Why do farmers start conservation agriculture? Will it become widespread?

[DrWazzock]

Plus side

Big savings in time, fuel and machinery wear and possible natural restructuring of soils, better natural consolidation, less erosion.

Negative side

Possible slumping and ponding (which can be alleviated by occasional subsoiler work)
High levels of crop residue can bring problems with slugs and drilling difficulties. Can be helped by crop rotation but this can lead to some reduction in profit.
Some weeds such a sterile brome like zero tillage. Again can be managed by crop rotation but at a cost.

And it all depends on the weather. Works better in dry years.

As a farmer I weigh all of these things up on the day and decide what will give me the biggest long term profit.

 

[Brisel]

I'm not sure about "dipping" into no till 1 year in 7. The soil won't be ready for it though a no till crop of osr might be best as any wheelings that fail will be smothered by the branching crop in spring. A bad experience for a partial believer will put them off for ever.

Barriers to uptake? Fear of getting it wrong for themselves, the bank manager, their peers. The big fall in farm support payments may focus the mind here. Would you sell your cultivation equipment and "burn your bridges" for going back to normal tillage? What about those root crop/maize growers or heavy users of manures where soil structure remedial work is necessary after a wet winter?

The pain of transition - seeing yields dip in the early years as they battle soils not healing themselves, slugs, weeds whilst still having spent lots of money on CA drills. If they take the intermediate step of strip tillage (Claydon, Mzuri, Sumo DTS etc) then the horsepower doesn't reduce much.

@AgriAlice - Have you contacted some of the bigwigs in UK CA? Steve Townsend (BASE UK), Richard Harding (Procam), then Nuffield Scholars like Russ McKenzie, @dontknowanything @SilliamWhale @Andy Howard ? The DD section of TFF has many more CA practitioners like @martian @Jim Bullock @Clive @doorknob @yellowbelly @shakerator @marco . Apologies if I have forgotten key names or accused the innocent of this heinous crime...

 

[Grabbist]

No matter which species of mycorrhiza, they will always be harmed during ploughing, therefore more phosphorus needs to be added as the mycorrhiza won't be there to make it accessible from rocks. I don't know enough about the timings of weed germination to comment but I don't really understand your point about Round up to be honest. I met a farmer who direct drilled slug pellets at the same time as sowing his seeds which worked very well apparently.
Also, just a point that my research isn't on organic farming, but on conservation agriculture (no tillage, cover crops, crop rotations etc.) And I am definitely not asking "why farmers are reluctant to adopt it"! I'm just trying to identify what influences farmers decisions to adopt it or not, which includes if they feel if it is suitable or not for them
In terms of black grass it is often an initial problem with no tillage, but actually I've met farmers who used to have a big problem with it but after 5 or so years of direct drilling (so there may be troubles with initial yield slumps I guess) they have managed to completely eradicate it! This was because the seeds last for a long time in the soil so if ploughed the older ones come to the top and it keeps coming back, but they just sprayed it with glyphosate each time it came up (I can't remember when to be honest, maybe when they killed the cover crop off) until all the seeds close enough to the top have germinated and died. Of course if you plough it again it would bring the old seeds up again and it would start the whole thing again.
I really don't understand your point about how the flat surface can lead to erosion unfortunately. One of the main reasons for trying no tillage is to stop soil erosion as ploughing breaks up the soil particles so they are smaller and more likely to be blown away by the wind or washed away by rain. Also the presence of worms in direct drilled soil creates pores so it has better water infiltration so the water doesn't run off the top of the soil so easily, taking the organic matter with it.
Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to preach about conservation agriculture! I just want to find out what influences the choices to use it or not, especially as most people are not using it It's also interesting now as well because all the policy will be changing

Hi Alice, I didn’t think that you were preaching about conservation agriculture, and I wouldn’t mind if you were. The principles behind it sound like good farming to me. What worries me about discussions like this is that they usually get hung up on particular techniques. And as there is so much variation between farms particular techniques are almost bound to fail on many farms, while the general idea of looking after soils and conserving moisture, carbon, minerals and soil fauna and flora are almost universally beneficial.



On your point of myccorhiza always being harmed by ploughing, I must defer to your more recent knowledge. My friends were still at the stage of working out which species were present, and what benefits they conferred. My understanding at the time was that while ploughing or using herbicides to kill the host plants damaged the myccorhiza, they soon regenerated as soon as the new crops started producing roots.



