One Lonely Farmer uses verticle till is he still soil health. how tillage works in soil health.

I tried to paint a good picture of how soil structure works and how we can do a little bit of smart tillage in a soil health system and still move forwards in soil health

[@onelonleyfarmer]

Boy I wish I could go to the side of the road and poop gold bars. Would be a good video as well.

[@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754]

Ha

[@danw6014]

Wes's channel is actually the first channel I subscribed to. There has been a lot of criticism about the VT and not being true to notill. If you really look at how he's using his VT it has a very similar effect as using a notill John Deere drill. Back when I first got to do some notill corn, the planter setup was a John Deere 7000 four row narrow with a Rawson coulter system. This farm is a dairy. There is a lot more traffic on those fields than a normal row crop farm. For a long time that planter grew good corn. I love the idea of cover crops. I love what they do for the soil but here I am at the end of November with corn standing in the field at 27% moisture. I may spin some rye on or if conditions allow hit the field with a light weight disk and run some rye in with my little FBB drill. We have to think about farming and also understand that others do their farming with the resources and time at hand. Great video. I'm a big fan of you, Wes and Grow The Farm Up, and how you guys are farming.

[@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754]

Thanks for the post ! With that corn standing does it have good stalk strength? Not much moisture is going to leave it now,

[@ryanlarsen436]

Hey Jon. Sorry to pry but I haven’t seen a fresh video in a few weeks. Hope everything is going well for you.

[@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754]

@@ryanlarsen436 well thank you very much for the concern. We are good we have just been really busy. I will get a video in the next day or two to play catch up

[@barrybush7884]

Whew​@@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754

[@TAHDAHFarm]

Great information. That kinda put some things in perspective of some of my problems.

[@haroldjones9321]

Good for you and your wife. Dang it man! It is your land and your farm operation. ❤😊 I like your "attitude". I say "Don't mess with the Scots folks, nor the Irish folks" unless you are there to acknowledge and help them.

[@jaimevoth5445]

It's like spring here in manitoba on Nov 20/23 renting my first field 60 acres old hay pasture turn it over with a heavy disk and was raining the last 10 acres finishing no problem the first for me farming in the rain now the freeze thaw will do the rest before soybeans next

[@farming4g]

Perfect sense. Pretty much described the sloughs around here and needing the soil to "breathe" Helps if I can take off stuff for slough hay and not have to disturb the soil with a disk as long as it's smoothish. Like to try to not disturb it to allow better flotation if it's a little sticky next spring. Sometimes if it was tilled the fall before and a wet spring it can make it difficult to get through, can make it worse than what it was the year before. Still hate tillage with a passion as the years go on, but it sucks dealing with ruts. Still have a bunch of spot tillage I need to do yet but might have to wait till next spring or fall again to clean up some rough spots.

[@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754]

What about your organic ground. Do you think that soil is better, worse or same as the rest of your ground?

[@jackwillie2729]

No farmer... but to set the seed right on top of last year's root bed is interesting thought on the new roots finding the nutrients that the old root left and the ease of new root to penatrate down the old roots tunnel seeking water and nutrients...could be a double win

[@Pennies_on_the_dollar]

Amazing info, love hearing you talk about soil health 😁😁

[@jarrodwemhoff7270]

Just remember “on your farm”. I screwed one up in the fall of ‘21 and we’re still seeing the effects of a disk ripping. It’s cost on the last 2 crops. We’re a much drier environment though

[@garygrimm892]

I run the Mulch master shovels i find out if you put a spike shovel on top of the 24 in sweep you can wear them out until the wings are gone and with out the spike on top i would wear out the center of the wide sweep and loose them in the field and they had a lot of life in them and may find them in a tire and i all ways use light tillage and never heavy tillage and fertilizer all ways is put as close to the row as possable and i have cut fertilizer use by 2/3 of what i used to use and am keeping the same yeilds

[@ncpanther]

Tillage is not a bad thing when you realize why you do it. Tillage with covers is a good thing especially building soil to have a level playing feild. Some of our best crops have been inline ripped to remove plow pans with a cover crop vtd over the top. The real key is are the implements true vertical tillage. Really looking into genesis-tillage aerator for a vt tool to incorporate cover crops and give them a 6+ in head start on root development from compaction removal. Another underrated soil health advocate is James Martindale. Been talking soil health for a long time. Great content

[@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754]

Thanks for the good post!

