Had a friend here in Australia, that use to plough. The machine he put together would plough& flip the soil. As it was being flipped a tank would inject manure wash into the soil. He would then cover crop with a nitrogen fixer. After mulch mowing this after a period, he would seed drill a cash crop. No pesticides or herbicides. After harvest, he would repeat. He had the best soil & water holding in the area. Others around had light red soil. His was dark brown, almost black. Never used a drop of chemical, except from magnesium sulphate (epsom salts) every second or third year. His was a medium sized farm here. Around 7,000 acres.
@@AndreaS-oq7sw Some of the large cattle farms are 150,000 acres or more. My friends was a mixed cropping farm, with a dairy. There was a company that owned 7 farms in Queensland, South Australia & the Northern Territory that equaled 500,000 hectares (approx 1.23 million acres) was trying to be bought by a chinese company a few months ago. We have very large areas, just not enough water to farm in traditional ways.
I am a missionary working among subsistence farmers in the Andes of Peru. We make our own compost fertilizer and do not use any synthetic fertilizers at all. We do not plow or use any herbicides. We practice crop rotation, mulching and do not burn after harvest. We also plant associated crops which will help in nitrogen such as leguminous crops, beans,etc.
Those are all very good points about industrial no till. On a smaller scale (10 acres or so), there is a method that you missed. Check out Neversink Farm. He has a no till- no weed method that uses 0 harmful chemicals
That's all great and good and I could provide a link to a dozen people who are doing it another way. But what does that bring to the conversation accept that you have searched and based an opinion on a video? Amish farmers have been ploughing for who knows how long, and they have had successful crops and their soil is top notch. Read studies from actual farms run by various universities around the country or world. What you will soon see from these studies is that over a twenty to thirty year time frame, the difference in organic matter in the soil for no till is a measly one inch more than the tilled. Now, I mean no offense, but I don't have time like that. Do you? Why not just till and throw one inch of organic matter over the top? Why not just put a cover crop on it all winter and till it in during Spring time? That's what I do. That's what the Amish do.
@@roflstomps324 It takes generations to make a foot of topsoil correct? He makes a lot of good points in this video, yet simply outdated. I would agree, many are still using glyphosate on their no till fields, yet the times are changing once again. I'm not some staunch no tillist but there is a place for the drill no matter what world your going to live in. We're here now with some Amish pulling their 10ft no till drills with a simple 4 horse team, finding the middle road, as the machine is not much more complex then the last, yet puts us down the path of at least break even OG.
@@speedwayjesus2660 Well, that's the point I am making isn't it? I am referring to the people who are arguing that no till is better for the soil. All no till is doing is making profit. It's worse for the soil. It's worse for the drainage. It's worse for water retention. It's worse due to more fuel burned. It creates far more wash outs... It creates much more 'berming'. This is all bad. People acting like they are saving the day is what annoys me. Say what you are doing. Getting better germination rates and easier weed suppression through chemical sprays and GMO seeds mechanically shot into the soil. People are almost fanatic about no till. Almost like no tillers are heroes. All that is being done is running a compactor, sorry, tractor over the soil a half a dozen times or more. That's it. That doesn't build good soil. You'd be crazy to think it would... It's great that the Amish are doing drills. But guess what? They have the lush and beautiful soil for it. It makes sense to heap praise on the Amish for that. The Amish aren't driving around in tractors all day burning fuel and compacting soil and acting like it's a good thing. For the Amish, no till makes sense because they can get a much higher germination rate. They still have to contend with the weeds. They do have a lot of kids though...
I’m not educated on this topic but what you say makes total sense to where I don’t see how people can disagree with what you said.. You do a really good job explaining things to people. Learned a lot thanks!
Hi, I agree with some of what your saying but as a mainly no-till farmer of 1000 acres there are a few things that you said that aren’t correct: 1: no till does not reduce the organic matter in the soil and for us after doing no till for 20 years our organic matter has gone from 4% to 10% average(we soil test every year). 2: if you spray roundup(glyphosate) to kill grass before seeding a crop you do not need gmo seed for it to not die, I often seed peas after spraying with roundup and breaking up the land and they are not gmo. As long as the roundup is sprayed before the crop has emerged it can not kill the crop. 3. A big issue with conventional tillage is drying out the soil and on a dry year that can be a big issue. 4. In my experience conventional tillage is a real problem partly because of water erosion but wind erosion is also a big issue. Enjoyed the video though and will check out more of yours!
So true. My dad farmed in Eastern Washington from the 1980's until 1999. The tilling helped control weeds. He did use herbicides but not every year and only one application early on so the residue wasn't in the crop at harvest. Also, since it was a semi-arid climate, you had to conserve soil moisture. So we had a rod weeder that was used in summer fallow ground about 2 or 3 times a season. It would drag a square rod under the ground about an inch or so that turned. It would cut the weeds at the root just underground and didn't disturb the soil much to keep residual moisture.
We quit no till farming a few years ago. We now use a chisel plow which does exactly what you are talking about only goes down about 6-8 inches. Then we disc the fields, we now only spray about 15% of the chemicals we used to use. Good talk.
I think a key component that you (and your neighbors) missed about how to make no-till commercial farming work is grazing. Because people have turned everything into monoculture, there is no balance. When animals are introduced, the no-till, regenerative process is complete. As people try to cut corners with a process, of course they are going to have to compensate in some other way (synthetic fertlizers, herbicides, and pesticides).
@Steve Slade grazing herd animals and livestock add to the biomimicry. Before industrial farming animals roamed and instinctively returned to the areas they ate bare months prior. Saliva..feces..birthing of these animals all add back to the natural cycle..back to the soil. Then it's up to the microbes. A balanced natural system.
@Steve Slade that sounds like an industrial farmings definition of No till. Till once...plant cover crops..chop and drop. Basically building soil naturally. The entire idea of no till natural farming is to observe nature and replicate it. Biomimicry. Zero industrial chemicals..no gmo seeds needed. My definition of no till is quite the opposite of what you described. Jadam..korean natural farming..no till combined are a powerhouse. Check out Chris Trump on youtube..his family grows 80 plus acres of macadamia nuts using natural farming methods.
@UC8X3WD6-D08C1nhZ9_Ar13A yeah I don't follow universities and such. I prefer to study ancient cultures. Tried and true methods we have abandoned. The hanging gardens of Babylon is what I am currently looking into. To each his own. I work with nature. Not against it.
When we bought our Homestead the soil here was red clay crap! Now I have good soil because I till the soil. It's fall and winter I mound the gardens full of yard waste leaves grasses and compost that I've made myself. In the spring i would turn it in. This year we went to raised boxes, easier to maintain.
that is why 50 years ago we never heard of sickness like cancer, thyriod problems and so many other deadly sickness as we have had in the past 30 years, cancer is now an every day word, due to our food being cemical grown,, working in the meat plant some 40 years ago i seen the huge change, and i could never eat store bought meat again, so i started growing all my own..
@@godzilladestroyscities1757 yep...since the fall of man. It was given a name in 1775....Sort of the same analogy is how "Global Warming" is now called "Climate Change" since we didn't warm. ...lol....Label it, state "The science is settled!!!"....Find out the science is wrong so then call it something else for the next 15 years of fear mongering and money grab until you need the next label..Wash, rinse, repeat... SMH.
@@danrhomberg1663 I don't think you understand what cancer is. Cancer is cells in the body becoming damaged. The damaged cells then reproduce out of control and cause massive damage to the body.
@@godzilladestroyscities1757 Ha ha...I'm quite certain what cancer is unfortunately. But fortunately, I'm also am quite certain what God is capable of. I've lived both. Be well.
I flip my garden spots numerous times in the begining of the year several weeks apart specifically to allow the weed seed to sprout and then I let them grow to about 3 to 5 inches and hit them with a bottom plow to put them about 3 inches under and then hit it with the disks. After doing this about 3 times, I break out the bottom plow again and set it up to form raised mounds to keep from loosing top soil to the heavy downpours we sometimes get. I also do a form of sheet composting by spreading the debris from the barns cleanings from manure to rotted hay out in the gardens during the winter. Come spring they get turned under with the cover crop (usually red or white clover, which ever I planed for deer food plots and is left over). I have had sun flowers stand over 9 feet tall, along with Okra plants at 5 foot in this garden using this method for the past 20 years.
Theres a good book called Dirt to soil by Gabe brown that might give a different perspective of tillage and notill he uses cover crops and animals really good book just search Gabe brown on UA-cam there’s some good videos of his presentation on the subject.
@@pmessinger he is not the first person to speak about this subject. Other people in that region have also spoke about this very thing. I think it has a great deal to do with your soil, and if it is clay or not. Very complicated subject.
I was forced to do no-till this last spring because my husband was laid up from ankle surgery and couldn't till my little bitty garden for me. I'm old and not strong enough to wrangle the tiller myself. So I just cleared the weeds as best I could (didn't spray with Roundup or anything) and used a hoe to make rows and a shovel to plant tomatoes and peppers. I hated it. I love the newly tilled soil (we live in Alabama, so our soil is red but no less nutritious and full of organic matter we have added over the 27 years we've lived here), so soft beneath my feet and such a delight to plant in. We are about to put in a winter garden, and my husband is back to full strength so I'm looking forward to a tilled garden to plant my winter things in. Enjoy your videos and the Scripture that you add at the end. I have learned many spiritual lessons while working out in my little garden, and I talk to God as I work in His creation.
Agreed 100% on a large scale, however I do think many people promote no-till from a gardener's perspective. Not scalable for hundreds of acres as you mentioned and as we have tried to address several times.
Agreed! We try and use wood chips and raised beds to combat the issues mentioned and created fluffy living soil that needs no fertilizers accept for maybe some trifecta someday:)
@@SSLFamilyDad How did nature produce soil and food before tilling? Animals. So I find your argument a bit ridiculous to say no-till was invented for GMO crops. Seems ridiculous.
Well, I understand your point here but nature never grew 1000 acres of corn altogether. Nature didnt plant one crop in an entire field, so we have to try to mimic nature as much as possible but not resort to using chemicals to make up the difference. This requires us thinking differently and creating processes that work for our environment, crop rotation, and livestock rotation
@@SSLFamilyDad That's fair. I don't mean to be combative or argumentative. Just ensuring we're all on the same page here. The reason you have to till is because you want a monoculture crop, and that requires extra steps. The "best" version of those steps, as you mentioned, might be tilling, but that doesn't mean no-till is only for GMO. Thanks for all your content, and I hope you took this as the constructive criticism it was meant to be and not a personal attack.
Excellent video. Much needed too. I have been agonizing about this No Till Drill method. I bought this farm in the Mid West 4 years ago and I plant lots of food plots for the deer. I am using your method with my tiller and disc like you do. All the neighboring farms use the No Till method and chemicals. They give me hell about my old methods of wasting time and fuel. Watching you in this video made me stand firm on the tillage method. I am retired and love working the land. Thanks for the very informative video.
I'm in Ohio and I get strange stares too. I think it is because they don't actually want to go back to actually working at farming. Spray. Drill. Spray. Spray. Harvest. It's insane.
You might want to check out Dr. Grant Woods methods of no tilling, no chemicals food plots. The Buffalo System works very well for food plots. Not sure how it would do with large scales AG though.
