By LINDA McGURK
Indiana Correspondent

CAYUGA, Ind. — Skyrocketing energy prices are making every gallon of diesel fuel and every pound of nitrogen count on a farm. That could be a blessing in disguise for American farmland, since the number of crop producers who are turning to no-till practices as a way to cut costs is virtually exploding.

“The interest is extremely high. Just look around – three years ago, or even two years ago, we probably wouldn’t have had 30 people in this room,” said Natural Resources Conservation Service State Agronomist Barry Fisher during a July 30 no-till seminar in Cayuga, Ind., that drew more than 150 people.

One of the attendees was John Hedrick, who grows corn, hay and soybeans near Crawfordsville, Ind. Having no-tilled all of his soybeans for the past three years, he said he’s planning to apply the technique to some corn this year, as well. By increasing his no-till acres a little at a time, he’s hoping he’ll eventually be able scrap the plowing altogether.

“I’m basically doing it to be more conservation friendly and to reduce fuel costs. The less passes I have to make the better,” he said. “I’m only running one tractor out there instead of two, so I save on labor and equipment as well.”

Hedrick has had good luck with his beans after switching to no-till. “I’ve actually seen some yield increases of about a bushel or two per acre,” he said.

Getting his equipment set up for no-till was the biggest challenge, and he’s also more dependent on the weather and soil conditions for planting. A wet spring like the one Indiana saw this year can delay planting for no-till farmers, but luckily those are pretty few and far between.

Zach Cain of Darlington, Ind., agreed that no-till practices can be a little less forgiving than conventional tillage, and said it’s important to get the right seed varieties and adjust weed management accordingly. “(No-till) is easier on certain soils than others but anybody can do it. It just takes a different kind of management,” he said.

Cain farms 3,500 acres of corn and soybeans that have been completely no-till since the early 1990s. At the seminar, which was organized by the Vermillion County Soil and Water Conservation District, he shared his experience with using the latest technology to make his farm operation more efficient.

But, he said transitioning to no-till doesn’t necessarily require high-tech gadgets and costly equipment upgrades. “You can make as little or as many changes as you want to,” he added.

Resources for farmers who are interested in switching to no-till are abundant and several worthwhile state and federal cost-share programs are available, according to Fisher. For example, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) offers financial and technical assistance to farmers who want to make their production more environmentally friendly.

Continued funding for EQIP is one of the provisions of the new farm bill.

“(EQIP) could go a long way toward updating a sprayer or planter, and can offset some of the seed costs for cover crops,” said Fisher.
EQIP offers cost-share plans for no-till, cover crops, nutrient management and conservation buffers, and has additional incentives for farmers who choose to tackle all four areas as a bundle. Last year, the program paid $20 per acre for no-till, $22.50 per acre for cover crops and $5-$20 per acre for nutrient management. Producers can receive payments for up to 500 acres for three years.

“Hopefully that gives the farmer enough time to make the changes and establish management practices that are sustainable,” Fisher said.

With today’s technology and with the right management practices, Fisher said yield loss is not an issue with no-till. He encouraged interested farmers to attend seminars and workshops on no-till and said there are many other opportunities to become more knowledgeable on the topic.

“Probably the best resource is to just seek out a local, successful no-till farmer. There’s no substitute for that,” he said.

Cain noted the Internet is a great resource when looking for more information and said a Google search on “no-till” retrieved more than 395,000 hits.

So what about the old adage that a no-till farmer is a “lazy” farmer? Those attitudes seem to be changing as more farmers are abandoning their disc plows.

“People are starting to see what it can do and that it’s not just a flash in the pan,” said Cain.

“The real selling point with no-till is that you can have just as good yields with less environmental impact.”

Hedrick agreed. “It seems like everybody out there is trying to do the best they can to be good stewards of the land. Just compared with 10 years ago there seems to have been a big reduction in tillage.”

For more details on EQIP and other government conservation programs, visit www.in.nrcs.usda.gov/programs