Home Grain and Beans Thompson On-Farm Research, 1996 Report Summary

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Thompson On-Farm Research Summary
Get the big picture of the Thompsons' farm before you dive into the details.

Contents: Inspiration, Documentation & Education

The ideas we share come by inspiration and perspiration. The ideas then need to be tested. The replicated and randomized long narrow test strips that are farmer manageable have helped us determine what practices are right for this farm. We tell other farmers to use the same process on their farms.

Since 1986, 6,907 people have toured our farm, coming from the U.S. and 43 foreign countries. During this time, we have traveled throughout the U.S. and Canada, as well as overseas to France, Italy and Australia, giving presentations to 24,637 people.

We helped start a grassroots farmer organization called Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) in 1985, which promotes testing of new ideas in alternative agriculture. There have been 25 to 30 PFI cooperators throughout Iowa doing replicated and randomized experiments, also demonstrating sound practices, having field days and keeping records for systems analysis. The organization has about 500 members.

Summary Contents

Alternative Weed-Management Strategies

On the average, Iowa farmers spend $20 per acre each year for herbicide weed control in corn and soybean production. Ridge tillage without herbicides reduces tillage and weed-control costs and manages the weeds quite well. Three years' data collected on the Thompson Farm showed a $54-per-acre increase in management net when ridge tillage without herbicides replaces mulch tillage and broadcast herbicides. There are several reasons for reduced weed pressure with an alternative weed-management system:
  • There is no tillage between last year's June cultivation and this year's May planting. The weed seeds are not exposed to oxygen or light and do not germinate.
  • Cover crops planted in fall, winter-annual weeds and surface weed seeds are allowed to express themselves in early spring in order to inhibit later germinating weeds.
  • The Buffalo planter sweep cleans off topdressed manure, weeds and weed seeds over the row area, providing a low weed density planting zone.
  • The Buffalo planter leaves loose soil over the firmly planted corn or soybean seed. The loose soil is not a good environment for weed seeds.
  • Crops are planted thicker -- soybeans at 12 seeds per foot and corn at 6-inch spacings.
  • A high-residue rotary hoe is used before and after crop emergence.
  • A high-residue Buffalo cultivator with hillers is used to remove weeds between the rows.
  • Post-emergence herbicides can be used as the last resort if all cultural techniques fail.
Summary Contents

Rotation of Crops and Tillage

The rotation of corn, soybeans, corn, oats and hay helps keep weeds, insects and diseases in balance. The diversity of crops helps reduce financial risk and spreads out the workload. With this diversity of crops, a livestock system is needed to make use of the residues from the grain and hay production. The diversified crop and livestock enterprise fully uses the farm family labor supply and these labor charge monies remain on the farm to pay family living expenses.

A rotation of tillage is used to help reduce weed pressure. After being idle for 25 years, the moldboard plow has come back into use for plowing down hay and solid manures. The fertility needs to be lower in the soil profile so the crops' roots have better use of nutrients. The chisel plow is used in the spring, prior to oat planting, for Canada thistle control. Ridge-till equipment is used during the three years of row crops. The diversity of tillage has been very helpful in putting more balance into this farm.

Summary Contents

Cover Crops

Fall cover crops are used for three reasons:
  • To reduce weed pressure with the allelopathic properties of certain crops.
  • To reduce leaching of soil nitrate nitrogen in the off cropping season.
  • To reduce wind and water soil erosion during late fall and early spring.
Before corn following plowed-under hay:

Grain rye is dribbled on by applicators at 20 pounds per acre, while plowing in September. The leveling bar on the plow covers the rye. In the spring, the 4- to 6-inch rye will be destroyed by a field cultivator equipped with a scratcher bar. The cultivator and scratcher bar leave the rye on the surface for weed control. The second pass one week later with the field cultivator will destroy any remaining rye and new germinating weeds. Plant with the Buffalo planter before it rains. The disk method of tillage should not be used because it brings up weed seeds near the soil surface to germinate. Cover crops that are planted too thick and grow too tall in the spring can bring additional problems.

Before soybeans following corn ridges:

Grain rye is drilled at 20 pounds per acre in twin rows on top of the ridges immediately following corn harvest. The spring rye growth of 12 inches is shredded just before planting.

Before corn following soybeans:

Grain rye ahead of ridge-till corn without herbicides is not compatible. Research funded by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture demonstrated that 2 to 4 bushels per acre of broadcast oats over soybeans at leaf yellow produced the most cover and did not reduce corn yields the following year. The oats will winterkill in Iowa. Our early cover crop work on the Thompson Farm in 1984 also showed oats to be a low-cost and low-risk cover prior to corn.