[@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754]

I always thought a ripper stripper I would be a pretty powerful tool. And like you said throw cover crops on it to help fill that profile with the roots

[@ncpanther]

@@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754 Alot of Unverferth ripper strippers and KMC strip tills here in the south everywhere. Does a great job and can reach down to 18+ in if you set them that deep. Love your content and channel. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!

[@leeforeman3656]

Good video Jon. I find your soil health videos interesting and informative. 👍

[@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754]

Thank you

[@mccownfarms824]

I am using VT on about half of my hill farm acres just to keep the dirt police off my back.

[@JamesMcnichol-ss2oc]

I have found my bean yields actually increase since going to a salford Rts. I also use it in front of my corn planter on certain heavy clay farms. We only go about 1” to 1.5” with the Rts I’m still at 1” able to plant my beans and corn into undisturbed soil. I’m also using cover crops as well. I feel my soil health has increased since starting this.

[@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754]

Nice!

[@JamesMcnichol-ss2oc]

Keep up with the videos they are informative and thought provoking

[@TheBnbonthebeach]

I hope all is OK. Haven’t seen any videos lately if you don’t do one before Christmas merry Christmas to you and your family.

[@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754]

Thanks, all is good. I will get an update soon.

[@andrewtexley448]

I’m a farmer in northeast Nebraska and did my first organic acres this last season. I have some alfalfa that will be going into organic corn this spring, I’m debating and whether to moldboard it this fall or disc it this spring. This years corn I plowed in alfalfa this spring after spreading manure and I average about 100bushels an acre. Got rye on it after harvest and it’s coming up nice now.

[@timgulotta7595]

Roto till next spring if you can get ahold of one. 100hp for a 6’.

[@AlextheDutchDairyfarmer]

Yeey! Jon does tillage! *imports 4 furrow roll over plough from Europe *😅

[@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754]

That would be slick behind the 4430!

[@growthefarmup2606]

Thanka for the shout out Jon! Those soil probe results are 20 yrs of heavy cover crop/ no till (as much as possible) Allow me to share my experiences after you get organic matter to 4%+ and soil probe results where you can push it down 3-4 feet and barely hit 100 psi. 1st) it could only be achieved with the use of cover crops... one simply cannot grow enough carbon (plant matter) with a cash crop only... all you will do is hold even on organic matter. 2nd) and most importantly. Ive found, being farther south, yes i have a sligjtly wider window and warmer temps in sprijg and fall, but that alos comes with challenges! Lets talk about GREENBRIDGE! pests over wintering in your cover crop is a very real thing!!! In drought conditions to wet conditions, its a breeding ground for insects, yes many are beneficial, but the non beneficial... like army worm, wire worm (ear worm) can and will over winter in your cover crops in nebraska. So every 3-5 years i have to break the greenbridge... with... you guessed it a disk! Oh no😅.... ive got a 33 foot wheatland John deere disk, that i jokingly call the "soil destroyer" when i speak with jon! Lol. If you dont till that soil ( i always do it after high yeilding field corn) 200-250+ bu corn stubble, then for maximum soil healtu you actually dont want to plant a cover crop over the winter, becaue you just came out of growing corn you planted green and possibly spread cover crops iner row on the corn, so i have a massively increased population of western bean cutworm and wire worm, army worm etc, those pests need tilled out at 6 inches deep! And the corn stubble is so think you can hardly 20% of soil behind the disk anyway, some of those insects will overwinter in stalks, but they thrive in a living root 365 days a year... So as keeping a living root 365 days a year is the key to unlocking the best your soil had to offer, and cover crops are the only way your going to get there... and see your arganic matter double and triple in a decade. I would argue that totally undisturbed cover crop residue regenerates topspil, not tillage it will destroy topsoil. You are 100% correct about having a 15-25 year base of root structire that is 3 feet deep from years of deep rooted cover crops and cash crops roots going deeper as a result has changed the way i farm, i dont have a "hardpan" when i do tillage, like you jon, i only do it 2 times a decade, maybe 3 if i rut it up. TO THOSE NEW TO COVER CROPS, AFTER 3 SUCCESSFUL YEARS OF GOOD ESTABLISHED COVER CROP, BEWARE THE GREENBRIDGE!!! it is real and is a real issue to be managed. Tillage will never totoaly disapear from farming. Ive got alot of data that tillage every 3-5 years, especially after corn is actually the best system, becaue you need a winter for that ground to sit idle, adter 3 yrs of bugs surviving thw winter and nesting in your kick ass regenerative living soil 365 days a year, those bugs are looking for food in February too... and your green cover crop roots look miguty tasty. If you want yo get rid of a pest the beat solution is to get rid of the food source. #saynotonotillchurch

[@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754]

Thank you for the conversation!