I completely understand this for farming. In a garden context, I love no till for the convenience of not having to till certain areas when I'm ready to plant. I wonder if most of your negative comments came from gardening people learning about the benefits of no till and not larger scale farmers who know it's not practical on many levels. Thanks for your input!!
You have this almost 100% right. I attended Ag school about 45 years ago and no-till was relatively new at the time. We were told that this was the up-and-coming wave in agriculture. By using herbicides to control the weeds you could plant your crops and minimize erosion. Some no-till practices might actually help with the survival of existing soil biology, but that is not at all why it was invented and it really only works until the herbicides and pesticides destroy that biology. In addition, to run a seed drill through a no-till field requires a heavier duty, and thus more expensive drill. Thanks so much for helping to clear this up.
@homesteader fifty w/ ricky & martha Maybe so, and maybe it was just then being pushed into the mainstream. When the FDA decides to support/promote something, one of the first places to push it are Ag schools. Doesn't change the fact that the anti-erosion advantages of no-till are often overshadowed by the high chemical disadvantages that were pushed by FDA's version of this practice.
Not at all off base. Good explanation. Growing up in farm country, we always tilled. Even our gardens. I always saw it as a way to "mulch in place". It enriches the soil. Gardens ALWAYS turned out better when we tilled. For another video idea... Explain the difference between hay and straw. What each is used for. Why you need both. And approximately how much you need per animal, per year. Etc...
We used minimal tillage! Grandpa had been doing it for over 50years because it has worked on our soil in our region. We only plowed and disced a field every 5years. Our fields were in rotation, only one of 5 fields was tilled for corn, the other 4 were not tilled and were in hay production or oats. It's all about what works for your farm, your soil, your climate, and you.
@@donaldmiller8629 those fields were not going unused. The spring after we planted small grain, typically oats which did very well for us yield wise and we used it for feed along with the corn. The other fields we made hay off of. We made enough hay for us and to have extra incase of a bad year. On top if we had a really good year we had 10+ loads of hay to sell.
@Bill The Tractor Man , It sounds as though your farm was being well managed and that you had things well in hand. My place is a little different. I have or had very dense clay soil. Quite hard to work with . But , I have no livestock so no animals to feed. I began with buckwheat which I tilled under in the blossom stage before it set seed. Then I planted alfalfa which is a perennial and is very deep rooted. ( brings up minerals from deep underground ) I let that grow for two years so the roots will be deep. Then I tilled that under before it set seed. Then I planted various vegetable crops. Other parts of my land were also going through the same process. It has taken five years but my soil is now more friable , easier to work , holds moisture ( much less run off ) and I do not need any irrigation. I will continue to add organic material as time goes on. I have no need to use manufactured fertilizer. Don of Natural Plum Brook Farm.
@@donaldmiller8629 glad to hear what is working for you, we have very sandy soil, almost like a swimming beach! After all the years of grandpas rotations the soil is still hardly able to handle a crop. Without minimal tillage we would not have been able to even get decent hay off the land or even able to support livestock grazing it. The pasture land was all dense clay on the other side of the ridge that split the property. The clay was too hard to till but grasses and trees grew well enough for it to be grazing land.
@Bill The Tractor Man , Hi Bill , ah yes sandy soil . The opposite problem of clay soil but with much the same solution. When you think that you have incorporated enough plant material you probably actually need half again as much. I like incorporating alfalfa because a two years growth brings up minerals to the surface from deep underground. Check out the book about restoring MALABAR FARM. It should be in your local library. One additional method that I use is tree leaves. I have a small copse of woods at the back of my place. In the fall after the leaves drop , I'm back there raking up leaves. I put them on my anticipated crop area for next spring. And I let the leaves dry. Then I drive back and forth over the dry leaves with my lawn tractor until they are well pulverized. I don't plow. But , I do have a tiller that I can tow behind my lawn tractor. It has an engine that runs the tiller blades. I only till deeply enough to incorporate the leaf material into the soil. Then the soil lays fallow until the spring. I like both the alfalfa and the leaves because they provide minerals to my soil although my soil is not lacking in nutrients. It's just or was very hard to work. Your sandy soil is a different kettle of fish . You probably do need the nutrients. And that is where a two year's growth of alfalfa would help you out. Plant material in the soil plus the minerals from underground. Have fun !
an option for no till to prevent herbicide use it to roler crimp a cover crop this has the efect of laying down a huge amount of organic matter and mulching the weeds out of the next crop. i think tillage is fine as you say but only when you are puting biomass back in the form of your stalks or compost ect if you are growing somthi g like corn for silage or you are baling the stalks there is not enough going back in to make up for the extra that is broken down
personally, i've seen farmers that practice no till with zero herbicides , pesticides , or any kind of synthetic. planning becomes very critical when you are a no till farmer, to achieve results. i think we should not be limited by our close neighbouring farmers that were enticed into a way of farming, and failed to pay to attention planning skills for success. lets broaden our research to successful no till farmers , with zero synthetics: Gabe Brown.
Templar he has used herbicide he doesn’t all the time he trying to get away from it what you need to understand is tillage is as bad as herbicide and causes as many problems as herbicide maybe more
Thanks for sharing your perspective...I wasn't going to till my acreage, but listening to your explanation about tilling, gives me pause to that notion! I don't want to use any chemicals on my land, so listening to you, has really opened my eyes to the great possibilities of farming on a small scale. Thank you very much!
Don't believe his BS. Do some more research. There is lots of first hand discussion of the benefits of no-till that directly contradict almost every word he says! The whole point of no-till is to get away from chemicals and mechanized cultivation!
p.messinger I don’t disagree with everything said, yet again the big agri giants are taking the regenerative no till and using the same words to try and green wash farmers into thinking their products are the only way. I can’t believe they have turned the beauty of no till into this poison filled fossil fuel dependent unsustainable ugliness. They shouldn’t even use those words or promote the idea of no till as anything positive,when it is the exact opposite. This video also barely addressed the REAL alternatives, using no till and NO chemical inputs. I’m not an expert on doing this large scale, everything I learned is geared towards smaller acreages, but I’m aware that large scale alternatives exist
We till because it is the best way to prepare the soil before the crop goes in the ground. Hopefully this video reaches more people because people need to know the dangers of the no till method.
1. Depending on your planned crop...you have to till. Eg cassava, potatoes. 2. The main reason I use no-till...and I'm new to no-till, is reduction in weed pressure. But I have a small garden. Agreed with you.
Love the rant! I'm glad to hear the difference about till and no-till. My mom raised her garden by having me rototill it every year. Best food I ever had.
First of all.. I love that you put a verse from Proverbs in there.. Amen! Definitely one of my favorites.. Points to "No man putting his hand to the plow and looking backwards is fit for the kingdom of God..." Anyway, you are right on.. We do low till, but we're on a super small scale where it is feasible (and we're certified OG). If in the future we scale up to over a couple of acres, a tractor will be a necessity. We use silage tarps and kill off a half acre at a time, but that would not be financially possible with a thousand acres. Also, those that are doing large scale "no till" will greatly benefit from running rippers through their pastures and fields to put breaks in the subsoil. If they just started doing no till after years of plowing, the plow pan is still going to be there 10 or 12 inches below the surface. Farm on!
I've never commented on your stuff before, but I figured I'd jump into the fray of this comment section just to say that I've been watching your videos since before your move and I appreciate your perspective. I don't always agree with you and I'm not a religious guy, but you come across as genuine, earnest, and sincere, which seems to be a rare thing on the internet these days. Thank you!
Here on my family farm in southern Wisconsin we've tried no till and it just doesn't work in our area because we are usually such a wet and colder climate we need our ground to be tilled over not only to prevent using a lot of chemicals but also to warm our soil up and dry it out in the spring because of how short our planting season is we have a lot of organic matter on our ground because we have four horse farms in a five mile radius that we spread manure for on our land so our soil health is amazing and we preserve the wildlife as much as we can but don't get me wrong we still use chemicals but not very much and a year ago we took water samples from our drainage tiles and it turns out the water coming from our poisonous land is just as good as spring water that you would buy in a store. Keep in mind a we took the sample about three to four days after spraying and right after a rain so the spray had time to get into the soil and to flow through the tile into the river .
Read these two books: Dirt to Soil by Gabe Brown and A Soil Owner’s Manual by Jon Sticka. There are also tons of UA-cam videos featuring each of them and tried and true no till methods combined with cover crop planning that eliminates the use of harmful chemicals.
Gabe brown uses herbicide and fertilizers. According to his youtube talks anyway. He also uses tilling to change from perennials to other crops according to his UA-cam talks. He does have some great ideas on using no till in a sustainable way but is not what most farmers are using throughout the country
I'm a city guy who likes gardens of all types and I have always admired farmers. I travel, by car, all over areas of giant farms. I have noticed that when fields are not farmed, for whatever reason, that almost nothing grows the first year at least. What you said about the soil being sterile is backed up in my observations. I sometimes take a mobile gas detector and inspect transmission lines. The first time I did it, I was worried that I might piss off the farmer. Even though the pipeline is in a right of way and the farmers usually get rent payments, they all plant over them. I didn't even leave ruts! You wouldn't even know that I was there once the plants spring back.
If you want to get Technical : You even have to watch where you even buy /Donated your seeds from !! Watch what was given to the Mother Plant of the seed from the breeding Process of the plant , And or what has been Spayed onto the Bean its self before its Package up for resale...
You’re absolutely right I think it’s up to the farmer or individual if you want to till or no tell buddy anyway even though you kill your soil eventually every microbes will go back it’s part of nature you don’t have to go heavy duty but if you go to first 4 inches of soil is good enough it’s not gonna do much harm somewhere along the line mother nature will find a way to correct itself I’m still hooked on no telling but after watching your video it makes sense you’re absolutely 100%
This makes sense to me. I had wondered about many of the things you discussed, I always thought it had to do with the saving water in the soil so it didn't evaporate but hated the idea of putting round u0 on fields as it's a known carcinogen. Your way makes sense. God Bless
Round Up is not a "known carcinogen", it is rated as a "possible carcinogen" by some political entities. Most medical research shows no causation and only casual correlation (the people who work with glyphosate tend to work with real carcinogens, typically insecticides and a few rodentcides).
I agree with you. We have a 3000sqft garden in hopes of growing a lot of our food each year. We add compost to it and mulch it and use a small tiller to blend it all in. I've had successful gardens for many years. My grandparents farmed in WV for many, many years and this is how they did it. When I follow a "current trend" I usually pay for it somehow, not always, but usually. Thanks, Todd!
I haven’t read or heard any no till people talk about using chemicals. I would say it’s the complete opposite. Every reputable no till person I’ve heard says you may need to till the first time and that’s ok. This was a great video btw. We are just starting a small homestead and are researching a lot and we are trying to find a healthy balance between till and no till. Thanks!
Well said Brother! It depend on the specific situation what method is best. Most of the people who will criticize "your" methods are clueless. Most are little people with a tiny raised bed and a couple of tomato plants. Thumbs up and a subscription.
Oh yes and I can tell you the fruits in the stores do not taste anything like they did everything has lost its flavor people are so used to eating green fruit because they pick a green to get it from Farm to farm they like sour fruit sour than sour that cuz that's how they're raised I was raised on sweet corn sweet vegetables and fruit celery the best tasting celery ever when I was a child that's what I miss I think you're very on point
i agree. small scale you can use the wood chips or card board to smother the grasses and weeds. but large scale trilling is what works the best. keep up the good work.
