2022 Eastern Nebraska Soil Health Conference Presentations - Chris Gaesser,

Deloris Pittman & Mike Kamm Author

02/08/2022 Added

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Making Soil Health Work for Your Operation - Chris Gaesser, Gaesser Farms, Iowa

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[00:00:08.350]like I said, my name's Chris, we farm in Southwest Iowa about,
[00:00:13.900]oh, not quite three hours straight east to here.
[00:00:16.840]we're kind of right along 34 on the south side between Corning and Creston.
[00:00:21.730]we do corn soybeans, a little bit of rye.
[00:00:25.840]when we're trying to add to some of that,
[00:00:27.880]just to kind of diversify a little and try some new things.
[00:00:33.310]so, you know, just a quick overview overview.
[00:00:36.460]You probably already know most of this, but you know, how,
[00:00:39.040]improving your soil health helps you. first of all, you're reducing erosion.
[00:00:42.940]That's where we got started.
[00:00:44.080]That's how we got going on this journey 13 years ago,
[00:00:48.910]you know, relieving compaction, improving structure,
[00:00:52.510]building organic matter.
[00:00:53.500]A lot of the things that we've already talked about today, also,
[00:00:56.200]you can reduce a weed pressure and,
[00:00:59.230]there's some new programs that are incentivizing that not just, an Iowa,
[00:01:03.340]but the U S level and hopefully here in Nebraska.
[00:01:08.110]so how we got started was,
[00:01:10.840]we were already doing no till we've been no till for almost 30 years in our
[00:01:14.050]operation. I farmed with my parents and my family.
[00:01:18.220]but about 2009,
[00:01:21.070]it was about the third or fourth year in a row where we got in four inches of
[00:01:24.280]rain in an hour.
[00:01:25.600]And that used to happen about once every 10 to 15 years.
[00:01:29.530]And it started happening every year and, what we were doing,
[00:01:33.640]it just wasn't enough.
[00:01:34.750]So this is actually the same area because this is right after a rain with cover.
[00:01:39.580]And this is during the rain when we didn't have it. And if you could kind of,
[00:01:43.890]it's hard to see in the background,
[00:01:45.070]but you can see the terraces and they just kind of waterfall down and it was not
[00:01:49.750]good. So how we got started,
[00:01:54.430]we started with, actually rye, grass and annual rye grass.
[00:01:59.200]it worked pretty well. There were some termination issues.
[00:02:03.160]it's some things like that.
[00:02:04.630]we've done a lot of experiments with aerial applications and drilling and
[00:02:09.130]different seeding rates and, different, covers,
[00:02:14.440]naturally,
[00:02:15.520]cereal rye works the best for us and probably the same around here.
[00:02:18.580]It's a very cold tolerant. It's easy to get going.
[00:02:21.550]you don't have to worry about it winter killing.
[00:02:23.110]You can plant it in the fall if you have time.
[00:02:25.780]I even know some people who do it in the winter after they're done.
[00:02:28.810]So it comes up in the spring, pretty easy to manage, easy to terminate,
[00:02:33.880]and it grows very quickly, which is nice.
[00:02:38.200]we started also doing, some, we added to our rotation.
[00:02:42.100]We grow our own cover crop seed.
[00:02:44.860]we tend to do it on acres that we want to make land improvements on.
[00:02:48.310]It makes that easier or,
[00:02:50.830]marginal land that needs something to extend the rotation,
[00:02:53.680]just kind of improve the soil and give it a year off of,
[00:02:57.220]doing a regular crop. and then, we've also used,
[00:03:02.140]started looking at some of the profitability on certain acres to decide where we
[00:03:05.860]want to grow the rye, or if we should grow anything there. And,
[00:03:09.880]one of our big things is we always try to find a way to like save cost or,
[00:03:15.040]you know, make, make it easier to do, especially the covers.
[00:03:19.780]so we do a lot of cost benefit analysis and we try some different things. And,
[00:03:24.220]we're, we're also working with some researchers,
[00:03:27.820]through Cortez and Iowa state and,
[00:03:32.470]some other local groups, we're partnering,
[00:03:34.570]we're starting to do some perennial cover crops, kinda. So plant planet once,
[00:03:39.550]leave it out there, manage it a little differently.