On weed germination, the point that I was making was that weeds that germinate at the same time, or before the crop, can smother the crop, and kill it. Conventionally farmers kill all the weeds that are growing in the seed bed by cultivations, and for the past 60 odd years by using herbicides. The protection given to the crop by these methods usually only last a few weeks, so farmers use crop varieties that germinate and grow very quickly, and are big enough to smother the weeds if more emerge after the crop is sown. Many species, such as veronica, stellaria, poa etc can germinate at any time when the soil is moist and there are no frosts, and can smother crops that are not big enough to shade the weeds. For this reason in countries with moist growing seasons like the UK have to use pre emergence residual herbicides or an additional dose of selective herbicides when the crop is still vulnerable. In places where the growing season is drier there is not enough moisture for weeds seeds to germinate after the crop has been drilled, though crop roots can find water from the deeper layers of the soil. This makes it easier and less expensive to use min-till techniques in dry areas than in wet areas where the weed challenge is greater.



The Roundup comment was about the fact that Monsanto have proved the Roundup Ready technique in the prairies, where dry growing seasons reduce the challenge from weeds. They then tried to impose it (by very heavy marketing which included very restrictive grower contracts etc) in areas where summers were wetter, and multiple applications made it almost inevitable that both genetic and customer resistance would build up. A warning to us all to think very carefully about the differences between farms.



Drilling slug pellets with the seed is almost essential wherever slugs are a problem. As the slugs work their way along the slots created by the drill they much more likely to encounter a slug pellet than when pellets are applied to the soil surface. (Though different slug species have different feeding strategies) More modern direct drills have mechanisms that are supposd to break up the slots a bit more in order to confuse the slugs. However, the seed is still drilled in a straight line, which is easy for an "experienced" slug to follow. Burying the chemical helps protect birds like Song Thrushes (Field fares etc) from directly consuming the chemical, though they are still poisoned by dying slugs that they pick up. While people have been working on wildlife friendly slug control techniques for decades, I am not sure that there are any that can control a heavy infestation without harming other wildlife. This means that Min Till techniques are more likely to succeed on calcareous soils where snails dominate and are less of a threat to crop seedlings, then on more acid soils where slugs dominate.



I didn’t think that you were talking about organic farming. My experience of having to grow a few experimental crops without chemicals means that I have the greatest respect for those who manage to make a living within the rules of the organic schemes. However, although I hardly use chemicals on my own tiny farm there are many reasons why I would not go into an organic scheme. Many organic techniques, however, would be useful on conventional farms, if the debate could return to farming rather than the them and us battle that it often seems to be.



Sorry, Alice, I quoted the wrong word from your introduction! I should not have said “reluctant”.



Much of what you say about Black Grass is right, but it has killed off many reduced tillage systems in the past. But you can probably talk to Steve Moss, at Rothamsted, if he is still there, or at least read up his research on Black grass. It seemed to absorb most of his career. He is a very approachable chap, who I’m sure could give you much useful information.



Flat surface has to do with the use of wide machines as much as DD (direct drill/ min till) as such. (Though the cost and power requirement of DD machines means that they often have to be bigger than conventional equivalents to get the economies of scale to work in their favour.) The worm holes help with gentle rain, but heavy down pours cause large volumes of water to move down slopes faster than worm holes can absorb. Conventional cultivations suffer the large machine effect as much as DD but are more likely to produce features that can hold water. Faster initial growth of conventionally cultivated crops provides ground cover earlier than DD, which helps in some conditions. There is a circular sort of argument here, and different manufacturers and researchers will be able to show that in the particular conditions that they define, their system works better. If people find a system that works on their farm, they can become quite evangelical about it, and demand that everyone else copies them. In the end, we have to argue for protecting the natural features of the landscape first, and arguing about systems only after we have created a problem by removing natural features. But generally, cultivating across a natural stream bed will result in erosion eventually.



You have chosen a very complex subject, and I hope that you find my contribution constructive. I do not mean to be disparaging about the system which has a lot to contribute and raises many fascinating issues about engineering, economics, ecology and human nature – to name only a fraction! I hope you have great success with your project.

 

[Old Spot]

Interesting, lots of reasons why I started CA, I was a farm manager, my employer and myself were keen. Unfortunately he did not last long enough. So now I am on the small family farm suplimented with rented/contract farmed land. All heavy clay in the south west.
I have embraced CA because it was the cheapest system to set up, old drill sub £3k 100hp tractor 23 years old, fert spreader and sprayer got the lot for less than £10k, 400 acres arable. Please! Let me get this right, I do what I want to do, you do what you want, not preaching!

 

[BSH]

Survey done, will be interesting to hear your results.

 

[AgriAlice]

Hello everyone!

I am a masters student investigating the factors that influence farmers to use conservation agriculture or not and whether it is likely to become widespread. As well as interviews and focus groups, the heart of the data will be responses to farmer surveys.

I have managed to get a lot of responses and I am already seeing some promising results. However I am currently lacking many responses from farmers who are not currently using cover crops or long rotations. So I would it would be very valuable to my research and I would be extremely grateful for any UK farmers not using cover crops or long rotations to complete this 15 minute survey: www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/farmerdecisions

The questions are worded for both adopters and non-adopters so please don't be put off by some of the wording.