People use large tarps to kill those weeds the flame weed the seeds. I think your very right about these larger field crops! Its nearly impossible to do those that way. Smaller crops like market gardeners use it works out great for them.
You are correct. No till is a lazy way out ( cost effective even when adding fertilizer). Tilling has been done for thousands of years because it works great. It does not just loosen the soil, plow under plant matter, and allow air and water in, but it mixes the soil that has leached nutrients lower due to rainfall.
Hi. No till systems can heal the soil and be much less dependent on herbicides If you do commit on these 3 rules (wich are often forgotten) all the time: Culture Rotation (succeed cultures that explore soil in different depths and behave different on pests) Incorporation on cultural remains And no till on itself. If you commit and manage well this system you can reduce a hell on herbicides and pesticides(because mainly on correct rotatio. Regarding on soil compactation, never transit the field on excessive humidity soil and use tractors on double wheelset. Many no till farmers dont succeed on healing soil and reduce quimicals because they only aply usually on one rule. No till systems requires commitement and knowladge to do it right. I really appreciated your insights, you made good points (that can be solved). Best Regards From Portugal
Great points. A lot of catch words and propaganda out there about "no till". A lot of money involved in pushing "no till", add to that the fact that we are so removed from our agricultural roots and misunderstanding and false narratives take hold. Thanks for pointing out the truth!
Amen!!! The chemicals sprayed on these crops also get into the air we breathe and you can see damage to leaves from this atomizing into the air and traveling over the fenceline....
Hi SSL Family. Oh boy, when I read the video description I figured it would stir up some heated discussion. I immediately grabbed the 100% organic, non-GMO, vegan, heirloom, popcorn kernels from the cupboard and put a tablespoon of pure, certified, organic, first press, imported coconut oil in the non-stick, copper cladded cast iron skillet. Once the popcorn was done I sprinkled it with pure, pink Himalayan, fair trade salt and sat down to watch the show. Much to my surprise everyone was having adult discussions and sharing their points of view and experiences. Hahahahaha... Thanks for sharing your experiences as well. Cheers and God Bless. ~Mike and Ester~
Vermont has, sadly, sold out to Monsanto. Most of the corn grown here is GMO and sprayed heavily. The lakes are contaminated from the run off. There are a few organizations calling it out. Even Ben and Jerry's has glyphosate in their ice cream. They have been sued for lying about their ice cream, too. Ben Cohen sold the company years ago to a corporation but they act like it's still owned by them.
@Steve Slade , It is not easy but you can find non-GMO products ! However , you must be aware that GMO corn and GMO soybean is now present in most products that you buy. GMO cornflakes , bread made with GMO wheat and GMO soy flour. GMO corn syrup in candy , etc. I read the labels. If it contains commercial corn or soy , I don't buy it !! Even sugar is now made from GMO grown sugar beets. And meat animals are being fed with GMO grown hay and GMO grown sugar beets. If you buy meat in a supermarket you are eating GMO products . Bayer and Monsanto are determined to mutate our DNA ! They claim that GMO is safe. However , no one really knows. 100 or 200 years from now our offspring may be born being Roundup ready . I grow much of my own now. Even if I have to grow it in pots along the sidewalk. I can grow four stalks of corn in a modest sized pot. You would be surprised at what an interesting yard it makes.
@@donaldmiller8629 Please share where you get your information. What you are growing is GMO as it has been subject to selective breeding, the same way all domesticated crops (and animals) have been. As for gene spliced crops, the only commercially available ones are Round-Up Ready animal feeds.
@Len Harold , Selective breeding is NOT the same as GMO or lab gene splicing. Selective breeding is a natural function as opposed to splicing in a gene that may not even be of the same species. For example , splicing a plant gene into an animal. That can not be done by Nature. It is done by humans in a laboratory ! You are attempting to mislead by equating selective breeding with Genetic Manipulated Organism. An example of selective breeding might be crossing a Galloway bull with a Scottish Highland cow for the purpose of having a Scottish Highland cow born without horns since the father naturally does not have horns. It works because they are of the same species. They are both cattle ! They are crossbred but NOT GMO ! And the offspring ( a calf ) can breed with another of the same species. Now , an example of GMO might be the laboratory gene splicing of a human gene into the genes of a Chimpanzee. However , a human can not naturally breed with a Chimpanzee. Nature will not allow it. For your purposes another example of GMO might be the human induced breeding of a horse with a donkey. ( different species ) With human interference it can be done. The result is a mule. But , here is where Nature steps in again. Because you see , it is not natural ! The mule can be created by humans but it can not recreate itself because Nature makes it sterile !! ( two different species ) They can be crossed by humans either way. Horse to donkey or donkey to horse. But in either case the offspring is sterile !!
@@donaldmiller8629 Selective breeding is definitely not gene splicing, but both fall under GMO. GMO is just a catch phrase that caught on, but never should have, as it is not specific to gene splicing. I should have written that clearer. Otherwise we are in agreement that gene splicing is unnatural and should be stopped. The scariest part is that most new immunizations are gene spliced versions of the original virus. I don't think that is going to end well.
I totally agree with you. My rant ended when i took land from grey hard soil to black fluffy soil by just using what made sense. Earth worm from the size of a piece of wire to the size of pencils...it only to two years to start the turn around and was a fantastic journey. Thanks for telling the truth about no till on this public forum.
The reason all the no till methods work is not the tilling but the amount of compost/organic matter that is spread. Because you use so much organic matter there is no more reason to till (less weeds, soft soil, "integrated" fertilizer). But you need to add at least the same area as the field just to produce the minimum amount of organic matter needed. Edit: I'm talking about non-commercial or small scale no till methods like back to eden or what charles dowding is doing.
On a small scale I agree. Creating or applying 2 inches of compost on 200 acres is cost prohibitive however. The same goes for many other methods of "organic" gardening. Common sense and the ability to adapt the multitude of farming methods that do not involve a huge carbon foot print including chemical production and use are in our long term best interest.
@@rjtherocker I leave evrything that isnt used. I completly understand what no till is and use it as a tool if possibible but simply stating no till is best is close minded and limiting.There are simply too many variable to the wide variety of crip production in a huge difference of enviroments. I live in Oklahoma, have you ever ran no till equipment in a recently transformed pasture in prime bermuda grass area? The point of this video in my opinion is use what works and quite telling others they are wrong, but share options that are healthy and effecient.
@@master6676 let me guess all your nieghbors pile and burn every fall. Seems like you have lots of material just not the desire. Thats more true than saying it doesnt work or cant
I have a quarter acre field that i recently aquired, in the spring i will have to till it with a tractor and plant soy or field peas there is a lot of grasses on it. fact is i thought of no till but the soil there is heavy clay, if it does not get turned nothing will grow well. it is fertile but compacted.
I practice Organic No-till that uses crimped rye or peas or vetch that creates a mulch mat to supress weeds..... but yes when I turn a hay field into a crop field you need a plow
Yeah man its pretty cool! Very good for building soil health in my opinion. There are some rescue tools too if the thistles etc. bust through, like the "no-till cultivator" :)
I love your method. We have wood chips and I am not at all fond of them. You can't tell how deep in you have to go for actual soil and then the wood chips always fall into the trenches....well, you get the idea. I've asked the husband to NOT have wood chips on our next garden but maybe another method of weed suppression and water retention. And tilling under this years crops is an amazing way of building up your soil! Can't do that with wood chips. Blessings from NE Missouri!
@Paula Jo Davis , Perhaps it depends upon how and where you use the wood chips ? I get them for free so I use them. However , I use the wood chips mostly in my apple orchard under the apple trees. It is hard for me to mow there under the branches. So I place a thick layer of wood chips to suppress the grass and weeds. The chips are close to but do not touch the trunk of the tree. I place a shield of hardware cloth around the trunk to protect from the rabbits. The bottom layers of wood chips will decompose over time. When I see that the layer of wood chips has decreased I simply add some more wood chips. I have a small woods so I use cut grass and fallen tree leaves and chicken manure laden straw as a compost for the garden. Oh and earthworms in the garden. I usually have a dozen worms per shovelful of dirt . I have to keep my chickens out of the garden but geese seem to like the weeds and bugs only and the ducks like the bugs. Anything to keep me from having to do too much work and weed pulling. lol
Also, if you want to kill off a field all you have to do is take blank cardboard, lay it out overlapping about 6 inches and than cover it with a thick amount of wood chips, well broken down (still woody) wood chips. Tilling can create nitrogen difficiencies because you are tilling in things like branches, (which if you till in wood it turns into MUD) no wonder why your fields are flooding.
Bang on... The sprayer is the most used piece of no till equipment here in Alberta, usually a spray of roundup to get the weeds, then a fungicide and another for bugs then another shot to kill the crop so they ripen and can be straight cut. I'm sure these sprays are extremely hard on the natural benificals and fungus systems and in the end YOU
Yep. They do the same down here in Ohio. You can see the days on which they spray because the lakes and rivers will bloom and stink. It pisses me off. I spill a little oil in my yard and I could have the EPA come and tear my ground up. Farmers get to poison whole ecosystems.
While industrial no-till is very heavy on chemicals, Rodale Institute has a great organic no-till option that doesn't rely on chemicals. It does rely on tillage every 3 or four seasons, but using cover crops and a roller crimper is a great way to find a happy medium. Rodale is finding better yields with this technique which builds soil and limits erosion, remember erosion is caused by factors beyond washout.
@@SSLFamilyDad not sure how I missed that, it is a higher startup cost and definitely more attention to details, but seems to be pretty slick once it's rolling. (pun intended) :)
I absolutely agree to plant in dirt that is populated with any type perennial you have to till first and everything you said is true. On a smaller scale (like a backyard garden) you still need to initially turn it over to break the growth of whatever was there but after that if you mulch A LOT you shouldn't have to "till" it again at least not to the same extent. You'll need to incorporate compost or some additional nutrients of some kind from time to time and those will need to be mixed in, so even if you're using a rake or broadfork you're still kind of tilling. Good explanation!
Good talk! "Genetically Engineered" or "Altered" is the more correct term for what most call "GMO"s. As a fellow organic farmer, appreciate your thoughts!
Great points you made! I’ve heard the argument about the microbiology not rebuilding after tilling however I’ve never seen any actual data on this theory. Something I haven’t heard mentioned is that you tend to get a better crop, all things being equal, if you till vs no till; that has been my experience in the Pacific Northwest. Great video, keep it up!
There is plenty of data on the subject. Universities all over the country have been studying till vs no till vs cover cropping vs sprays etc etc. What I have gathered from the cumulative data is that over twenty-thirty years till vs no till yields one inch more of organic soil on the no till side. Over thirty years that really equates to nothing. That's the difference in a truck load of manure or humus or compost. What has found to yield the most food without damaging the soil is a method of winter cover cropping, Spring tilling, manure or composted matter spread and then planting after a period of two weeks. Using a rotational planting system. In most of the studies, what I have found was that doing it the way our great grand dad or the Amish did, was best. What I do, personally, for my families food is I farm five acres of my twelve at a time. I do what I described above for one year and I let the rest of my land grow completely wild. I have acres and acres of clovers and wild flowers and native weeds and plants flowering all over the place. This helps with pollination and when this five acres is done for this year, my chickens can have at the root stubble, grubs, insects and whatever else they can find. I move down or up the property depending on where I see the soil is best (compaction, organic layer, moisture) and plant there the next year. I let the previous grow wild for at least a year and rotate. This way I can hill truck loads of horse manure from local farms to provide ample nitrogen and mulch. I spread it where I see the ground is in need of it. It isn't that hard. People make out like there is a hard and fast way of doing things. The only thing those people should tell you is that they do not actually farm or garden. They watch videos on it. Anyone who works in the dirt knows that it is an ever-changing, ever-challenging creature. Many methods work. Not all methods apply to everyone. No till and back to eden for example. They do not work in clay soils that experience heavy and sudden rains.
