HD no-till drill

[Andy Carson]

Thanks for the thoughts Tim. I am really much more into “min-till” than “no-till”anyway, I’m just thinking about possibilities. It seems that the applications of true no-till in a chemical free system might be somewhat limited to a few “special situations. For me personally, I would only be using it for cover crops and it seems strange to invest so much time and money in cover crop techniques… The broadcaster seemed to work just fine anyway and I’ve got alot of “irons in the fire” right now anyway… By the way, I don’t think I’m going to get any help hoeing from my wife if the weed control completely fails. She has really started asking why I am not “doing things like everyone else” or at least “like they used to”… She might be right, but I just feel compelled to do what makes sense to me, even if it’s not traditional. It’s nice to have someone to balance this out, I suppose, but I don’t want to get too “mushy”… 🙂

[near horse]

Hey Andy,

I’m with you on this one – true no-till as I understand it does rely on herbicide apps and fertilizer apps at seeding which doesn’t really suit my tastes too well. As I’m sure you recall, the palouse is noted for it’s high level of soil erosion, particularly if left open over winter – in fact NRCS (or whoever it is now) requires a certain percentage of crop residue to be left in the field over winter to be in compliance and eligible for federal crop programs – I think that really pushed the advancement of no-till operations.

I’m not sure how I could integrate a small no-till drill into my “proposed” system but I certainly have the same soil issues as the rest of the region (highly erodable). I was looking at those crop rollers that you run over your green manure crop and then direct seed into the “mulch” but it seems they are hit and miss in effectively killing the green manure crop – like Tim mentioned. Sometimes it gets squashed but isn’t dead. In addition, the pics i saw looked like a pretty heavy thatch to plant into – not even sure how. I almost thought about making a seeder built like those drum shaped aerators that sort of punch holes in sod. I envisioned them “punching through the green manure mat” and dropping in a seed or more. Hadn’t really figured out how much of it could work so, like most of my ideas, is half-baked:confused:

Not to enter into your relationship stuff but gently remind your wife that she married you (I’m assuming) because you aren’t like everyone else 😮

[Andy Carson]

@near horse 26016 wrote:

Not to enter into your relationship stuff but gently remind your wife that she married you (I’m assuming) because you aren’t like everyone else 😮

It’s just normal ribbing, no big deal… When you think about and try different things, you have to be ready for a little teasing…:D

[Tim Harrigan]

@Countymouse 26017 wrote:

… you have to be ready for a little teasing…:D

You came to the right place. 🙂

[sickle hocks]

Thanks for that link on the roller crimper set up..

Andy are you still getting into chickens? What about terminating your cover crop and breaking up residue by ‘mob-stocking’ with a moving chicken tractor set up? For small acreage of course…you’d have to knock it all down fast enough to get in and plant before the weeds flushed? Maybe they wouldn’t hit it hard enough, compared to cattle or pigs or such…

[near horse]

@Countymouse 25979 wrote:

Here’s one technique…
http://www.umanitoba.ca/afs/agronomists_conf/poster_pdf/Caroline_Halde_poster.pdf

The variable responses to crop rollers seems to be pretty common at this point in time. But as I was reading this article, I wondered “how come we just don’t mow it and let it lay there?” Is the small strip we leave “mulchess” due to the grassboard providing room for the inner mower shoe really very significant? It seems to me that if a roller’s trying to kill the green manure crop, mowing might do just as well and utilize a piece of equipment many of us already own.

[Tim Harrigan]

The bare swath would be one thing, that would certainly turn into a weedy strip. Also, if you roll a crop like rye at the right time it will kill it and the residue will be anchored to the ground. Then, when you drill through it, it will not bunch up or snow plow in front the the coulters or openers. The wind will not blow it around, and if you get a heavy rain it will not wash or float to the swales or to the ditch.

[Author]

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