This research is primarily for my masters thesis, however I am collaborating with Rothamsted Research Centre in the hope that this the findings will aid the formulation of agricultural policy post EU CAP.

Thank you, Alice

 

[ajd132]

Alice, since you visited we have now started drilling. If you want to come and have a look again you're more than welcome. Will be drilling into some green wheat (sprayed off the other day due to blackgrass) and those cover crop fields that were sprayed off in November.

Adam

 

[Farmersdaughter]

I have filled survey in but feel some questions are bit too black and white. To me using techniques ( including but not exclusively those you list) that aim to improve soil health is CA. Understanding your farm and soil is probably the most important step. Every farm ( and probably field) is different and what works well in one maybe a disaster in another. I might not practice CA by your definition but think I do by mine. We are a mixed farm with only 250 acres suitable to arable, we rotate with grass ley, maize, wheat and spring barley. Our land is mostly heavy clay, which is high mg and potash making it very tight. We min till when going from maize into wheat, tried one field with a claydon in the autumn but it has failed and will need redrilling soon. We rotate crops with a grass break, plant cover crops and have good OM in soil. I can not see how we are going to be able to zerotil the maize though, with cover crop residue, FYM and heavy ground it is still being ploughed. I am very interested in soil health, and enjoy looking down a microscope at the soil life but have to be pragmatic about what will work on our farm.

 

[Spud]

Agreed Simon. My land is technically unsuitable for no till according to some of the data maps from the 70's. I reckon lots just don't want to do it, and the rest need to plough for spuds and roots

Ploughing is no more an essential element of spud planting than any other crop, but deeper cultivation cant really be avoided. By altering our practices here, we can now retain OM (cover crops, fym, even just long stubble) within the planted ridge, which helps reduce slumping, capping and ridge cracking, thereby helping water percolation and nutrient retention, and importantly, results in less greening.
Iirc @dontknowanything has strip tilled sugar beet? Not sure how successful it was, and we havent tried it here (yet), but theres no reason why it wont work with the appropriate tools.

 

[dontknowanything]

Ploughing is no more an essential element of spud planting than any other crop, but deeper cultivation cant really be avoided. By altering our practices here, we can now retain OM (cover crops, fym, even just long stubble) within the planted ridge, which helps reduce slumping, capping and ridge cracking, thereby helping water percolation and nutrient retention, and importantly, results in less greening.
Iirc @dontknowanything has strip tilled sugar beet? Not sure how successful it was, and we havent tried it here (yet), but theres no reason why it wont work with the appropriate tools.

We have strip tilled beet twice before, neither time it worked very well. Today we will finish drilling all our beet strip till again, for the third time. I am optimistic as we are using a different machine and drilling in the same pass, which means the seed is all in the right place

 

[AgriAlice]

Alice, since you visited we have now started drilling. If you want to come and have a look again you're more than welcome. Will be drilling into some green wheat (sprayed off the other day due to blackgrass) and those cover crop fields that were sprayed off in November.

Adam

Sounds good! I would love to but I'm heading back to Sweden and so won't be able to unfortunately. I hope everything goes well though! When I spoke to Tony Reynolds, he told me that he used to have a black grass problem but after about 5ish years of no till it wasn't a problem anymore because the dormant seeds weren't brought back to the surface by the plough and the ones at the top had all died off from being sprayed over the 5 years, so hopefully the same will happen to you and black grass will stop being a problem after a bit!

 

[Brisel]

Did Tony tell you what problems he had with rosebay willow herb or sterile brome?

 

[AgriAlice]

Why do you guys think that there is a lot more conservation ag in America? Do you think it's soil/weather conditions, farm size, policies or something else?

 

[Brisel]

Roundup Ready crops

 

[Spud]

We have strip tilled beet twice before, neither time it worked very well. Today we will finish drilling all our beet strip till again, for the third time. I am optimistic as we are using a different machine and drilling in the same pass, which means the seed is all in the right place

How did it perform David?

 

[dontknowanything]

How did it perform David?

a bit over 90t/ha on the first field, second not harvested yet

 

[Spud]

a bit over 90t/ha on the first field, second not harvested yet

That's excellent! Have you some conventionally sown beet to compare?

 

[Adeptandy]

That's excellent! Have you some conventionally sown beet to compare?

If its doing over 90T I wouldn't worry about comparing

 

[dontknowanything]

That's excellent! Have you some conventionally sown beet to compare?

Yes, from neighbour - 104t/ha.

Most of that difference will be from the fact our seed rate was way too low on most of the field, would have broken into three figures if it had been done properly.

Next field to be lifted won't be so good unfortunately, and neighbours have been making 120t/ha