[00:03:43.030]the first year we did it in soybeans, it worked great, last year in corn,
[00:03:47.890]not so much, but, it was really cool right after we planted.
[00:03:51.370]So like stunting it back and stuff. It was really hard.
[00:03:54.340]And then like after our rye,
[00:03:56.260]we grow like a really diverse mix just to kind of help build the soil.
[00:03:59.740]This is an example of that.
[00:04:01.510]And then this is just like our regular rice fields and replay or like ride cover
[00:04:05.740]when we're planting.
[00:04:09.010]So some of the lessons and stuff that we've learned in the progress we're
[00:04:12.460]making, every time we change something, we start small, right?
[00:04:16.990]We started with aerial applications. we switched to drilling,
[00:04:20.920]which works the best, but it's not that much cheaper than an aerial application.
[00:04:25.390]so we started, doing some experience with, we spread with a dry box.
[00:04:29.890]We already use it for side dressing or corn and like spreading urea and doing
[00:04:33.550]our P and K. So I think that's another key too,
[00:04:36.850]is if you can take things that you already have and make little tweaks and
[00:04:41.050]things like that, find ways to save costs,
[00:04:44.950]is one of our big things. And so we started,
[00:04:48.430]broadcasting a rye.
[00:04:50.470]It works really good on corn stocks right after you've harvested,
[00:04:53.710]or we find that it does, we do some of our, corn early to dry.
[00:04:58.300]we have a drawing facility. So, that works really well. And,
[00:05:03.170]actually this year was our first year.
[00:05:05.410]we started spreading into standing beans right before leaf drop.
[00:05:09.280]it's hard to get a full hundred feet, so the coverage isn't great, but,
[00:05:13.450]something is better than nothing. And like cost-wise,
[00:05:17.320]if we drill our application cost is like 21, 20 $2.
[00:05:22.540]And if I could spread it with a dry box at seven, so, I mean, right there,
[00:05:25.990]you're already saving a lot of cost per acre, helps out a lot.
[00:05:30.610]so, and,
[00:05:32.710]and always what works for us doesn't work for everybody.
[00:05:37.180]I try to get ideas from other people too.
[00:05:42.130]I have a lot of,
[00:05:43.210]I actually have a friend who uses soybean disks to plant his rye.
[00:05:46.630]So he didn't have to get a different piece of equipment.
[00:05:50.740]and it works pretty good.
[00:05:51.700]Or they take over some of the holes or you can adjust rates and,
[00:05:55.780]some things like that. And, also, you know, get creative,
[00:06:00.650]another way that, we help,
[00:06:03.800]kind of control our costs is we grow our own, cover seat.
[00:06:07.970]So you only got to dedicate, you know, depending on how big your operation is,
[00:06:11.660]you know,
[00:06:11.840]somewhere between 10 and 80 acres is usually more than enough unless you have
[00:06:16.790]a really bad year. you can save a lot of costs that way cleaning.
[00:06:20.840]It can be relatively easy.
[00:06:23.030]you can build a really cheap grain cleaner out of old Walker combines. We,
[00:06:27.770]we originally had an actual green cleaner that was expensive and it didn't
[00:06:32.660]work super great. It worked good for soybeans, but a lot of the rice stuff,
[00:06:38.960]like the weight difference between the heads and the seed and everything wasn't
[00:06:43.340]that much different.
[00:06:44.510]And so we had spent a lot of money and it didn't really help us at all.
[00:06:48.530]And then we, our full-time guy actually came up with the idea.
[00:06:52.970]He was an old John Deere tech and we took, we got an old in 4,400 John Deere,
[00:06:58.250]Walker combine for like a thousand bucks and put about $200 worth of
[00:07:02.120]modifications on it. I should have put a picture of it.
[00:07:05.570]and we put a hopper on the back and you can dump it right in the sieves.
[00:07:09.350]It's a mobile cleaning unit. You got an auger to dump onto something else.
[00:07:13.580]And like, and it, like,
[00:07:15.330]it doesn't have to be a John Deere and you can pick up old Walker combines
[00:07:18.380]pretty cheap.
[00:07:19.130]And it's pretty easy to find like a small grain sieve and things like that.
[00:07:23.450]So not only does it save costs, it's mobile, but also,
[00:07:28.400]it's easy to find. And, it's a lot faster than a regular grain cleaner.