Correct, he uses cover crops and promotes always have roots in the ground which I agree with 100%. However, that is not what 90% of farmers are doing in the U.S
@@SSLFamilyDad Check your stats. More farmers are learning how. You need to do more research before you chop it down. There are people with more experience who can explain what you have wrong, but you've got to be willing to listen before you go off and start acting like you know something. You don't!
@@pmessinger His numbers are just about bang on... and it really looks like you have no idea what you are talking about. The U.S. has about 920 million acres of farmland. Of that, 15 million uses cover crops... so. Yeah. *cough* Maybe re-read your last statement after the but. Sorry for triggering you in advance.
@p.messinger What makes you think this man isn't willing to listen. Let's hear from those "more experienced people" instead of @p.messinger who thinks he knows something FamilyDad doesn't.
Good advice.of course people will swear by thier ideas but you are doing what works for you with the resourses you have,,,I am sure this bring out an interesting spectrum of comments,Glad you posted it,
im not a farmer but i think what you said is what id think is common sense. Id think gardens might be more forgiving when it comes to different types of fertilizers but thats on a smaller scale.... sounds logical that fields would benefit far more from putting organic material back into the soil.
Anything that is in nature is given by God and anything that is unnaturally made from poison is not natural so why would you want to put it on the food you eat that is just crazy ..... You are so right in how you farm your land that's what all the little bugs are for like bees nature knows best .... Love your channel 💕🌹🌺
Agree with you from another half of the world, we in the ME have a soil that's hard as rock, you need a wedge and a hammer to loosen that grey dirt, so no way to loosen and areate it without deep cultivating, we flib the whole grass and hay into the soil to make it loose enough for a root to spread, lots of rocks, deep rooting and anti herbaside weeds that's no way to kill them without tillage. The only difference between our poor soil and grandfathrers' productive soil, was that they used heavy grasing cattle to remove weeds + extra manure, instead of herbasides we use in some lands, and the traditional tillage using horses doesn't compact the deep soil layers like our tractors.
I’m a no till farmer and I don’t ever spray anything that a teaspoon would kill a human... I don’t compact my soil I have controlled traffic... I use less fertilizer than conventional farming and yields are the same... if you want natural mineralization for free fertilizer why would you destroy the soil life’s habitat and home? Btw you said it would take several years to break down residue.... this is true on tilled ground because of lack of soil health... my 250 bushel corn crop stover is 90% gone by the next spring now that’s soil health that you claim is sterilized from roundup lol
@farmermatt629 , There are lots of chemicals that a teaspoonful will not kill you. However , they will not do you any good either. A teaspoon of gasoline can make you sicker than a dog ! But , it probably won't kill you. I do not need to use fertilizer. I have plenty underground. I simply use alfalfa to bring it to the surface. Well , corn stalks that are just left in their growing position on the surface of the ground might take a long time to break down. It works much the same in a compost pile. The smaller the pieces of plant material the easier and more quickly it will break down. I sometimes use my grinder to grind up plant material. It's not just for branches you know .
Donald Miller maybe I will look into composting 2000 acres like your garden Donald since you think it is a good idea.... btw water hemp grows in my rock driveway... it would also grow in composted areas
@farmermatt629 I don't know much about farming. However I really want to know more. What seed do you use for your corn? GMO roundup ready seed? If the community is demanding an organic product that is strictly grown with no herbicides, pesticides, chemicals and so forth. Why are you growing these tainted crops?
Mark Mahoney if I was to raise “organic” crops and use no herbicide.... first I would have to get registered..... pay fees to get on a list I’m assuming then it takes 3 years of no chemicals or commercial fertilizer.... and that’s at today’s prices for crops before I even get a premium for organic... now assuming I don’t go broke before I get certified organic... I have to haul in chicken litter for fertilizer my yields would decrease from 200-250 bushels on average to 100-175 if I’m lucky... also I would have to hire a army of people to cultivate and pull weeds 7 days a week... I don’t know where I would even haul organic crops but I’m assuming the market isn’t real close.... I also would need a plow a field cultivator and a lot of diesel fuel to pull them... doesn’t sound real sustainable or green to me....!btw you wanna volunteer to weed crops in 100 degree heat? Ya know one else does either
@@farmermatt629 makes sense. Transitioning would be expensive and probably pointless for you. Starting from scratch though and being in proximity to a market that demands organic product helps. You can make a killing off of organic markets. People pay a premium for certain organic products so even a small farm can make money like SSL family dad. His methods make more sense to me given the market I am close to.
I'd love to have a short phone conversation with you cuz it would take me an hour to type everything I have to say about this!! I used to work in the ag chemical industry and gave up very good pay due to the moral conflict I had with it. You are about 90% right on everything you said 😁
Thanks for sharing & sticking to your principles. Surely 98 out of a hundred dont have the conviction to follow your path. May your future be rewarding
I am sorry that my comment seemed to start a 'firestorm of comments. 😐 I simply wanted to thank you for your opinion. I have found you to only speak the truth and respect your views. I wish other people would simply decide to respect your opinion or look for someone that they agree with.
What is your % off organic matter in your fields?? How long does it take for your to soak up 1in of rain fall and how many inches in 1 hrs, I’m very interested in hear answers, thank you for your time
The explanation is right on. Only other method to no-tilling is tarping which is prohibitive on a large crop area and will still require soil preparation. The question then is what harmful chemicals will the tarp leach into the soil. Farming with horses may create the least amount of compaction, still tilling the soil, now add the cost of the upkeep of the animals, that is the way we farmed into the 1970s. There is no best method for all applications, just individual choices. Keep up the great video's. Marc and Paulette
Marc B , I have a question for you ? Does keeping a team of horses cost more than a $100,000 tractor plus the fuel and lubricants to keep it operating ? I know of some Amish that bought farms of farmers that went belly ( those farmers used expensive machinery ) and turned the farms into successful and productive farms. Some locals resent the Amish for being able to do that . The Amish farm the old-fashion way ! The modern machines are faster but apparently they do not provide enough return to pay for them selves. There are conditions when less is more. I had a brother-in-law that bought a tractor ( only about $40,000 back in the early 1970's ) plus some other machinery . He said , " Look here , with all the lights and such , I can work in the fields until long after dark ." Which was true. But , he could not make enough from his 250 acres to pay for the machinery. The bank re-possessed his machines. Of course he still owed for them. The bank auctioned off his machines ( which were purchased by the bank at a huge dis-count ) and he still owed the difference. So , he lost his farm also . I had advised him to purchase an older used tractor which would have served his needs. However , he wanted a new tractor with all of the bells , whistles and whiz bangs. And so like so many others , he lost his farm. He ended up working in a huge commercial bakery
The demands of farming are different everywhere. I would direct you to some of Gabe Browns work and Richard Perkins and Charles Dowlding on no till and no dig organic gardens. Labor is the limiting factor. However if one can employ willing hungry animals, if you have them. Recently I used ducks in the fall to prepare a garden for the next spring. From grass to beautiful garden. Not without harrowing weeds or aeration of the soil with a fork though. Never say never, only to chem farming. Carry on, it works good and is good! You have to release a little carbon to grow carbon, rototilling is composting.
I'm just a backyard gardener who lives in the typical Midwest suburban subdivision. My house does butt up against 70 acre farmland. This guy sprays and I can tell, like you pointed out, that they care nothing about the soil. They spray several times, adding herbicides and pesticides (which I actually suspect why my ALL of my tomatoes and beans have leaf curl this year)...anyway...I digress.I amend and create my own garden soil every year. Someone once told/asked me "why don't you just take soil from the farmland?". And I told them the same thing you just talked about. The soil is dead. The crops are kept alive by chemicals. Why would I want that for MY garden?? I also truly believe that there is a real link to Cancer that no one wants to talk about... We are what we eat! EXCELLENT rant! GO ARMY!!
Farm Fit has a method I've never seen anywhere else before. It's called a kelvin cultivator or a kelvin weeder something like that. It is a device that uses heat to kill weeds. He says that it doesn't penetrate deep enough to kill off the bacteria and other good life forms in the soil. Supposedly it heats up all the weeds enough to cause their cell walls to burst killing the plant. It is also supposed to sterilize any weed seeds at or just below the surface. It is supposed to be as or more effective than tilling, though Mike uses both methods. It wouldn't hurt to check out his channel to take a look. The model he uses pushes like a lawn mower but they may have one that you can pull with a tractor too, it'd be kind of silly for them not to. He had an episode featuring it fairly recently. I went back and checked, and the channel is actually The Fit Farmer-Mike Dickson And the episode that it was on was; We are prepping for our fall gardening now The relevant part starts at 8:20.
@@rjtherocker the model Mike has is hand pushed like a push mower, but the manufacturer may make a model that can be towed. If so, what's cooler than a John Deer? A John Deer with a flame thrower on the back!
Yeah, I've seen this but aren't you just robbing Peter to pay Paul? I mean, the no-till folks say not to till because you are releasing carbon and all that. Imagine the carbon released while you drive around a field with a tractor sized flame thrower. The amount of fuel that would burn would be astounding. On a small scale it would not be so bad. But, then, if you are going to do that. Why not just till it and be done with it?
@@roflstomps324 actually you do still till, but not to kill the weeds, only to prepare the ground for planting. The reason for the burning is that it is the only non poisonous method of killing off ALL the weeds. Not even tilling can do that, it can only destroy existing weeds. Tilling does nothing to prevent seeds in the soil from germinating later, burning kills the seeds too. That's why slash and burn is such an effective (if destructive) practice for initially clearing land. This method also greatly reduces the possibility of burns getting out of control, since the plants are only scorched, not actually set on fire. This method also works on wet ground where a ground fire is not realistic.
@@juliebaker6969 No. Sorry. I prefer tilling. With tilling I release less carbon into the atmosphere (the whole premise of no till) and allow aggressive plants to take hold before the weeds can move in. Right now I have corn that I planted two months ago. It has native grass spreading between the rows. I have since hilled the corn, covering the grass. By the time the native grass recovers, the corn will have grown two feet or more... in affect. The grass will just become food for the corn.
@@evolvingwiththewilsons5927 what do you do under the wood chips? I've collected multiple tons of wood chips but I'm not sure what to lay under them.... Can't get enough cardboard to lay on such a large area I'm turning into a vegetable garden-- about 3200 sf.
@@evolvingwiththewilsons5927 the grass doesn't grow thru? I put about 3 inches down in a small area and the grass grew thru. I will try 8 to 10 tho. Thank you very much!