[@karlsborgwi.jewell9919]

I’m not afraid to do tillage but I just don’t want to harvest all the rocks that are going to turn up on top😂😂

[@ryanreeves1429]

I do not care much for Wes, but I do like some of his content, and when I find him whiney, I like the way he commits to it.

[@ryecarlson7867]

that's why I bought the Cursebuster.

[@ncpanther]

Mr Martindale knows his stuff. Looking into gentill aerators as we speak. Same concept with the correct helix and shape like his. If im not mistaken he used to work for gentill and helped make the original design

[@ryecarlson7867]

@@ncpanther good luck getting in contact with them.... tried many times

[@russellfulton6861]

I have a question. I’m in south Sask and we don’t really get enough moisture to grow cover crops here, I like the idea of a salford type disk for residue management to seed through however your comments about seeding on top of last years row doesn’t for me work here, I find if I seed in the same rows as the last year I get awful seed bed and poor emergence from dragging the stubble, I always plant 4 degrees off from last year for better results. Am I somehow being dumb?

[@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754]

Absolutely not being dumb, being dumb would be dragging residue to plant on last years pass because some guy did it on the internet. Wait, did I just rip on me? Lol Yeah you guys have Salfords not VT. LOL The moisture thing is a double edge sword, covers will put carbon into the soil, in time they will help get more rain into the soil, and hold more water. That's great, But what about the years of getting there? We don't want to hurt cash crop. Management? Could a guy use covers that don't use a lot of water and terminate early? I assume you are small grains so small grains covers can be risky but doable. What if you did annual rye grass in the fall very light rate, in spring it only gets a couple weeks of green and then it's dead with your normal spring work. Might seem like a waste but it had a few weeks of putting carbon into the ground, as time goes on you can try more things in the tiny test plot.

[@newyorkdairyfarming5616]

If iafarmer asked you to look at his trouble some 4960 would you drive down to Iowa? Might make a good video. Thanks

[@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754]

I would love to get to that point in life where i have the time and money to do that. But right now there is no way I could, other than him paying shop rate for my time. And at 5-6 hrs away? That would not be cheap.

[@M8Stealth]

In my full tillage world, and same RTK planter lines every year, am I not planting right over last year's row just like strip till? Only thing different from the crop's perspective is concentrated band of industrial fertilizer. Wetting and drying the soil along with introduction of air, which is mostly nitrogen, to release (mine/recycle) nutrients seem to be more important than just about anything else.

[@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754]

There's guys not too far from you they're doing some small scale test plots and it's pretty amazing the results they're getting.

[@M8Stealth]

@@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754 Who? Where?

[@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754]

@M8Stealth a young guy I believe Glencoe area has done some biological/ fertility trials, 250 bushel corn with little N applied. A large operation has been broad acres of biologicals, reduced fertilizer for a few years, a guy more south on 22 inch, went to 44 inch corn with covers. Organic guy has a couple things I would like to get going myself. Got to meet a handful of strip till guys out there that are having good luck

[@samtalley791]

So by this logic some one like me who doesn’t do any deep tillage, plants some cover crops some times, and aims to no till crop acres whenever possible but end up working some corn stalks or bean stubble once in a while, is mostly doing what it takes for soil health then? I try to go away from tillage but end up doing some tillage every year.

[@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754]

Well you're going to improve your soil Health versus doing primary tillage every year. And then what is the level of soil Health you want to get to. Maybe where you're at with a little bit of time you can make that goal question mark

[@farming4g]

Remember it won't happen overnight... as with a healthy stand of covers, they should do their magic underground. Do tillage as necessary where it needs it, even just spot tillage.

[@scottberger4196]

I think half the people that commit on wess stuff never farmed a day in there life.😂 I'm slow going to organic because of prices which I'm still learning everything has its place I still mobored plow and chisel plow and notill it all depends on what the ground is like if I'm planning a hay field I mobored plow so my field level beings runs the hay equipment over so many times plus pick rocks. Everyones farm is different

[@AJ3488]

How did your biocoat gold turn out?

