Dwayne Beck Insights
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Dr Beck says that doing things in an environmentally good way is almost always the most profitable! Mother Nature designed it so that nutrients and diversity are always preserved. Weeds and diseases are Mother Nature’s way of adding diversity. Nature always wants something growing, so weeds proliferate on bare soils. When there is not enough diversity, diseases cause the main crop to fail so that other plants can grow. It’s a natural balance.
High disturbance causes weeds to grow. Soils are full of weed seed, so disturbance brings those weed seeds to the surface to grow. In South Dakota, no-till decreases weed species by almost 60% (225 species on conventional tilled to 94 on no-till). When a 4-way crop rotation was used, the reduction was 85% (44 species conventional, 7 in no-till), Using too many surfactants on herbicides increases diseases by dissolving the waxy layer on leaves, opening the crop up to increased disease pressure.
Tillage is a huge disturbance. Jimmy Emmons noted that 1.8 billion tons of soil erode into our waterways each year. On hilly fields, greater than 5% slopes, over time the erosion ruins not only the top of the clay knobs, but also moves the good topsoil that was on the hills to the base of the hill. With time, subsoil from the clay knobs also cover the good topsoil at the base. After several decades, farmers are only farming clay subsoil. In many parts of the USA, anywhere from 15 inches to 2-3 feet of topsoil has been displaced. Dr. Beck estimates we have about 100 to 200 years to fix the problem before that is all we are farming (subsoil).
Dr Beck says that corn seed is a dormant source of phosphorus (P). Putting too much salty fertilizer with seed (nitrogen sources (N) and potassium (K)) hurts corn germination. Often corn is planted too shallow. Dr. Beck likes it planted deeper (2+ inches) to get better root distribution. He likes fertilizer applied 2” down and 4” away from the seed. Another speaker said there is a real benefit to putting fertilizer on both sides of the germinating corn plant. He showed pictures of corn roots growing towards the fertilizer on one side, with 50-75% less roots on the other side (no starter fertilizer). Some non-salty pop-up fertilizer on the seed may be beneficial.
At harvest, Dr. Beck recommends harvesting into the wind! It spreads the chaff and if you have a fire, it keeps the fire behind you and away from the crops and equipment. That was a new one for me! The benefits of cover crops is that they are a catch and release program for saving nutrients. You may have to reassess your soil test. With cover crops and no-till, a lot of P is tied up in the residue, the cover crops, and microbes. If your soil tests appear low, it may not be true. Most soil tests measures like Bray P1 or Mehlich III only measure the soluble P and not the P tied up crops residue and microbes. Good soil health makes this P plant available and P fertilizer may not be needed on these fields.
Soil organic matter (SOM) is the most important measure of nutrient availability and water holding capacity. Going from 1% SOM to 3% SOM doubles your water holding capacity. In dry years, that extra SOM can double your yields. Tilling the soil reduces your water holding capacity by at least 50%, creating a plow pan. Native lands had high SOM levels due to high carbon content. Corn is much better at raising SOM while soybeans lower your SOM levels. Corn has a high carbon to nitrogen (C:N) ratio while soybeans have a low C:N ratio. The soybean residue is high in N, easily decomposed, and there is not much of it.
Finally, Russel Hendricks from Georgia offers a few suggestion on soybeans. On saturated soils, often potassium (K) is tied up by the clay. This is called K Induction and is common in Ohio, especially on vertically tilled wet soils. Hendricks bands 1.5 gallons of citric acid per acre in the row to free up K bound by the clay and raises his K soil test values by 100 points. He also recommends applying zinc after the R3 soybean stage. Zinc applied at that time increases seed size (no zinc 2441 seed/pound to zinc 1341 seeds/pound), helps with dry down, and improves test weight.