[00:07:33.170]You can do four or 500 bushels an hour,
[00:07:36.320]and then another way you can mitigate costs with that is,
[00:07:38.960]you can clean seed for other people and, you don't have to, again,
[00:07:43.700]mobile, so it helps. And, yeah, it's,
[00:07:49.400]especially with,
[00:07:51.710]there's a couple of companies coming out with,
[00:07:54.830]some soybeans that you can bend them and use them,
[00:07:58.580]and you do a set cost per acre.
[00:08:00.080]So we're hoping to pick up some like cleaning business with that too.
[00:08:04.100]So it was just another way to help you with your soil health operation and help
[00:08:08.930]kind of mitigate the extra costs that you have.
[00:08:15.500]So, but a lot of what we do on our farm, we've been,
[00:08:20.330]like I said, tried a lot of different things.
[00:08:22.490]We're working with some programs. we do some diverse mixes.
[00:08:26.570]we've found it's hard to,
[00:08:29.670]to do a lot of the bigger things for compaction in like
[00:08:34.550]radishes and turnips and things like that because,
[00:08:38.810]if you don't get it seated in August,
[00:08:40.850]like you're usually not going to get a lot of growth.
[00:08:43.820]so that's kind of a problem. And one of the things that we've really learned,
[00:08:48.320]learned about and,
[00:08:51.440]different grasses in different, projects,
[00:08:56.250]oats works really good winter kills, but,
[00:08:59.280]if you're looking for something that just kind of grows fast and it's a little
[00:09:01.800]easier, we also look at,
[00:09:06.210]the profitability of different acres.
[00:09:08.040]So if you're wanting to grow some of your cover, like I said,
[00:09:11.100]it doesn't take a lot of acres. So we've even gotten to the point where like,
[00:09:15.690]we'll have like a 60 foot wide strip between some bench terraces that go around
[00:09:20.160]the hill, right. Doesn't yield very good,
[00:09:22.950]but you can take that opportunity to grow right there. Right. Grows pretty well,
[00:09:26.610]almost everywhere. It's less inputs. And it just helps, like again,
[00:09:31.860]mitigating costs, on the rest of your operation, the,
[00:09:36.450]for,
[00:09:40.680]spraying wise, with your termination, you know, you can,
[00:09:45.000]you're doing a pass anyway ahead of almost all of your different crops,
[00:09:48.330]so you can, combine that. And if you let it get big enough,
[00:09:52.410]especially we try to, if it's beans, we try to terminate it either,
[00:09:57.030]right when we plant it or just a little bit before, the bigger we get it,
[00:10:01.140]you know, the more that Matt is there, the more weed suppression.
[00:10:04.770]So you're helping with, not only weed resistance,
[00:10:09.240]because that's becoming more and more of a problem all the time. You know,
[00:10:12.000]glyphosate is already almost useless against broad leaves,
[00:10:16.050]and we're already starting to see some resistance in some of the new things,
[00:10:20.130]new tools that we have.
[00:10:22.380]So anything that you can do to help that a lot of times,
[00:10:25.940]if we have a decent cover crop stand, we can reduce a,
[00:10:29.970]in season application. So instead of running two passes after our pre,
[00:10:34.080]we can usually get by with one. So again, cost mitigation,
[00:10:39.030]helps a lot, makes it a lot easier to justify,
[00:10:43.380]running the covers and what you're doing, cause it's a long-term investment.
[00:10:48.150]And I know that,
[00:10:50.130]there's a lot of times that it's hard to help convince people to do
[00:10:55.110]it right away because you know, you want to see results now,
[00:10:58.500]and it's not how that works. we've been doing,
[00:11:04.680]this trial, is an ongoing trial,
[00:11:08.940]the same strips in the same spots. we were on the eighth year.
[00:11:13.860]we still don't see a lot of yield difference between,
[00:11:17.250]the cover and the non, but I do,
[00:11:19.800]we do see a lot of compaction differences. we're building,
[00:11:24.290]organic matter up we're about a half a percent better on the covered ground now.
[00:11:28.860]And compaction is a huge difference cause we take deep cores for some of the
[00:11:33.180]health tests and, where the cover is. You can press it in, you know,
[00:11:37.560]with just your arms and, where the covers,
[00:11:40.350]not like you really got to stomp on it and drive it in. And,
[00:11:44.790]just a lot of benefits. I'm really,
[00:11:49.530]w we've been partnering with three different groups to try a lot of new things.
