proper handling would have prevented the long term health issues some farmers are facing, but it might have helped. i was made fun of back in the 1980's because I used gauntlet gloves and a face shield around those chemicals. Wish I'd have had some protective jacket too.

[@nonyadamnbusiness9887]

Farmers had a high incidence of Parkinsons way before Paraquat or any other pesticide was invented. Your attitude is fine example of how lawyers can build a class action lawsuit on nothing but sensationalism.

[@tylernason7797]

And why do you think there was a high rate before Paraquat?

[@cdjhyoung]

@@nonyadamnbusiness9887 Care to site a source for this assertion? Parkinsons is one of those diseases that has emerged in much higher numbers in the population since the early 1960's as have Alzheimer's disease and a few previously rare cancers. To deny that the introduction of unique new chemicals into our food stream is not related to these increases flies in the face of facts. I'm not one of these guys claiming the chemical industry is poisoning us on purpose, but like DDT of a previous generation, all out comes of a chemical can't be recognized or anticipated before it is in wide distribution and a vast number of people are exposed to it.

[@vivalaleta]

Good start but all those chemicals can go too.

[@nonyadamnbusiness9887]

Not if you're going no-till.

[@vivalaleta]

@@nonyadamnbusiness9887 Are you claiming a farmer needs chemicals if she doesn't till?

[@davehughesfarm7983]

Did 24D kill these guys or struck by lightning..?

[@davehughesfarm7983]

Probably died from broken hearts and whiskey like a lot of farmers..

[@jamiecovington5968]

Broomsaig?

[@cormus1]

50gallons an acre,WTF

[@reidhaberer7541]

Right!! I think he ment 15

[@wesleyvanhook3212]

No, they really used 50 gallons per acre with the flat finned nossels for good coverage...and had a great kill but needed a floater truck because of the volume of water. We need that kind of rate on burndown today to help with the waterhemp problem.

[@thesoftparade435]

Under pressure, pushing down on me, pushing down on you...

[@matthewbroz25]

50 gallons an acre???

[@nbcnco25]

That was back when Lasso came in 55 Gallon Barrels! The low rate didn't come after the newer style nozzles and different chemicals of the 90's

[@seththomas9105]

@@nbcnco25 I worked for FS in the late 80's and 90's and we were going to 20-10 gal an acre with T-Jet nozzels on 50 foot fully hydraulic controlled booms. This was in north central Iowa and it worked well for us. Spraying Dual, Lasso, Eradicaine, Lariat, Tandem, Pursuit. Damn I'm old school now! LOL.

[@jacotruter5629]

Here in Sout africa our family farm plants 65 000 acres😉not everything is bigger in the states

[@nicolehogan3771]

These were different day 😂😂 only few people farm 400 too 600 acres I live 30 minutes from red oak.