Rising to the Challenge by Andy Holzwarth
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March 2006 • Volume 5 • Number 1 Rising to the Challenge by Andy Holzwarth E FA U R R Today, in driving through T M skills of Dan ForgeyForgey,, man- farm is a profitable enterprise, and A E the Gettysburg, SD area, E R ager of Cronin Farms west of he gets paid a portion of the profits, F you would have to drive Gettysburg, SD. Thirty years so he really pays attention! a long time to find a field D ago, Forgey was ‘merely’ a A Y N E The last 15 years have been a whirl- that is left uncovered with F R G hired man on the grain and O wind of change for Forgey. They crop residue. HoweverHowever,, back cattle operation run by Mike & went from being 25% summerfal- in the Eighties, burying residue was Monte’s dad, who at that time also low to having none. And from using the norm. What pushed a couple of owned a feed mill / grain elevator in 4 people and 3 tractors (totaling counties in north-central S. Dakota Gettysburg. Profits from these even- 525 hp) to farm about 5,600 acres, to 80 or 90% no-till? —some cre- tually gave rise to investments in to needing only 2 people and one ative farm operators taking things John Deere dealerships in the early 250-hp tractor to crop over 8,600 into their own hands, challenging ’90s. As you can imagine, Mike and acres (and adding another 600 for each other’s minds, and, of course, Monte had their hands full with the ’06). While cropped acres shot up, competing for land. various business activities vying for labor and capital being used were their attention, so they decided to One of those well-managed farms shrinking, and field operations were reallocate personnel and appointed is owned by Mike & Monte Cronin, becoming much more precise. The Forgey as their farm manager. Dan whose good business sense opened is charged with seeing to it that the the way for the flourishing of the Contents Rising to the Challenge .......... 273 Roots: The Foundation ........... 279 Disturbance Favors Weeds .... 287 Field Ecosystems .................... 288 Skip-Row Concerns ................ 296 Photo by Dan Forgey. Dan Forgey raves about field peas in his rotation. An Inquisitive Nature ............. 298 efficiencies are primarily due to that point (Beck actually taught the time gained from not doing till- at Gettysburg High School at one age, and also from the extra seeding time), and thought enough of the and harvesting windows provided research Beck had by crop diversitydiversity,, now at done on their 11 crops. And farm that he didn’t Dan acts like discard the idea. it’s much more “When we got that 4-year Cronins tried pleasant with some dryland no- Editors: rotation, we thought we Matt Hagny their current sys- till corn into wheat Andy Holzwarth tem of farming. had it made—we could stubble in ’91, and Roger Long do this forever.” things really accel- Randy Schwartz Keith Thompson Well, not quite. erated after that. Not Obvious E-mail: [email protected] at the Time They were 100% no-till by ’93. Science Advisors: Where did this change come from? Dwayne Beck (SDSU: Dakota Lakes) Dan explains, “It’s all from Beck. He In 1990, Cronin Farms was about Jill Clapperton (Agri-Food Canada) just keeps feeding us these ideas— 50% wheat and some mix of corn Rolf Derpsch (consultant, Paraguay) and sunflowers on another 25% of Tom Schumacher (SDSU, Soil Science) he’s that far ahead.” It all started Ray Ward (Ward Laboratories) in 1990, at a District 6 Irrigators’ their acres, for a pattern of w.wht Subscriptions & Advertising: meeting at Bob’s Steakhouse: “Beck >>s.wht >>summer crop >>sum- gave a presentation, and said how merfallow, although: “We didn’t Phone: 888.330.5142 we could be doing everything with really have a rotation.” Forgey $25 per year (U.S.) subscription rate no-till. Everyone at the meet- describes their first steps trying to No-Till on the Plains Inc. publishes ing was chuckling—except Ralph figure out the rotation for no-till: Leading Edge three times per year. [Holzwarth]. I’ll never forget, a few “We were planting spring wheat into No-Till on the Plains Inc. days later I was talking with [another corn stalks. We did some silly things P.O. Box 379 back then. Scab got us. We didn’t Wamego, KS 66547-0379 prominent local farmer who] said 888.330.5142 it was pretty unbelievable that you know what we were doing. I just Website: www.notill.org shudder when I think about those could sell your chisels and discs and © Copyright 2006 No-Till on the Plains Inc. All