[00:11:53.710]some things we're excited about hers, the perennial covers,
[00:11:56.680]obviously right now, we're doing, the bluegrass. And,
[00:12:01.030]so how that whole situation is working is you plan it,
[00:12:06.490]ideally you harvest a little early and you plant it in the fall,
[00:12:10.540]get a good stand. By the time you plant in the spring on your first year,
[00:12:15.610]you do you chemically stunt it back.
[00:12:17.920]right now we're using a Liberty and a little bit of like atrazine,
[00:12:22.450]to kind of dull it down and get the other crop established.
[00:12:26.410]And that works really good in beans.
[00:12:29.230]We're still working on how to make it work in corn, just because,
[00:12:33.070]until corn gets to about V6,
[00:12:36.190]if it sees anything green in the facility,
[00:12:39.100]it's it suppresses itself.
[00:12:41.650]So any place where we got a good burn and could keep it green,
[00:12:45.880]or could keep it brown until the corn got going, it worked pretty well.
[00:12:50.050]And every wall, everywhere else, some of the corn didn't even,
[00:12:53.800]come through it cause we had to knock the grass back down, so hard.
[00:12:58.210]So we're, we're working with that in and,
[00:13:02.350]Iowa state and Cortez have a lot of trials where that works really good and
[00:13:05.620]strip-till, and we're trying to adapt it to no till,
[00:13:08.740]so that's been one of our struggles cause you don't have that set strip for the
[00:13:12.730]corn to come up in and, it just doesn't handle the competition. Well,
[00:13:16.990]they're also developing well, they use it in orchards and it's,
[00:13:21.700]it's kinda like a grass,
[00:13:24.380]but it makes bulbs in the ground and it spreads very slowly.
[00:13:27.430]It's easier suppress, because you don't have to chemically suppress it.
[00:13:31.360]It automatically goes dormant in the summer and it grows kind of in the cool
[00:13:35.710]weather in the winter.
[00:13:36.790]So that's been a good project and then we're trying some different
[00:13:41.590]things to, mitigate how much nitrogen we apply.
[00:13:46.750]So,
[00:13:47.770]this year we have 16 different types of beans and peas that are
[00:13:52.570]in big strips on about 16 acres. And,
[00:13:55.900]we're we already do an adaptive in program for our in season applications,
[00:14:00.640]variable rate.
[00:14:02.410]so we'll do soil sampling when we plant the corn.
[00:14:06.580]And then on our normal side dress time, we'll adjust the rates.
[00:14:09.790]We'll try to adjust the rates based on what the various beans and peas are
[00:14:15.160]providing. So then you would not only have a cover,
[00:14:18.340]but also a nitrogen source and especially with fertilizer costs right now.
[00:14:22.000]I think we all know if we could find a way to use less of that,
[00:14:25.270]that would be awesome. And the peas and stuff are fairly cost-effective.
[00:14:29.520]another thing about the bluegrass is the startup costs to put it in the first
[00:14:34.480]year is pretty high.
[00:14:36.940]they're they're working on that and trying to develop like their own varieties,
[00:14:40.870]one that suppresses your in the summer,
[00:14:43.480]but also to kind of bring some of that cost down because the lawn care market,
[00:14:47.950]you know, their markup is really high. And after that first year,
[00:14:52.280]you could probably keep it around for 10 or 15, hopefully. Ideally, we'll see.
[00:14:56.690]we're only in year three right now. so,
[00:15:00.740]but if the upfront cost is that high,
[00:15:02.630]you'd either have to gradually rotate acres in or,
[00:15:07.700]find some kind of cost savings or cost shares or spread it out a little
[00:15:12.530]more.
[00:15:12.890]And it's going to be a similar problem with the other perennials right now,
[00:15:16.910]because a lot of the ones that we're looking into, we're kind of in development.
[00:15:20.810]So, or they're used in high value crops. So, you know, if you're in,
[00:15:26.000]if you have an apple orchard or fruit orchards out in California,
[00:15:29.780]you can afford $500 an acre to put this stuff on. And then it lasts for,
[00:15:34.970]you know, five or six years. And for us that's a huge upfront cost.