I think what you mean is your truth about no till from your perspective I have areas of till and no till it depends on what I want the end result to be. We rarely use chemicals. I agree with burnpistn check out what guys like Gabe Brown on the subject of no till are doing. John
A no till raised garden beds is one thing but a till farm has to almost impossible to do it the same way. One thing is how do you get enough compost and everything to pile up so deep that kill off grass and stuff. Haha. I like the video. Thanks
I totally agree on the harmful chemicals , and Round-up is in all kinds of law suites . I wish there was a safe one to use but I don't think there is. I would love to roto till my field but don't have a tiller , but we raise hay and pasture so it needs to be tilled every 4 or 5 yrs . How much maintenance do you do on your rototiller as I always thought it would be rough on one ? Good video!
For a larger scale I would recommend a plow and a disc to replant the hay or over seeding it. You can find used plows and discs for super cheap, I think I paid $200 for my 2 bottom plow and I see discs for the same all over
@@SSLFamilyDad the biggest problem you will discover if you do this to your hayfields, is that you will release the seed bank buried in the soil. You will end up with a lot of undesirable weeds. Just look at your pumpkin patch. How many different varieties of plants and weeds appeared after you tilled that area the first year? That is what would happen to your hayfields if try to replant them via tillage methods.
First, Thank you for sharing. I feel there are a number of things involved in building soil that does not profit the farmer in this years $. No till is great in vegetable garden beds where people manually remove weeds. And lastly thanks for including hay and cover crops in a plant rotation, few people with small farms, homesteads or whatever is the trendy name this wèek give hay, weeds and grasses the credit they deserve for simply providing areation and building healthy soil.
@SSLFamilyDad. Please look up presentations by Gabe Brown and/or Ray Archuletta for a full explanation of how no-till and no-chemical works on any size farm. I bet you will come back sharing a different truth.
Staying on the topic of no till. My family have been farmers as far back as the 1800s. From Iowa to Washington, to Idaho. We were pretty close to the Mennonite lifestyle. I know what sustainable and organic farming can produce. One thing my father did in the early spring was to do a controlled burn of the pasture areas. Then he would plant a cover crop of Alfalfa ( green manure) I don't remember once him using any toxic chemicals. We would rotate the fields between pasture and fields of veggies. I wish that the modern day agriculture would look at the old ways. These big monstrosities of agrichemical companies are not our friends. And, this no till method is as toxic as the herbicides and pesticides that they are dumping on our food. So sad. I am not speaking from lack of knowledge, and am in very much agreement with what you have said in this video.
@Kathrine Kerns , I don't know if your father actually thought about this or not . But there are some plants such as alfalfa that are very deep rooted. Depending upon how long they are left in place , those roots can grow anywhere from five to twenty feet underground. What they are doing is bringing minerals that are deep underground up to the surface. If the alfalfa is then turned under those minerals are now available to more shallow rooted plants such as corn. There is a book about restoring a worn out farm in Ohio by using that very method. The title of the book is " Malabar Farm " . I do not recall the author. It should be available at your local library. One thing that I got from the book is that farmers are actually , indirectly , miners of the minerals in the soil. The farmers grow plants that take up those minerals and then we eat the plants. Malabar Farm by the way is now an Ohio State Park which you can visit.
There are lots of farmers converting to the old ways similar to what your people did, but with improvements proven over time since then--without sprays or so much machinery. No-till is not the evil this guy would have you believe. He is so wrong about the whole concept, start to finish.
@@pmessinger I am not in agreement with you. Don't you think it depends on your soil, and the weather. Also the region of the country you live in. Monsanto and other companies have brought this no-till to the idea that tillling is bad. He is not wrong. I am in agreement with what he said.
You should watch some GrowingDeer.tv videos about their use of no till drills and how they got to the point where they use no fertilizers or chemicals and have almost no weeds in their fields
I prefer the methods used by Amish farmers who have been feeding themselves since who knows when, over one guy everyone has a hard on for on the Tubes.
I think perhaps no-till only works for micro farms? Where you can use sillage tarps for killing off existing cover or cash crop? I guess wouldn't apply to large scale ops where you have to use herbicides. We are moving to a new state and want to start a small homestead micro farm and grow veggies but mainly flowers. I also just want a sub compact tractor to help with the work and save my back. Any thoughts on what I should use? I was going to just get a rototiller - not sure what else to do for small scale 40x50 plots?
Interesting... To be honest, I never really paid much attention to the subject because all I have had is a 10x20 garden space. We are looking for a homestead right now, so I may be faced with this kind of choice soon. Thanks for the great info!
Had a friend here in Australia, that use to plough. The machine he put together would plough& flip the soil. As it was being flipped a tank would inject manure wash into the soil. He would then cover crop with a nitrogen fixer. After mulch mowing this after a period, he would seed drill a cash crop. No pesticides or herbicides. After harvest, he would repeat.
He had the best soil & water holding in the area. Others around had light red soil. His was dark brown, almost black. Never used a drop of chemical, except from magnesium sulphate (epsom salts) every second or third year.
His was a medium sized farm here. Around 7,000 acres.
That sounds like someone who has thought it all out, thanks for sharing that!
Yikes. 7000 acres is medium sized!! Even in Texas that's huge!
@@AndreaS-oq7sw Some of the large cattle farms are 150,000 acres or more. My friends was a mixed cropping farm, with a dairy. There was a company that owned 7 farms in Queensland, South Australia & the Northern Territory that equaled 500,000 hectares (approx 1.23 million acres) was trying to be bought by a chinese company a few months ago. We have very large areas, just not enough water to farm in traditional ways.
YES YES someone knows how to No Till Love it !! Thanks for Commenting !!
@@elenidemos. Wow. That is huge. Hope he didn't sell. I would fully support Australian own cimpanies. BTW, i am ozzie also.
I am a missionary working among subsistence farmers in the Andes of Peru. We make our own compost fertilizer and do not use any synthetic fertilizers at all. We do not plow or use any herbicides.
We practice crop rotation, mulching and do not burn after harvest. We also plant associated crops which will help in nitrogen such as leguminous crops, beans,etc.
Those are all very good points about industrial no till. On a smaller scale (10 acres or so), there is a method that you missed. Check out Neversink Farm. He has a no till- no weed method that uses 0 harmful chemicals
That's all great and good and I could provide a link to a dozen people who are doing it another way. But what does that bring to the conversation accept that you have searched and based an opinion on a video? Amish farmers have been ploughing for who knows how long, and they have had successful crops and their soil is top notch. Read studies from actual farms run by various universities around the country or world. What you will soon see from these studies is that over a twenty to thirty year time frame, the difference in organic matter in the soil for no till is a measly one inch more than the tilled. Now, I mean no offense, but I don't have time like that. Do you? Why not just till and throw one inch of organic matter over the top? Why not just put a cover crop on it all winter and till it in during Spring time? That's what I do. That's what the Amish do.
@@roflstomps324 ugh, maybe the horse doesn't compact soil as much as a tractor?
@@davidvankainen6711 lol... yeah. That's my point.
@@roflstomps324 It takes generations to make a foot of topsoil correct? He makes a lot of good points in this video, yet simply outdated. I would agree, many are still using glyphosate on their no till fields, yet the times are changing once again. I'm not some staunch no tillist but there is a place for the drill no matter what world your going to live in. We're here now with some Amish pulling their 10ft no till drills with a simple 4 horse team, finding the middle road, as the machine is not much more complex then the last, yet puts us down the path of at least break even OG.
@@speedwayjesus2660 Well, that's the point I am making isn't it?
I am referring to the people who are arguing that no till is better for the soil.
All no till is doing is making profit. It's worse for the soil. It's worse for the drainage. It's worse for water retention. It's worse due to more fuel burned. It creates far more wash outs... It creates much more 'berming'. This is all bad.
People acting like they are saving the day is what annoys me. Say what you are doing. Getting better germination rates and easier weed suppression through chemical sprays and GMO seeds mechanically shot into the soil.
People are almost fanatic about no till. Almost like no tillers are heroes.
All that is being done is running a compactor, sorry, tractor over the soil a half a dozen times or more. That's it. That doesn't build good soil. You'd be crazy to think it would...
It's great that the Amish are doing drills. But guess what? They have the lush and beautiful soil for it. It makes sense to heap praise on the Amish for that.
The Amish aren't driving around in tractors all day burning fuel and compacting soil and acting like it's a good thing.
For the Amish, no till makes sense because they can get a much higher germination rate. They still have to contend with the weeds. They do have a lot of kids though...
I’m not educated on this topic but what you say makes total sense to where I don’t see how people can disagree with what you said.. You do a really good job explaining things to people. Learned a lot thanks!
Hi, I agree with some of what your saying but as a mainly no-till farmer of 1000 acres there are a few things that you said that aren’t correct: 1: no till does not reduce the organic matter in the soil and for us after doing no till for 20 years our organic matter has gone from 4% to 10% average(we soil test every year). 2: if you spray roundup(glyphosate) to kill grass before seeding a crop you do not need gmo seed for it to not die, I often seed peas after spraying with roundup and breaking up the land and they are not gmo. As long as the roundup is sprayed before the crop has emerged it can not kill the crop. 3. A big issue with conventional tillage is drying out the soil and on a dry year that can be a big issue. 4. In my experience conventional tillage is a real problem partly because of water erosion but wind erosion is also a big issue. Enjoyed the video though and will check out more of yours!
So true. My dad farmed in Eastern Washington from the 1980's until 1999. The tilling helped control weeds. He did use herbicides but not every year and only one application early on so the residue wasn't in the crop at harvest. Also, since it was a semi-arid climate, you had to conserve soil moisture. So we had a rod weeder that was used in summer fallow ground about 2 or 3 times a season. It would drag a square rod under the ground about an inch or so that turned. It would cut the weeds at the root just underground and didn't disturb the soil much to keep residual moisture.
We quit no till farming a few years ago. We now use a chisel plow which does exactly what you are talking about only goes down about 6-8 inches. Then we disc the fields, we now only spray about 15% of the chemicals we used to use. Good talk.
Why don't you use a roller crimper on densely planted fall cover crops?
I think a key component that you (and your neighbors) missed about how to make no-till commercial farming work is grazing. Because people have turned everything into monoculture, there is no balance. When animals are introduced, the no-till, regenerative process is complete. As people try to cut corners with a process, of course they are going to have to compensate in some other way (synthetic fertlizers, herbicides, and pesticides).
@Steve Slade grazing herd animals and livestock add to the biomimicry. Before industrial farming animals roamed and instinctively returned to the areas they ate bare months prior. Saliva..feces..birthing of these animals all add back to the natural cycle..back to the soil. Then it's up to the microbes. A balanced natural system.
@Steve Slade that sounds like an industrial farmings definition of No till. Till once...plant cover crops..chop and drop. Basically building soil naturally. The entire idea of no till natural farming is to observe nature and replicate it. Biomimicry. Zero industrial chemicals..no gmo seeds needed. My definition of no till is quite the opposite of what you described. Jadam..korean natural farming..no till combined are a powerhouse. Check out Chris Trump on youtube..his family grows 80 plus acres of macadamia nuts using natural farming methods.
@UC8X3WD6-D08C1nhZ9_Ar13A yeah I don't follow universities and such. I prefer to study ancient cultures. Tried and true methods we have abandoned. The hanging gardens of Babylon is what I am currently looking into. To each his own. I work with nature. Not against it.