[@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754]

Nor sure, we had such a dry hard drought that the seed trench was dry. But there was a lot of root growth, Next year I will have to do a test plot

[@mattwisconsin7382]

I feel that this video shows that "soil health" is becoming more of a lose construct, and less-and-less of a defined system.

[@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754]

Soil Health has five rules. But soil health got tied into zero till. So then if you start talking about any sort of tillage can a soil Health System you got a lot of people that are confused. And I wonder if it isn't from your Gabe Brown Dave Brandt type people. God bless them for being able to do what they did but for the average corn and soybean guy there's no way we can start at that level. We're going to talk about this all winter farmer to Farmer to see if we can't start to bust some of the myths add some clarity to what is soil health

[@mattwisconsin7382]

​@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754 you are missing the point, or maybe actually proving my point; people are using the term "soil health" without clear understanding of it. It's like what happened to the word "sustainable" in agriculture. I know the principles, and I know minimum till means "not just no till" , but it's multiple principles (not just 1) that defines "soil health" ...fall tilling ruts isn't stiring up the health of the soil or preserving it . To be clear I'm not opposed to your action of fall tilling, but when it's being defined as an action of soil health, then it's a bit broad.

[@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754]

I am enjoying the conversation and I am hearing what you're saying because at soil health events it gets argued . I like soil Health as we can apply these principles to our farm the best that we can versus someone creating this box that we have to farm in to clean that we're soil health. Maybe this takes me out of the soil Health Community . But I'm still improving my soil health verses where I used to be But shouldn't the principal of soil health be about improving your soil on your farm versus having to follow this set of parameters? So if I took this field and years ago we looked at a lot of your soil health things like water infiltration rate, wind and water erosion and now we can even look at the soil life that's out there. As long as I'm moving in an improvement trendline wouldn't I be following soil health? Because we are literally improving the health of the soil?

[@jimmartindale]

​@@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754 Residue on top can contribute very significantly to soil carbon and nutrient recycling if you are successful at getting foraging insects to return and inhabit your field. Your horizontal tillage pass just sent many of them to their grave and those who survived headed back to the hedges and forest.

[@jimmartindale]

Got to know the last time anyone saw a housing subdivision go in where there is a cemetery. It is a myth or worse to propose that it is a good situation to have new plant roots to inhabit decomposing old root systems.

[@OleRustyTractor]

Where’s your million dollar binsite haha

[@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754]

Someday....

[@JamesOBrien2253]

You still alive?

[@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754]

Yeah. Thanks for checking. Honestly I was making more money on KZbin by not posting videos. LOL just been very busy this fall. Working on harvest trying to take care of cattle and then finding a spare minute in the shop

[@JamesOBrien2253]

@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754 good to hear have a good Christmas

[@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754]

You as well

[@nightstorm9128]

I don't think he is soil health,,,I don't think he was ever soil health,,He is however a human being,,And soil or its health has never been part of the human anatomy ,,Soil health is in soil which is on the ground,,He is much like you as in anatomically the same,,

[@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754]

Huh?

[@839Unipicker]

@@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754 he's trying to make a joke. He's reading your title as though Wes is soil health incarnate. Wes isn't literally soil health. He's a guy who's practicing soil health protocols.

[@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754]

@@839Unipicker thank you for clearing that up. LOL

[@11T872]

It's OK, just say "i Tried no till and it doesn't work" but ppl will not say that because before loud mouth talked about cover crop like some kind of cult, 😂🔊

[@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754]

Are you referring to me as loud mouth cult covers? I am a far stretch from no till don't work. Smoothing up a field is far from going back to full tillage. Still doing cover crops as well. The whole "I tried x once and it didn't work" is just ignorance. What did a person use to determine success? Yield? So you "tried" a new system against your proven system and it didn't yield as well, hmm go figure. Or we tried covers and it didn't yield more so covers don't work. What would covers do in one summer to improve yields?

[@jrwstl02]

10+ years no-till and covers on 300 acres here. SOM increasing. No commercial P, K, or lime for last 5 years. The first 5 years I wondered if it would ever work. Suffered thru some low yields and snide comments from neighbor farmers. So now, my yields are slowly improving but still not back to where they were with conventional Ag. Most important to me, net $/acre has exceeded my conventional for the past 3 yr. Bottom line, it can make you more money, and free up some of your time. That isn’t going to happen in one year though!

[@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754]

@@jrwstl02 nice! Great point on dollars vs yield