[00:15:40.760]and then, yeah, like I said,
[00:15:42.980]we're doing a lot of projects to try and combine covers with a nitrogen
[00:15:47.570]source. So right now that's mostly peas and beans.
[00:15:51.530]we plan it either early March.
[00:15:55.110]this year we started some,
[00:15:57.890]in the fall and we're going to see if they kind of frost basically like a frost
[00:16:02.840]seeding and see if they'll come up this spring. But then we also,
[00:16:06.190]do like the last week of March and that tends to work pretty well,
[00:16:09.980]because they're pretty cold tolerant for the most part. So like,
[00:16:13.520]then they'll get going. And if we're lucky on a good year,
[00:16:16.400]we're getting about oh 12 inches of growth on the beans and stuff
[00:16:20.990]before, we have to knock them down ahead of the corn. So,
[00:16:25.040]but so far it's only been like really small plots and this year is going to be
[00:16:29.000]our first year where we do more large scale and better sampling and doing our
[00:16:32.960]own side dress applications to make sure,
[00:16:37.460]they can work. yeah,
[00:16:42.110]that's most of what I got, I kind of talk really fast,
[00:16:45.740]so it's kind of a downfall, but if anybody's got any questions,
[00:16:48.740]I'm more than happy to know.
[00:16:50.180]Great opportunity for questions. If I I'll I'll lead off, I was just curious,
[00:16:53.870]what's your cereal rye yields? What have been your yields? Uh.
[00:16:57.500]So typically if we have a wet year,
[00:17:01.130]it's about 20 bushels, but, dry years we get anywhere from 45 to 60.
[00:17:06.530]we only supplement about 50 pounds of nitrogen.
[00:17:09.470]So it's a little less cost that way.
[00:17:11.930]if you do want to grow your own rye things, I,
[00:17:14.660]100% recommend is you definitely need a fungicide.
[00:17:18.710]especially if you're have very much moisture.
[00:17:22.760]if you get any kind of scab or anything,
[00:17:24.590]it'll knock your yield all the way down to basically straw.
[00:17:28.880]and we only had a problem with it one year, but army worms are a lookout.
[00:17:33.740]If you're planting corn behind it or beside where you're growing the rye,
[00:17:37.280]sometimes you'll get army worm problems.
[00:17:40.460]it's good to stay on top of that and the best, I,
[00:17:43.490]we don't grow a lot of small grains,
[00:17:45.350]because I'm actually super allergic to them when they're mature,
[00:17:48.650]which is a different thing. But, we learned, and one of the,
[00:17:53.610]one of the best advice I ever got with harvesting rice or wheat or anything is
[00:17:58.080]whenever you think it's ready, wait a week. And I don't know why,
[00:18:01.950]but it works every time, so.
[00:18:05.100]Yep. Okay. Questions. we have an online question.
[00:18:09.210]Questions is what kind of range of cereal rye are you seeing?
[00:18:14.340]so if we broadcast it, we do about a bushel.
[00:18:18.810]if we're planting it, we do about 40 pounds.
[00:18:21.210]I know people who go all the way down to 25, but I think that's a little thin,
[00:18:25.920]especially if you're going for you, like weed, suppression is a goal.
[00:18:30.270]if you can,
[00:18:31.470]or do aerial apply a bushel and a half is kinda more where you want to be at,
[00:18:35.850]if we're gonna, if, and then, like I said, if we're drilling it,
[00:18:39.690]we do about 40 pounds,
[00:18:42.010]unless we're going to harvest it and then you want to put 60 to 70 pounds down
[00:18:45.870]just to make sure you get full yield.
[00:18:59.250]Yeah, I was test,
[00:19:04.230]test, test, test. There we go. I was interested in your,
[00:19:09.200]bluegrass, and as you said,
[00:19:11.340]is my first thought was it's gotta be really expensive, but what kind of,
[00:19:14.910]have you S have you seen good weed suppression with the blue grass?
[00:19:18.960]And what kind of rates were you using?
[00:19:21.330]The weed suppression is great. it's only like,
[00:19:26.240]the first year you only have to put out like 20 pounds. Cause I mean,
[00:19:29.580]it's light seed anyway, but, yeah, the weed suppression is amazing.
[00:19:34.590]this is only the third year that we've had it.
