Sunday 17th March, St Patricks day and the Irish team are on top of the world!
As the scholars begin to disperse, catching shuttles and flights etc, we realise what great friends we have made in the last week.
Social media will now kick in and keep us connected both on our travels over the next 12 months and well on into the future.
Peter Kaylock (Aust), David Cook (Aust) and myself picked up a rental wagon and are off on a tour of the Northern Midwest for a week. With a few contacts and a loose itinerary we headed south (after close to two hours in immigration )
Monday we made our way to a contact of Cookie's, by the name of David Brandt.
Dave has a real good understanding of his soil and how to look after it. He has been practicing no till farming since 1971 and growing cover crops for 5 years. Cover cropping is not a system that I fully understood prior to meeting Dave but 4 hours with him and I'm converted!
It involves planting a crop after the 'cash crop' has been harvested. The idea is to create biomass to then retain on top of the soil to create hummus. These plants will draw up moisture and nutrients from the subsoil. Dave has no need to apply artificial fert if the right species are planted. These include peas,clovers,grasses vetch and brassicas with up to 8 seeds in the mix . Interestingly the Radish when it breaks down gives off sulphur which kills any slugs - brilliant!
For an investment of around $17 per ac he is picking up $200 worth of nutrients from the soil that he couldn't extract otherwise. The soil looks like it has just come out of long term pasture and not 40+ years of cropping.
As the scholars begin to disperse, catching shuttles and flights etc, we realise what great friends we have made in the last week.
Social media will now kick in and keep us connected both on our travels over the next 12 months and well on into the future.
Peter Kaylock (Aust), David Cook (Aust) and myself picked up a rental wagon and are off on a tour of the Northern Midwest for a week. With a few contacts and a loose itinerary we headed south (after close to two hours in immigration )
 |
| Last View of the Niagara Falls |
Monday we made our way to a contact of Cookie's, by the name of David Brandt.
Dave has a real good understanding of his soil and how to look after it. He has been practicing no till farming since 1971 and growing cover crops for 5 years. Cover cropping is not a system that I fully understood prior to meeting Dave but 4 hours with him and I'm converted!
It involves planting a crop after the 'cash crop' has been harvested. The idea is to create biomass to then retain on top of the soil to create hummus. These plants will draw up moisture and nutrients from the subsoil. Dave has no need to apply artificial fert if the right species are planted. These include peas,clovers,grasses vetch and brassicas with up to 8 seeds in the mix . Interestingly the Radish when it breaks down gives off sulphur which kills any slugs - brilliant!
For an investment of around $17 per ac he is picking up $200 worth of nutrients from the soil that he couldn't extract otherwise. The soil looks like it has just come out of long term pasture and not 40+ years of cropping.
 |
| Dave Brandt with biomass from a cover crop, pea vine and radish bulbs in the background |
 |
| Healthy soil with N fixing nodules on the pea roots |
Next stop was VanTilburg Farms in Celina Ohio, a family owned business with three brothers and their parents. The Van Tilburgs have 4500ac of corn and soya beans, an excavation business and a spray contracting business We were able to spend 4 hours with Luke - one of the brothers and Joe Beiler with the company. The family have invested heavily in machinery and utilise by taking in outside work, the 3 sprayers for example cover around 60000ac a year. The Van Tilburgs are relative newcomers to cover cropping and had been using the system for around five years. One of the problems they faced with the system was a relatively late harvest meant it was difficult to get the cover crop to grow enough biomass to of any sinificant value. To overcome this, the Van Tilburgs tried sowing seed over the cash crop with both an aircraft and a fert spreader, neither of which were very successful because of difficulty getting the seed through the canopy and onto the soil. These issues led them to develop a Miller self propelled sprayer fitted with a seed tank and drop tubes on the 90ft boom and after one season is producing excellent results I am amazed at how all these guys gave so freely with their time as we pounded them with questions and took photos for half a day ! Thank you so much...
 |
| Sprayer converted to sow Cover Crops into a standing cash crop of corn or soya beans |
No comments:
Post a Comment