When we bought our Homestead the soil here was red clay crap! Now I have good soil because I till the soil. It's fall and winter I mound the gardens full of yard waste leaves grasses and compost that I've made myself. In the spring i would turn it in. This year we went to raised boxes, easier to maintain.
that is why 50 years ago we never heard of sickness like cancer, thyriod problems and so many other deadly sickness as we have had in the past 30 years, cancer is now an every day word, due to our food being cemical grown,, working in the meat plant some 40 years ago i seen the huge change, and i could never eat store bought meat again, so i started growing all my own..
Cancer has always been a thing. It's now a bigger concern because people are living longer.
@@godzilladestroyscities1757 yep...since the fall of man. It was given a name in 1775....Sort of the same analogy is how "Global Warming" is now called "Climate Change" since we didn't warm. ...lol....Label it, state "The science is settled!!!"....Find out the science is wrong so then call it something else for the next 15 years of fear mongering and money grab until you need the next label..Wash, rinse, repeat... SMH.
@@danrhomberg1663 I don't think you understand what cancer is. Cancer is cells in the body becoming damaged. The damaged cells then reproduce out of control and cause massive damage to the body.
@@godzilladestroyscities1757 Ha ha...I'm quite certain what cancer is unfortunately. But fortunately, I'm also am quite certain what God is capable of. I've lived both. Be well.
I flip my garden spots numerous times in the begining of the year several weeks apart specifically to allow the weed seed to sprout and then I let them grow to about 3 to 5 inches and hit them with a bottom plow to put them about 3 inches under and then hit it with the disks. After doing this about 3 times, I break out the bottom plow again and set it up to form raised mounds to keep from loosing top soil to the heavy downpours we sometimes get. I also do a form of sheet composting by spreading the debris from the barns cleanings from manure to rotted hay out in the gardens during the winter. Come spring they get turned under with the cover crop (usually red or white clover, which ever I planed for deer food plots and is left over). I have had sun flowers stand over 9 feet tall, along with Okra plants at 5 foot in this garden using this method for the past 20 years.
Theres a good book called Dirt to soil by Gabe brown that might give a different perspective of tillage and notill he uses cover crops and animals really good book just search Gabe brown on
UA-cam there’s some good videos of his presentation on the subject.
Absolutely different perspective. This guy is far off, it's hard to imagine he's able to even grow a tomato.
@@pmessinger he is not the first person to speak about this subject. Other people in that region have also spoke about this very thing. I think it has a great deal to do with your soil, and if it is clay or not. Very complicated subject.
Gabe Brown does a great seminar on soil health. ua-cam.com/video/uUmIdq0D6-A/v-deo.html
@@pmessinger agreed. This vid was painful
I was forced to do no-till this last spring because my husband was laid up from ankle surgery and couldn't till my little bitty garden for me. I'm old and not strong enough to wrangle the tiller myself. So I just cleared the weeds as best I could (didn't spray with Roundup or anything) and used a hoe to make rows and a shovel to plant tomatoes and peppers. I hated it. I love the newly tilled soil (we live in Alabama, so our soil is red but no less nutritious and full of organic matter we have added over the 27 years we've lived here), so soft beneath my feet and such a delight to plant in. We are about to put in a winter garden, and my husband is back to full strength so I'm looking forward to a tilled garden to plant my winter things in.
Enjoy your videos and the Scripture that you add at the end. I have learned many spiritual lessons while working out in my little garden, and I talk to God as I work in His creation.
Agreed 100% on a large scale, however I do think many people promote no-till from a gardener's perspective. Not scalable for hundreds of acres as you mentioned and as we have tried to address several times.
Agreed! We try and use wood chips and raised beds to combat the issues mentioned and created fluffy living soil that needs no fertilizers accept for maybe some trifecta someday:)
@@SSLFamilyDad How did nature produce soil and food before tilling? Animals. So I find your argument a bit ridiculous to say no-till was invented for GMO crops. Seems ridiculous.
Well, I understand your point here but nature never grew 1000 acres of corn altogether. Nature didnt plant one crop in an entire field, so we have to try to mimic nature as much as possible but not resort to using chemicals to make up the difference. This requires us thinking differently and creating processes that work for our environment, crop rotation, and livestock rotation
@@SSLFamilyDad That's fair. I don't mean to be combative or argumentative. Just ensuring we're all on the same page here.
The reason you have to till is because you want a monoculture crop, and that requires extra steps. The "best" version of those steps, as you mentioned, might be tilling, but that doesn't mean no-till is only for GMO.
Thanks for all your content, and I hope you took this as the constructive criticism it was meant to be and not a personal attack.
@UCUoIdzx7AK1vspGINgAmheQ yeah you got tell Richard Perkins that. Or Joel salatin. Hilarious. Your religion is yours, not mine.
Very good very informative it let's me make my own decision
I bought 15 acres using 3 for garden farm was 200 years old. With cemetery
Agree. Tilling is beneficial in many ways. Opens up the soil to receive water, air. Breaks up compaction. Tilling used to be done with oxen.
One old way of helping the soil is green manure,Sweet clover plowed under before planting. Was one of the ways I learned about growing up on the farm.
Excellent video. Much needed too. I have been agonizing about this No Till Drill method. I bought this farm in the Mid West 4 years ago and I plant lots of food plots for the deer. I am using your method with my tiller and disc like you do. All the neighboring farms use the No Till method and chemicals. They give me hell about my old methods of wasting time and fuel. Watching you in this video made me stand firm on the tillage method. I am retired and love working the land. Thanks for the very informative video.
I'm in Ohio and I get strange stares too. I think it is because they don't actually want to go back to actually working at farming. Spray. Drill. Spray. Spray. Harvest. It's insane.
You might want to check out Dr. Grant Woods methods of no tilling, no chemicals food plots. The Buffalo System works very well for food plots. Not sure how it would do with large scales AG though.
I completely understand this for farming. In a garden context, I love no till for the convenience of not having to till certain areas when I'm ready to plant. I wonder if most of your negative comments came from gardening people learning about the benefits of no till and not larger scale farmers who know it's not practical on many levels. Thanks for your input!!
You have this almost 100% right. I attended Ag school about 45 years ago and no-till was relatively new at the time. We were told that this was the up-and-coming wave in agriculture. By using herbicides to control the weeds you could plant your crops and minimize erosion. Some no-till practices might actually help with the survival of existing soil biology, but that is not at all why it was invented and it really only works until the herbicides and pesticides destroy that biology. In addition, to run a seed drill through a no-till field requires a heavier duty, and thus more expensive drill. Thanks so much for helping to clear this up.
@homesteader fifty w/ ricky & martha Maybe so, and maybe it was just then being pushed into the mainstream. When the FDA decides to support/promote something, one of the first places to push it are Ag schools. Doesn't change the fact that the anti-erosion advantages of no-till are often overshadowed by the high chemical disadvantages that were pushed by FDA's version of this practice.
Not at all off base. Good explanation. Growing up in farm country, we always tilled. Even our gardens. I always saw it as a way to "mulch in place". It enriches the soil. Gardens ALWAYS turned out better when we tilled.
For another video idea... Explain the difference between hay and straw. What each is used for. Why you need both. And approximately how much you need per animal, per year. Etc...
We used minimal tillage! Grandpa had been doing it for over 50years because it has worked on our soil in our region. We only plowed and disced a field every 5years. Our fields were in rotation, only one of 5 fields was tilled for corn, the other 4 were not tilled and were in hay production or oats. It's all about what works for your farm, your soil, your climate, and you.
@Bill The Tractor Man ,
It also depends upon how greedy you are . Many farmers would not leave four fields fallow for corn !
@@donaldmiller8629 those fields were not going unused. The spring after we planted small grain, typically oats which did very well for us yield wise and we used it for feed along with the corn. The other fields we made hay off of. We made enough hay for us and to have extra incase of a bad year. On top if we had a really good year we had 10+ loads of hay to sell.
@Bill The Tractor Man ,
It sounds as though your farm was being well managed and that you had things well in hand.
My place is a little different. I have or had very dense clay soil. Quite hard to work with . But , I have no livestock so no animals to feed. I began with buckwheat which I tilled under in the blossom stage before it set seed. Then I planted alfalfa which is a perennial and is very deep rooted. ( brings up minerals from deep underground ) I let that grow for two years so the roots will be deep. Then I tilled that under before it set seed. Then I planted various vegetable crops. Other parts of my land were also going through the same process.
It has taken five years but my soil is now more friable , easier to work , holds moisture ( much less run off ) and I do not need any irrigation.
I will continue to add organic material as time goes on. I have no need to use manufactured fertilizer.
Don of Natural Plum Brook Farm.
@@donaldmiller8629 glad to hear what is working for you, we have very sandy soil, almost like a swimming beach! After all the years of grandpas rotations the soil is still hardly able to handle a crop. Without minimal tillage we would not have been able to even get decent hay off the land or even able to support livestock grazing it. The pasture land was all dense clay on the other side of the ridge that split the property. The clay was too hard to till but grasses and trees grew well enough for it to be grazing land.
@Bill The Tractor Man ,
Hi Bill , ah yes sandy soil . The opposite problem of clay soil but with much the same solution. When you think that you have incorporated enough plant material you probably actually need half again as much.
I like incorporating alfalfa because a two years growth brings up minerals to the surface from deep underground. Check out the book
about restoring MALABAR FARM. It should be in your local library.
One additional method that I use is tree leaves. I have a small copse of woods at the back of my place. In the fall after the leaves drop , I'm back there raking up leaves. I put them on my anticipated crop area for next spring. And I let the leaves dry. Then I drive back and forth over the dry leaves with my lawn tractor until they are well pulverized.
I don't plow. But , I do have a tiller that I can tow behind my lawn tractor. It has an engine that runs the tiller blades. I only till deeply enough to incorporate the leaf material into the soil. Then the soil lays fallow until the spring.
I like both the alfalfa and the leaves because they provide minerals to my soil although my soil is not lacking in nutrients. It's just or was very hard to work. Your sandy soil is a different kettle of fish . You probably do need the nutrients. And that is where a two year's growth of alfalfa would help you out. Plant material in the soil plus the minerals from underground.
Have fun !
an option for no till to prevent herbicide use it to roler crimp a cover crop this has the efect of laying down a huge amount of organic matter and mulching the weeds out of the next crop. i think tillage is fine as you say but only when you are puting biomass back in the form of your stalks or compost ect if you are growing somthi g like corn for silage or you are baling the stalks there is not enough going back in to make up for the extra that is broken down
Agreed!
personally, i've seen farmers that practice no till with zero herbicides , pesticides , or any kind of synthetic. planning becomes very critical when you are a no till farmer, to achieve results. i think we should not be limited by our close neighbouring farmers that were enticed into a way of farming, and failed to pay to attention planning skills for success. lets broaden our research to successful no till farmers , with zero synthetics: Gabe Brown.
Steve Slade Gabe brown Dirt to soil good book on the subject. You can also watch him on UA-cam. Just type Gabe Brown into the search bar
Templar he has used herbicide he doesn’t all the time he trying to get away from it what you need to understand is tillage is as bad as herbicide and causes as many problems as herbicide maybe more
Thanks for sharing your perspective...I wasn't going to till my acreage, but listening to your explanation about tilling, gives me pause to that notion! I don't want to use any chemicals on my land, so listening to you, has really opened my eyes to the great possibilities of farming on a small scale. Thank you very much!