[00:19:37.650]And once you get into the season, like after your initial,
[00:19:41.190]just like stun it back, we've had to do no supplemental,
[00:19:46.140]we, herbicide applications. So once that, once we basically,
[00:19:50.940]we have to do the, for corn, we have to split it into two applications.
[00:19:55.920]We found out to make sure the, it stays stunted back long enough beans.
[00:19:59.880]You can get by with one just cause they'll come through. They don't,
[00:20:04.200]dislike the competition as much. So it has helped a lot,
[00:20:08.400]but the worry the concern is, and with anything, you know, as we progress,
[00:20:13.560]usually if you fix one problem, you create another.
[00:20:15.930]So we're kind of interested to see what kind of comes up on that front.
[00:20:20.640]So I'm assuming you've you do some tillage right over your,
[00:20:23.880]where you're planning your crop.
[00:20:26.010]There's some tillage that happens right in that zone.
[00:20:28.440]They do strip till, for the,
[00:20:31.440]there there's another farmer that strip tills it. Yes. And,
[00:20:34.570]the Iowa state plots that have,
[00:20:37.080]historically worked very well are strip tilled. we are no till,
[00:20:40.890]and so we are not, we are just no till planting into it.
[00:20:45.330]and like I said, it was more,
[00:20:46.990]it wasn't even that the corn wouldn't really grow through the no till situation.
[00:20:50.680]It was more, there was just a, we didn't get it stunted. Good enough.
[00:20:54.610]Cause we were, I don't know if it was the same here,
[00:20:57.280]but we were very cool and dry when we first started,
[00:21:01.210]first got things planted. And so trying to keep it stunted was hard.
[00:21:05.440]I'm wondering.
[00:21:05.960]In an organic operation,
[00:21:08.020]if you could use a flamer to stun it back enough where you get
[00:21:12.220]suppressed for, for your corn crop.
[00:21:14.710]Right? Yeah. Yeah. I think anything you can do, it's actually,
[00:21:18.880]the corn registers that green.
[00:21:21.070]So anything you can do to make that grass not green for about
[00:21:25.570]oh two weeks is all you need to do.
[00:21:30.370]but yeah, we haven't tried a flamer, but that's an interesting idea. I kinda,
[00:21:34.150]I liked that.
[00:21:39.700]What are the species or varieties of the peas and beans that you're using?
[00:21:44.350]Oh, there's 16 different ones. I can tell you though. We have a yellow peas,
[00:21:49.690]a green field P fava beans,
[00:21:54.580]type of
[00:21:59.890]the three types of winter peas, yellow peas.
[00:22:05.470]And there's a bunch of other ones. I can't remember all 16,
[00:22:08.620]but there's a lot. but yeah, yellow,
[00:22:12.970]the ones that we've had the best luck with so far, were yellow peas,
[00:22:17.950]one type of field peas and a fava bean think.
[00:22:24.190]going in and talking again more about the nitrogen, you know,
[00:22:28.760]making nitrogen, is that a, what kind of rates of peas?
[00:22:33.460]What kind of nitrogen does peace produce?
[00:22:35.230]I didn't think they produced that much.
[00:22:37.570]And then also I was sitting there wondering, was, have you looked into vets,
[00:22:40.730]your clovers, especially vetch?
[00:22:43.420]we have not.
[00:22:46.030]I don't know if they're using a specific type of yellow peas and stuff, but,
[00:22:50.890]and again, we're trying a lot of different things,
[00:22:54.130]but I think it's also in, in,
[00:22:58.120]in correlation with the extra covers and stuff you're doing,
[00:23:00.970]we're hopefully producing more nitrogen,
[00:23:02.770]but that's also why we're doing a bunch of soil tests this year.
[00:23:06.310]When we plant to see how much we have to supplement.
[00:23:09.010]So I'm guessing we'll have to side dress.
[00:23:11.410]Normally we're adding about 70 extra pounds in season.
[00:23:15.550]We do a low flat rate ahead of time.
[00:23:18.070]And then we come back with a variable rate and I would assume we put no
[00:23:23.110]upfront nitrogen and now this time.
[00:23:24.670]So I assume that our in season rate's going to be a lot higher,
[00:23:28.240]but I don't know for sure yet
[00:23:34.840]We hope no 70 was what we about what we normally side dress. there were,
[00:23:39.480]there are hoping that we get 50 to 60 pounds of nitrogen out of
[00:23:44.710]some of the different things that we're trying, but I, I mean,
[00:23:49.190]it's going to depend on what kind of spring we have and how much they grow.