rights reserved. just own a no-till drill.” (Editors: years.” In ’94, they put sunflowers Ralph Holzwarth’s story was the into corn stalks for the first time. “We didn’t think two long-season No-Till on the Plains, Inc. is a non-profit orga- cover of the Sept. ’04 issue.) nization under I.R.C. § 501(c)3, funded by fee- [summer] crops in a row would based activities and by generous donations from many individuals as well as organizations such Mike & Monte’s dad had known work. We were really struggling.” as Kansas Corn Commission, Kansas Soybean Beck for over a decade already at By ’96, all their flowers went behind Commission, and the Kerr Foundation. corn, for a s.wht >>w.wht Disclaimer: Mention of trade names does not imply endorsement or preference of any >>corn >>flower rotation company’s product by Leading Edge, and any omission of trade names is unintentional. with no summerfallow. Dan Recommendations are current at the time of says, “Eighty percent of printing. Farmer experiences may not work for all. Views expressed are not necessarily those of Potter and Sully counties the Editors or Leading Edge. are now in this rotation.” He further notes his own ——— V ——— mistake, “When we got that 4-year rotation, we thought No-Till on the Plains Inc’s Mission: we had it made—we could To assist agricultural producers in do this forever. We didn’t implementing economically, agro- have to listen to Beck any- nomically, and environmentally sound crop production systems. Photo by Dan Forgey more.” Objective: To increase the adop- Quite a bit of ‘cheatgrass’ seed can survive two years tion of cropping systems that will of lying on top of the soil in the Dakotas. Here, the That was short-lived. Forgey explains, “The enhance economic potential, soil cheatgrass (downy brome) has emerged in one of and water quality, and quality of Cronins’ fields that’s been in corn two years already. cheatgrass blew up. By life while reducing crop production Neither the weed seeds nor the crop residue decom- ’99, we knew that rota- risks. pose as quickly in the Dakotas as they do in Kansas or tion wasn’t going to work. Oklahoma. Forgey designs his rotations accordingly. 274 So we went to three years out [of cow rations. With peas, wheat].” Which they accomplished Forgey added several more by stacking the corn (second-year rotations, including s.wheat corn), a method that had them >>pea >>corn >>flowers, really nervous since they thought as well as w.wht >>corn they didn’t have enough moisture >>corn >>pea. Another (it’s been working out, with stacked one that excites Dan is corn within 8 – 10 bu/a of corn after a simple w.wht >>corn w.wht). They’d also been doing >>pea. These are designed some soybeans instead of sunflowers to “clean up the cheatgrass” in the rotation, and they sometimes since they’re only 1/3 to 1/4 Photo by Dan Forgey. stacked those as well, but Forgey wheat. Big spring wheat yields demand stand density and doesn’t like what two broadleaf Isn’t this going backwards, vigor such as Forgey has achieved here in sunflower crops in a row do to the soil. In fact, to shorter rotations? stalks, a common crop sequence for them. Note the while Dan considers soybeans to be abundance of corn stalks from crops prior to the Perhaps, although Forgey “more enjoyable to grow” than flow- sunflowers. explains, “A field isn’t going ers, soybeans have not been as prof- to be in a rotation forever. all their N fertilizer in the ground. itable for them. The three years out I make rotational decisions in July, They built an anhydrous rig from of wheat did let them get a handle mostly based on weed pressure— an old duckfoot (chisel plow) frame, on cheatgrass, and also breaks up with some consideration of residue and this NH3 rig was used till root disease cycles. levels and fertility, but mostly weed 2000. “I didn’t like the anhydrous pressure. A lot of people think opener—it was moving too much they’ve got this [cheatgrass] problem dirt.” While they seriously consid- solved with Olympus. We tried to ered low-disturbance methods for “I make rotational do that with Maverick, and it didn’t NH3, ultimately they decided to go decisions in July, based solve the problem. Cheatgrass is a to urea applied with their air cart. on weed pressure.” huge issue for us—we don’t want “By that point, we only had one to be consistent with our rota- tractor. I couldn’t afford to make tions, or the cheatgrass will figure a $5 – 6/a pass just to apply anhy- Forgey has been working with field it out.” During the 2 or 3 years out drous.