Fall Tips From Dedicated South Dakota No-Tillers

The adaptable Johnsons of Frankfort, S.D. try new issues on a regular basis.

No-tillers Brian and Jamie Johnson aren’t afraid to face out, and so they’ve tried two approaches for issues that may very well be out there for the autumn.

Collectively they’ve about 1,700 acres of cropland, 700 acres of pastures, 100 head of cow/calf pairs and 25 bred heifers. They’ve a devoted corn-soybeans rotation, with fall cowl crops within the combine as properly.

Backyard As Laboratory. Previous implementations within the discipline have succeeded properly sufficient to push into the kitchen backyard, and vice versa.

Jamie began no-tilling potatoes in her backyard. Rising up on a dairy farm in Knox County, Neb., she gives a recent perspective to the household’s row crop operation. She is commonly the driving drive behind the Johnsons’ improvements and willingness to strive new issues.

“She is at all times asking questions and difficult me to do one thing completely different,” Brian says. “She at all times has concepts.”

Covers From Above.Jamie started experimenting with cereal rye as a canopy crop within the household’s residence backyard. The success within the backyard led them to strive cowl crops on their industrial acreage 15 years in the past. The Johnsons nonetheless use rye and have added some cowl crop mixtures.

Jamie Johnson advised aerial seeding rye as a canopy crop following corn 3 years in the past. Every spring after planting soybeans, the Johnsons kill off the rye utilizing glyphosate. They be certain that to pick out soybean varieties that can tolerate the chemical’s presence.

Brian says the rye helps with soil well being, improves water infiltration, reduces broadleaf weed strain and gives a wintertime habitat for wildlife.

“The largest remorse I’ve is that we didn’t fly rye onto the entire farm within the fall of 2021 and left it off 20-30% of the acres,” Brian says. “I saved 10-15% an acre this 12 months on herbicides in my no-till soybeans as a result of I had rye rising in these fields. Final spring, we didn’t have any mud coming off our fields in April as a result of the rye was 6 inches tall.”

They’re additionally not afraid to regulate techniques to fulfill hostile situations.

When a portion of their cropland was adversely impacted by saline 12 years in the past, the Johnsons moved the troubled areas into the Conservation Reserve Program, which makes use of salt-tolerant grasses to scale back the soil’s salinity.

Angled Beans.Within the fall, the Johnsons harvest their soybeans at a 3-degree angle to feed the mix extra constantly.

“About 10 years in the past, we had an August hailstorm that bruised soybeans stems,” he says. “The beans leaned on the year-old corn stalks which saved them up and made them harvestable.”

As ideas flip to 2023, the Johnsons say they haven’t but determined which crops to plant on a number of fields. They’ll patiently watch what occurs this fall and winter earlier than making a call.

“I’m going to observe the climate and the fertilizer markets earlier than I determine what to plant,” Brian says. “It’s very easy to plant corn, but when it will get dry, I would swap to extra beans.”

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