[00:23:52.160]And there's a lot of variables in the.
[00:23:55.150]The guy's a green cover.
[00:23:56.660]They experienced up to 200 pounds per acre.
[00:24:01.670]That's the ceiling, but you can count on a good bit of nitrogen for the piece.
[00:24:07.700]Okay. We have one question here and then I think we have two online.
[00:24:10.550]So let's go to this one here and then we'll go to the two online.
[00:24:13.760]Do you ever have a problem with a cover crop escaping termination?
[00:24:18.180]So they've become weeds it's.
[00:24:20.450]we have not. we, some years,
[00:24:24.770]if it's cooler temperatures,
[00:24:26.990]sometimes we'll do our pre and our termination
[00:24:31.760]spray application separately, but most of the time,
[00:24:35.090]as long as it's above 50 degrees and you know, that crops actively growing,
[00:24:39.080]we have not knock on wood with cereal where I,
[00:24:42.050]we haven't had a problem with termination. when we were doing rye grass,
[00:24:46.100]it's a little more temperamental, like pH can mess it up. And,
[00:24:49.940]things like that. You even got a pH test your water when you're spraying.
[00:24:52.940]So it kind of depends on what you're using, but in cereal rye,
[00:24:56.630]we have never had a problem.
[00:25:01.370]there was a question online, are you producing just seed for yourself?
[00:25:05.780]Are, have you gone to selling seed cleaning it and then, you know,
[00:25:08.450]working through crop improvement, you know, sort of side seed.
[00:25:11.180]Yeah. It kind of ebbs and flows. we do sell some every year,
[00:25:15.020]but it's hard to gauge how much we need.
[00:25:16.700]Cause it seems like one year we'll have people want, you know,
[00:25:20.870]3000 bushels of seed.
[00:25:22.520]And then the next year there's one person and they only want 500,
[00:25:25.850]but we do go through the process of,
[00:25:28.220]we try to replenish our supply every four to five years. And,
[00:25:32.750]we do get it tested every year, at the seed lab for germ and,
[00:25:37.460]foreign material, weed seed, all of that.
[00:25:40.490]and we do have a license to sell it and we do, we try to get a gauge,
[00:25:44.810]you know,
[00:25:45.110]before we start terminating our covers for how much we're going to need for
[00:25:48.830]seed. But you know, when prices and everything's changed,
[00:25:52.160]a lot of people change their mind or they'll kinda,
[00:25:55.790]it's hard to gauge sometimes.
[00:25:58.640]Okay. Was there another one online?
[00:26:01.400]yeah. Well,
[00:26:02.150]there's actually a couple of says you mentioned and say programs and I guess he
[00:26:06.710]wanted to know why in sitting program, you were in.
[00:26:09.320]Oh, so for Iowa, the main one that we participate in is the cover crop. One,
[00:26:13.520]like the one they were talking about earlier today,
[00:26:16.580]we started that in 2018 as part of like our clean water
[00:26:21.560]initiative. so they got it going so that,
[00:26:24.980]for every acre of cover you plant,
[00:26:27.170]as long as you certify it and you could show it,
[00:26:29.510]you can get $5 off per acre on your crop insurance. but there's also,
[00:26:34.640]a lot of there's, there's a lot of first-time programs.
[00:26:37.940]So the first year you do it on X amount of acres,
[00:26:40.250]you can get like 20 to $30 of assistance,
[00:26:43.710]or there's also equipped dollars for some of that stuff.
[00:26:48.300]And one other question,
[00:26:51.960]do you graze anywhere to ask them, would you graze off the cover crops,
[00:26:55.290]like the peas or rye then plant a cash cop? Or have you ever tried to add,
[00:27:00.150]or is anybody, ah.
[00:27:01.920]You just started grazing? Couple of years ago, we picked up,
[00:27:06.000]one of our neighbors retired and we picked up some of his farming and he has
[00:27:09.270]really good fences and he was already, letting the vet from,
[00:27:13.620]in town actually graze out there. So,
[00:27:16.110]we've started doing more of that cause he was just letting them roam the stocks.
[00:27:19.650]And now that we have a cover, like they see more benefit and we do too.