Don't believe his BS. Do some more research. There is lots of first hand discussion of the benefits of no-till that directly contradict almost every word he says! The whole point of no-till is to get away from chemicals and mechanized cultivation!
p.messinger I don’t disagree with everything said, yet again the big agri giants are taking the regenerative no till and using the same words to try and green wash farmers into thinking their products are the only way. I can’t believe they have turned the beauty of no till into this poison filled fossil fuel dependent unsustainable ugliness. They shouldn’t even use those words or promote the idea of no till as anything positive,when it is the exact opposite. This video also barely addressed the REAL alternatives, using no till and NO chemical inputs. I’m not an expert on doing this large scale, everything I learned is geared towards smaller acreages, but I’m aware that large scale alternatives exist
We till because it is the best way to prepare the soil before the crop goes in the ground. Hopefully this video reaches more people because people need to know the dangers of the no till method.
1. Depending on your planned crop...you have to till. Eg cassava, potatoes. 2. The main reason I use no-till...and I'm new to no-till, is reduction in weed pressure. But I have a small garden. Agreed with you.
Love the rant! I'm glad to hear the difference about till and no-till. My mom raised her garden by having me rototill it every year. Best food I ever had.
First of all.. I love that you put a verse from Proverbs in there.. Amen! Definitely one of my favorites.. Points to "No man putting his hand to the plow and looking backwards is fit for the kingdom of God..."
Anyway, you are right on.. We do low till, but we're on a super small scale where it is feasible (and we're certified OG). If in the future we scale up to over a couple of acres, a tractor will be a necessity.
We use silage tarps and kill off a half acre at a time, but that would not be financially possible with a thousand acres.
Also, those that are doing large scale "no till" will greatly benefit from running rippers through their pastures and fields to put breaks in the subsoil. If they just started doing no till after years of plowing, the plow pan is still going to be there 10 or 12 inches below the surface.
Farm on!
I've never commented on your stuff before, but I figured I'd jump into the fray of this comment section just to say that I've been watching your videos since before your move and I appreciate your perspective. I don't always agree with you and I'm not a religious guy, but you come across as genuine, earnest, and sincere, which seems to be a rare thing on the internet these days. Thank you!
Thanks man, I appreciate that and you following along!
Here on my family farm in southern Wisconsin we've tried no till and it just doesn't work in our area because we are usually such a wet and colder climate we need our ground to be tilled over not only to prevent using a lot of chemicals but also to warm our soil up and dry it out in the spring because of how short our planting season is we have a lot of organic matter on our ground because we have four horse farms in a five mile radius that we spread manure for on our land so our soil health is amazing and we preserve the wildlife as much as we can but don't get me wrong we still use chemicals but not very much and a year ago we took water samples from our drainage tiles and it turns out the water coming from our poisonous land is just as good as spring water that you would buy in a store. Keep in mind a we took the sample about three to four days after spraying and right after a rain so the spray had time to get into the soil and to flow through the tile into the river .
Great! I’m glad someone finally said it!
Read these two books: Dirt to Soil by Gabe Brown and A Soil Owner’s Manual by Jon Sticka. There are also tons of UA-cam videos featuring each of them and tried and true no till methods combined with cover crop planning that eliminates the use of harmful chemicals.
Gabe brown uses herbicide and fertilizers. According to his youtube talks anyway. He also uses tilling to change from perennials to other crops according to his UA-cam talks. He does have some great ideas on using no till in a sustainable way but is not what most farmers are using throughout the country
Great video. Totally agree with you.... You need to put a headlight in your tractor
I'm a city guy who likes gardens of all types and I have always admired farmers. I travel, by car, all over areas of giant farms. I have noticed that when fields are not farmed, for whatever reason, that almost nothing grows the first year at least. What you said about the soil being sterile is backed up in my observations. I sometimes take a mobile gas detector and inspect transmission lines. The first time I did it, I was worried that I might piss off the farmer. Even though the pipeline is in a right of way and the farmers usually get rent payments, they all plant over them. I didn't even leave ruts! You wouldn't even know that I was there once the plants spring back.
If you want to get Technical : You even have to watch where you even buy /Donated your seeds from !! Watch what was given to the Mother Plant of the seed from the breeding Process of the plant , And or what has been Spayed onto the Bean its self before its Package up for resale...
I have a pto rototiller also. It is spectacular. The soil comes out so perfect and then planting is so easy...
You’re absolutely right I think it’s up to the farmer or individual if you want to till or no tell buddy anyway even though you kill your soil eventually every microbes will go back it’s part of nature you don’t have to go heavy duty but if you go to first 4 inches of soil is good enough it’s not gonna do much harm somewhere along the line mother nature will find a way to correct itself I’m still hooked on no telling but after watching your video it makes sense you’re absolutely 100%
"Guys I'm not talking about water." Love it. I enjoyed the video. Thanks!
This makes sense to me. I had wondered about many of the things you discussed, I always thought it had to do with the saving water in the soil so it didn't evaporate but hated the idea of putting round u0 on fields as it's a known carcinogen. Your way makes sense. God Bless
Round Up is not a "known carcinogen", it is rated as a "possible carcinogen" by some political entities. Most medical research shows no causation and only casual correlation (the people who work with glyphosate tend to work with real carcinogens, typically insecticides and a few rodentcides).
I agree with you. We have a 3000sqft garden in hopes of growing a lot of our food each year. We add compost to it and mulch it and use a small tiller to blend it all in. I've had successful gardens for many years. My grandparents farmed in WV for many, many years and this is how they did it. When I follow a "current trend" I usually pay for it somehow, not always, but usually. Thanks, Todd!
Excellent discussion....given me even more to think about. I've learned much from your videos - thanks!
I haven’t read or heard any no till people talk about using chemicals. I would say it’s the complete opposite. Every reputable no till person I’ve heard says you may need to till the first time and that’s ok. This was a great video btw. We are just starting a small homestead and are researching a lot and we are trying to find a healthy balance between till and no till. Thanks!
Well said Brother! It depend on the specific situation what method is best. Most of the people who will criticize "your" methods are clueless. Most are little people with a tiny raised bed and a couple of tomato plants. Thumbs up and a subscription.
Oh yes and I can tell you the fruits in the stores do not taste anything like they did everything has lost its flavor people are so used to eating green fruit because they pick a green to get it from Farm to farm they like sour fruit sour than sour that cuz that's how they're raised I was raised on sweet corn sweet vegetables and fruit celery the best tasting celery ever when I was a child that's what I miss I think you're very on point
i agree. small scale you can use the wood chips or card board to smother the grasses and weeds. but large scale trilling is what works the best. keep up the good work.
People use large tarps to kill those weeds the flame weed the seeds. I think your very right about these larger field crops! Its nearly impossible to do those that way. Smaller crops like market gardeners use it works out great for them.
You are correct. No till is a lazy way out ( cost effective even when adding fertilizer). Tilling has been done for thousands of years because it works great. It does not just loosen the soil, plow under plant matter, and allow air and water in, but it mixes the soil that has leached nutrients lower due to rainfall.
Hi. No till systems can heal the soil and be much less dependent on herbicides If you do commit on these 3 rules (wich are often forgotten) all the time:
Culture Rotation (succeed cultures that explore soil in different depths and behave different on pests)
Incorporation on cultural remains
And no till on itself.
If you commit and manage well this system you can reduce a hell on herbicides and pesticides(because mainly on correct rotatio. Regarding on soil compactation, never transit the field on excessive humidity soil and use tractors on double wheelset.
Many no till farmers dont succeed on healing soil and reduce quimicals because they only aply usually on one rule. No till systems requires commitement and knowladge to do it right.
I really appreciated your insights, you made good points (that can be solved).
Best Regards
From Portugal
Great points. A lot of catch words and propaganda out there about "no till". A lot of money involved in pushing "no till", add to that the fact that we are so removed from our agricultural roots and misunderstanding and false narratives take hold. Thanks for pointing out the truth!
Amen!!! The chemicals sprayed on these crops also get into the air we breathe and you can see damage to leaves from this atomizing into the air and traveling over the fenceline....
Hi SSL Family. Oh boy, when I read the video description I figured it would stir up some heated discussion. I immediately grabbed the 100% organic, non-GMO, vegan, heirloom, popcorn kernels from the cupboard and put a tablespoon of pure, certified, organic, first press, imported coconut oil in the non-stick, copper cladded cast iron skillet. Once the popcorn was done I sprinkled it with pure, pink Himalayan, fair trade salt and sat down to watch the show. Much to my surprise everyone was having adult discussions and sharing their points of view and experiences. Hahahahaha... Thanks for sharing your experiences as well. Cheers and God Bless. ~Mike and Ester~
Lol, strange isn't it
Vermont has, sadly, sold out to Monsanto. Most of the corn grown here is GMO and sprayed heavily. The lakes are contaminated from the run off. There are a few organizations calling it out. Even Ben and Jerry's has glyphosate in their ice cream. They have been sued for lying about their ice cream, too. Ben Cohen sold the company years ago to a corporation but they act like it's still owned by them.
@Steve Slade ,
It is not easy but you can find non-GMO products ! However , you must be aware that GMO corn and GMO soybean is now present in most products that you buy. GMO cornflakes , bread made with GMO wheat and GMO soy flour. GMO corn syrup in candy , etc. I read the labels. If it contains commercial corn or soy , I don't buy it !! Even sugar is now made from GMO grown sugar beets. And meat animals are being fed with GMO grown hay and GMO grown sugar beets. If you buy meat in a supermarket you are eating GMO products . Bayer and Monsanto are determined to mutate our DNA ! They claim that GMO is safe. However , no one really knows. 100 or 200 years from now our offspring may be born being Roundup ready .
I grow much of my own now. Even if I have to grow it in pots along the sidewalk. I can grow four stalks of corn in a modest sized pot. You would be surprised at what an interesting yard it makes.
@@donaldmiller8629 Please share where you get your information. What you are growing is GMO as it has been subject to selective breeding, the same way all domesticated crops (and animals) have been. As for gene spliced crops, the only commercially available ones are Round-Up Ready animal feeds.
@Len Harold ,
Selective breeding is NOT the same as GMO or lab gene splicing.
Selective breeding is a natural function as opposed to splicing in a gene that may not even be of the same species. For example , splicing a plant gene into an animal. That can not be done by Nature. It is done by humans in a laboratory !
You are attempting to mislead by equating selective breeding with Genetic Manipulated Organism. An example of selective breeding might be crossing a Galloway bull with a Scottish Highland cow for the purpose of having a Scottish Highland cow born without horns since the father naturally does not have horns. It works because they are of the same species. They are both cattle ! They are crossbred but NOT GMO ! And the offspring ( a calf ) can breed with another of the same species.
Now , an example of GMO might be the laboratory gene splicing of a human gene into the genes of a Chimpanzee. However , a human can not naturally breed with a Chimpanzee. Nature will not allow it.
For your purposes another example of GMO might be the human induced breeding of a horse with a donkey. ( different species ) With human interference it can be done. The result is a mule. But , here is where Nature steps in again. Because you see , it is not natural ! The mule can be created by humans but it can not recreate itself because Nature makes it sterile !! ( two different species ) They can be crossed by humans either way. Horse to donkey or donkey to horse. But in either case the offspring is sterile !!