Weeds serve as a cover crop before planting. Weeds between the rows between cultivations act as cover and then become green manure after cultivation.

Summary Contents

Livestock and Manuring

The beef-cow herd and the farrow-to-finish hog operation use all the grains and residues from this farm. The livestock manure and the biosolids from the city of Boone provide the fertility needs of this 300-acre farm. These products are stored in a cement bunker to preserve nutrients. We spread twice a year, covering it with the moldboard plow in the fall and with the ridge-till planter in the spring.

Summary Contents

Economics

The nine years' economic data from the Thompson Farm show a $143.58 per-acre increase in management and labor return for the manure-fertilized alternative grain system compared with the conventional corn-soybean rotation without the government farm program. Using 1996 as an example, part of the revenue increase comes from a corn and soybean yield advantage, producing $49.88 and $46.35 per acre added income, respectively. The added value of all the crop residues is $41.92 per acre and is charged to the livestock operation. The additional labor in the alternative system produces another $19.56 per acre added income.

The remaining increase in labor and management return comes from reduced input costs. The alternative system's tillage program saves $19.39 per acre, manure fertility saves $25.89 per acre, and weed management without herbicides saves $24.46 per acre. The largest savings comes from ear corn picking and processing to the amount of $31.76 per acre.

The alternative system management return was a positive $116.91 per acre and the conventional system had a loss of $26.68 per acre. We are only comparing cropping systems. The profits or losses for the livestock systems are not included in these numbers. The alternative system money maker makes more room for more farmers which will improve rural communities.

Summary Contents

Farm Policy

The demand for farm products is inelastic, which means a 20-percent increase in production will produce a 60-percent decrease in price, or a 20-percent decrease in production will bring a 60-percent increase in price. The ratio of 1 percent production change results in a 3 percent price change in the opposite direction.

Farmers do not understand this principle. The price for food is very erratic because people have to have food, regardless of price. On the other hand, when food is in abundance, you can't give the excess away. The surplus production of U.S. food products for the past 40 years has kept the farm gate price very close to the cost of production and sometimes the price is below the cost of production.

The idea of increasing production per acre and/or the farm size with the present narrow or even negative margins will not solve the agricultural problem. It only exacerbates the problem. The only way price can increase is by decreasing production when supply and demand are the controlling factors.

Summary Contents

Communities

The size of a farm will be restricted when the major part of weed control depends on the rotary hoe and the cultivator. Two cultivations of the 150 acres of row crops with a four-row cultivator are enough, along with hay making and caring for the livestock. An eight-row cultivator will handle 300 to 400 acres of row crops very easily, but not thousands of acres.

The word "cultivator" should be a positive word, not a negative word. The air-conditioned tractor cab of today, with a guidance system pulling a 4- or 8-row cultivator makes this operation much, much easier than a one-row horse-drawn cultivator of the past. Harvesting ear corn puts another restraint on farm size. Picking 100 acres in the ear is enough. Mowing and baling 40 acres of hay three or four times during the summer is enough.

Looking after 75 beef cows during calving is enough. There is no desire to have 150 cows. Including the cows in the farming operation keeps the farm and communities in balance. When the cows leave the farm, the oats and hay crops leave also. The remainder is row-crop corn and soybeans without manure for fertility, which calls for purchased fertilizer and herbicides to control weeds. As a result, farms can get larger and the rural communities decline.

Cleaning pens every two weeks for a 75-sow, farrow-to-finish hog operation is enough. This 300-acre farm with livestock is enough and there is no desire to farm the neighbor's land. The higher labor charges stay in the farmer's pocket, making farms profitable and therefore results in more farm families. More farm families mean expansion of schools, churches, services and communities. The greater management return per acre of the alternative system is enough to support the smaller acreage and rebuild the rural communities. A larger percent of labor charges and management returns will remain in the rural communities with the alternative systems.

Summary Contents

Environment

The alternative system is kinder to the environment. The alternative farm system soil loss is 4 tons per acre per year, while the conventional corn and soybean rotation produces 11 tons per acre per year.

Our alternative cropping system has been managed without insecticides and herbicides for more than 25 years. Less soil erosion and no pesticide use will lessen the agricultural environmental impact. The National Soil Tilth Lab compared our alternative system to a neighbor's conventional practices and found the following results: The alternative system had 200 times more earthworms, 61.5 percent more stable soil aggregates, and 1.7 percent higher organic matter content.

Summary Contents

Conclusion

The alternative farm system compares very favorably in the environment, economics and people questions. Why doesn't everybody do it? The alternative practices take more physical and mental effort, and human nature gravitates toward the easy way. The effort in the less crowded practice is being reimbursed economically, environmentally and socially. The conventional, continuous, row-crop practices do not pass the test.

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