[00:27:23.160]So before they were just,
[00:27:25.530]letting the cattle out there and they really didn't pay anything.
[00:27:28.470]And now that we have a cover crop out there, they give us, you know,
[00:27:31.950]20 bucks an acre to graze it. we try to have them off by,
[00:27:36.600]we let them, they, they go on almost right after harvest because a lot of it,
[00:27:40.410]we try to early seed and we get, you know,
[00:27:42.750]we're already at that six inches that she was talking about earlier,
[00:27:47.280]by mid November.
[00:27:48.390]And so they put them out mid November and they take them off usually into
[00:27:51.300]February. So they're still out there where the ground's frozen and,
[00:27:54.810]we don't,
[00:27:56.700]she showed that some of the compaction issues aren't there and I was actually
[00:27:59.820]really good information, but for that reason,
[00:28:02.040]we've been having them come off about the end of February.
[00:28:07.440]Okay. Question, hold on. Yep.
[00:28:12.030]How do your,
[00:28:13.620]corn and bean yields compare on rye cover crop fields
[00:28:18.180]versus bluegrass fields?
[00:28:20.460]so in the beans there was no yield difference.
[00:28:24.570]they were the exact same, in the corn this year, the corn did terrible,
[00:28:28.680]but like I said,
[00:28:29.310]we had severe stunting problems and it was our first real test year of
[00:28:33.750]corn without like, like the researchers doing it with us,
[00:28:38.310]kind of trying to just use our own practice to do it. So.
[00:28:45.900]following up on, the bluegrass,
[00:28:49.440]you must be got an extra shot of rain this summer or this last year,
[00:28:53.910]because I would've thought the bluegrass print and bluegrass would've come along
[00:28:57.450]and suck some of the extra moisture up.
[00:29:01.830]not, I mean, we, we were cool and dry early,
[00:29:06.390]and then we had timely rains the rest of the summer.
[00:29:08.910]Like we weren't like north central and even just kind of the Northern part Iowa
[00:29:13.470]and some other places where they were dry. We caught a lot of good rains,
[00:29:17.490]over the summer. So yeah, we, we,
[00:29:21.420]we were hurting for moisture really at all.
[00:29:28.890]Okay. Any other questions? Okay. One more here then.
[00:29:34.290]Okay.
[00:29:35.190]I'm just looking at it for labor or timeliness to get it seated on
[00:29:40.020]timely about the aerial application versus drilling post-harvest
[00:29:45.430]is that I've heard that, you know, Errol application can be good,
[00:29:49.930]can be terrible for germination.
[00:29:52.240]And that's a really an iffy thing and it gets pretty expensive.
[00:29:55.510]You don't get a good job.
[00:29:57.070]Very iffy. That's why, we stopped. We did it for,
[00:30:00.880]we did at least some for about three or four years.
[00:30:05.200]but one, you have to have a really good applicator or it'll,
[00:30:08.710]they'll either stop a hundred feet before the end of the field or you'll have it
[00:30:12.430]a hundred feet on the neighbor and that's a pain obviously.
[00:30:17.230]And then,
[00:30:17.590]so you either got to go fill in around the whole field with the drill anyway,
[00:30:21.850]or things like that. And like you said, it's not, it's a lot more costly.
[00:30:25.600]And then you've got to try and get them to do it. Like when, you know,
[00:30:28.060]there's a rain coming and, with the beans, we have a lot better. Like we,
[00:30:33.040]like I said, we've started broadcasting into the standing beans,
[00:30:36.190]but since we're doing that with,
[00:30:37.840]we already have a high boy for side dressing our corn and stuff with a dry box
[00:30:41.920]on it. So since we're doing it that way I can kind of go,
[00:30:45.370]I can wait till the leaves are yellow.
[00:30:46.690]So one the leaves drop on top and that helps a lot. And,
[00:30:50.500]I it's easier when you're doing it yourself to get it on with time with a rain.
[00:30:55.540]Right.
[00:30:55.900]So our main problem with that is I can't quite get it the full hundred
[00:31:00.730]feet. So I mean, it it's there, but it gets pretty thin, in places.
[00:31:05.410]But, and being able to do it before we start harvesting is amazing.

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2022 Eastern Nebraska Soil Health Conference Presentations - Chris Gaesser,

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