@@donaldmiller8629 Selective breeding is definitely not gene splicing, but both fall under GMO. GMO is just a catch phrase that caught on, but never should have, as it is not specific to gene splicing. I should have written that clearer. Otherwise we are in agreement that gene splicing is unnatural and should be stopped. The scariest part is that most new immunizations are gene spliced versions of the original virus. I don't think that is going to end well.
I totally agree with you. My rant ended when i took land from grey hard soil to black fluffy soil by just using what made sense. Earth worm from the size of a piece of wire to the size of pencils...it only to two years to start the turn around and was a fantastic journey. Thanks for telling the truth about no till on this public forum.
The reason all the no till methods work is not the tilling but the amount of compost/organic matter that is spread.
Because you use so much organic matter there is no more reason to till (less weeds, soft soil, "integrated" fertilizer).
But you need to add at least the same area as the field just to produce the minimum amount of organic matter needed.
Edit: I'm talking about non-commercial or small scale no till methods like back to eden or what charles dowding is doing.
On a small scale I agree. Creating or applying 2 inches of compost on 200 acres is cost prohibitive however. The same goes for many other methods of "organic" gardening. Common sense and the ability to adapt the multitude of farming methods that do not involve a huge carbon foot print including chemical production and use are in our long term best interest.
My six foot tall native grass disagrees with you.
@@master6676 really how much plant mattet do you pull off your fields everyyear
@@rjtherocker I leave evrything that isnt used. I completly understand what no till is and use it as a tool if possibible but simply stating no till is best is close minded and limiting.There are simply too many variable to the wide variety of crip production in a huge difference of enviroments. I live in Oklahoma, have you ever ran no till equipment in a recently transformed pasture in prime bermuda grass area? The point of this video in my opinion is use what works and quite telling others they are wrong, but share options that are healthy and effecient.
@@master6676 let me guess all your nieghbors pile and burn every fall. Seems like you have lots of material just not the desire. Thats more true than saying it doesnt work or cant
I have a quarter acre field that i recently aquired, in the spring i will have to till it with a tractor and plant soy or field peas there is a lot of grasses on it. fact is i thought of no till but the soil there is heavy clay, if it does not get turned nothing will grow well. it is fertile but compacted.
I practice Organic No-till that uses crimped rye or peas or vetch that creates a mulch mat to supress weeds..... but yes when I turn a hay field into a crop field you need a plow
Cool, you are the first I have heard of using that method. I would love to try it out here!
Yeah man its pretty cool! Very good for building soil health in my opinion. There are some rescue tools too if the thistles etc. bust through, like the "no-till cultivator" :)
I love your method. We have wood chips and I am not at all fond of them. You can't tell how deep in you have to go for actual soil and then the wood chips always fall into the trenches....well, you get the idea. I've asked the husband to NOT have wood chips on our next garden but maybe another method of weed suppression and water retention. And tilling under this years crops is an amazing way of building up your soil! Can't do that with wood chips. Blessings from NE Missouri!
@Paula Jo Davis ,
Perhaps it depends upon how and where you use the wood chips ? I get them for free so I use them. However , I use the wood chips mostly in my apple orchard under the apple trees. It is hard for me to mow there under the branches. So I place a thick layer of wood chips to suppress the grass and weeds. The chips are close to but do not touch the trunk of the tree. I place a shield of hardware cloth around the trunk to protect from the rabbits.
The bottom layers of wood chips will decompose over time. When I see that the layer of wood chips has decreased I simply add some more wood chips.
I have a small woods so I use cut grass and fallen tree leaves and chicken manure laden straw as a compost for the garden. Oh and earthworms in the garden. I usually have a dozen worms per shovelful of dirt . I have to keep my chickens out of the garden but geese seem to like the weeds and bugs only and the ducks like the bugs. Anything to keep me from having to do too much work and weed pulling. lol
Also, if you want to kill off a field all you have to do is take blank cardboard, lay it out overlapping about 6 inches and than cover it with a thick amount of wood chips, well broken down (still woody) wood chips. Tilling can create nitrogen difficiencies because you are tilling in things like branches, (which if you till in wood it turns into MUD) no wonder why your fields are flooding.
Bang on... The sprayer is the most used piece of no till equipment here in Alberta, usually a spray of roundup to get the weeds, then a fungicide and another for bugs then another shot to kill the crop so they ripen and can be straight cut. I'm sure these sprays are extremely hard on the natural benificals and fungus systems and in the end YOU
Yep. They do the same down here in Ohio. You can see the days on which they spray because the lakes and rivers will bloom and stink. It pisses me off. I spill a little oil in my yard and I could have the EPA come and tear my ground up. Farmers get to poison whole ecosystems.
If they were tilling they would still be using those sprays. At least no till is a step in the right direction. Next is to stop spraying
While industrial no-till is very heavy on chemicals, Rodale Institute has a great organic no-till option that doesn't rely on chemicals. It does rely on tillage every 3 or four seasons, but using cover crops and a roller crimper is a great way to find a happy medium. Rodale is finding better yields with this technique which builds soil and limits erosion, remember erosion is caused by factors beyond washout.
They have some great ideas! That is what I was referring to at the end when I mentioned the roller crimper. That is one of their methods
@@SSLFamilyDad not sure how I missed that, it is a higher startup cost and definitely more attention to details, but seems to be pretty slick once it's rolling. (pun intended) :)
I absolutely agree to plant in dirt that is populated with any type perennial you have to till first and everything you said is true. On a smaller scale (like a backyard garden) you still need to initially turn it over to break the growth of whatever was there but after that if you mulch A LOT you shouldn't have to "till" it again at least not to the same extent. You'll need to incorporate compost or some additional nutrients of some kind from time to time and those will need to be mixed in, so even if you're using a rake or broadfork you're still kind of tilling. Good explanation!
Amen brother. Thanks for getting truth out there. God bless
Just look up Gabe Brown. What are your comments about his methods? Sounds like there is quite a variety of no-till.
Nice vid. People who no till on a large scale who intercrop cover crops have seen a lot of benefits financially and good soil health
I would recommend you listening to the field work podcast on UA-cam
Good talk! "Genetically Engineered" or "Altered" is the more correct term for what most call "GMO"s. As a fellow organic farmer, appreciate your thoughts!
Great points you made! I’ve heard the argument about the microbiology not rebuilding after tilling however I’ve never seen any actual data on this theory. Something I haven’t heard mentioned is that you tend to get a better crop, all things being equal, if you till vs no till; that has been my experience in the Pacific Northwest.
Great video, keep it up!
There is plenty of data on the subject. Universities all over the country have been studying till vs no till vs cover cropping vs sprays etc etc. What I have gathered from the cumulative data is that over twenty-thirty years till vs no till yields one inch more of organic soil on the no till side. Over thirty years that really equates to nothing. That's the difference in a truck load of manure or humus or compost. What has found to yield the most food without damaging the soil is a method of winter cover cropping, Spring tilling, manure or composted matter spread and then planting after a period of two weeks. Using a rotational planting system. In most of the studies, what I have found was that doing it the way our great grand dad or the Amish did, was best. What I do, personally, for my families food is I farm five acres of my twelve at a time. I do what I described above for one year and I let the rest of my land grow completely wild. I have acres and acres of clovers and wild flowers and native weeds and plants flowering all over the place. This helps with pollination and when this five acres is done for this year, my chickens can have at the root stubble, grubs, insects and whatever else they can find. I move down or up the property depending on where I see the soil is best (compaction, organic layer, moisture) and plant there the next year. I let the previous grow wild for at least a year and rotate. This way I can hill truck loads of horse manure from local farms to provide ample nitrogen and mulch. I spread it where I see the ground is in need of it. It isn't that hard. People make out like there is a hard and fast way of doing things. The only thing those people should tell you is that they do not actually farm or garden. They watch videos on it. Anyone who works in the dirt knows that it is an ever-changing, ever-challenging creature. Many methods work. Not all methods apply to everyone. No till and back to eden for example. They do not work in clay soils that experience heavy and sudden rains.
What a relief to hear some common sense. 👍
According to Gabe Brown you can do no till and no synthetics in large ag. Has to do with cover crops I think
Correct, he uses cover crops and promotes always have roots in the ground which I agree with 100%. However, that is not what 90% of farmers are doing in the U.S
@@SSLFamilyDad Check your stats. More farmers are learning how. You need to do more research before you chop it down. There are people with more experience who can explain what you have wrong, but you've got to be willing to listen before you go off and start acting like you know something. You don't!
@@pmessinger His numbers are just about bang on... and it really looks like you have no idea what you are talking about. The U.S. has about 920 million acres of farmland. Of that, 15 million uses cover crops... so. Yeah. *cough* Maybe re-read your last statement after the but. Sorry for triggering you in advance.
@p.messinger What makes you think this man isn't willing to listen. Let's hear from those "more experienced people" instead of @p.messinger who thinks he knows something FamilyDad doesn't.
@@billastell3753 yeah. We gathered that after his sudden silence to my factual numbers and data. He went away.
Great explanation between the two keep using that new plow
YOU ARE SO TRUE, I DONT KNOW ALOT ABOUT SOIL BUT WHAT YOUR SAYING MAKES ALOT OF SINCE. LOVE YOUR CHANNEL.
Good advice.of course people will swear by thier ideas but you are doing what works for you with the resourses you have,,,I am sure this bring out an interesting spectrum of comments,Glad you posted it,
im not a farmer but i think what you said is what id think is common sense. Id think gardens might be more forgiving when it comes to different types of fertilizers but thats on a smaller scale.... sounds logical that fields would benefit far more from putting organic material back into the soil.
Good explanation about questions I have had. Maybe we should go for “no chemical” vs “no till.”
Anything that is in nature is given by God and anything that is unnaturally made from poison is not natural so why would you want to put it on the food you eat that is just crazy ..... You are so right in how you farm your land that's what all the little bugs are for like bees nature knows best .... Love your channel 💕🌹🌺
Agree with you from another half of the world, we in the ME have a soil that's hard as rock, you need a wedge and a hammer to loosen that grey dirt, so no way to loosen and areate it without deep cultivating, we flib the whole grass and hay into the soil to make it loose enough for a root to spread, lots of rocks, deep rooting and anti herbaside weeds that's no way to kill them without tillage.
The only difference between our poor soil and grandfathrers' productive soil, was that they used heavy grasing cattle to remove weeds + extra manure, instead of herbasides we use in some lands, and the traditional tillage using horses doesn't compact the deep soil layers like our tractors.
I’m a no till farmer and I don’t ever spray anything that a teaspoon would kill a human... I don’t compact my soil I have controlled traffic... I use less fertilizer than conventional farming and yields are the same... if you want natural mineralization for free fertilizer why would you destroy the soil life’s habitat and home? Btw you said it would take several years to break down residue.... this is true on tilled ground because of lack of soil health... my 250 bushel corn crop stover is 90% gone by the next spring now that’s soil health that you claim is sterilized from roundup lol
@farmermatt629 ,
There are lots of chemicals that a teaspoonful will not kill you. However , they will not do you any good either. A teaspoon of gasoline can make you sicker than a dog ! But , it probably won't kill you.
I do not need to use fertilizer. I have plenty underground. I simply use alfalfa to bring it to the surface. Well , corn stalks that are just left in their growing position on the surface of the ground might take a long time to break down. It works much the same in a compost pile. The smaller the pieces of plant material the easier and more quickly it will break down. I sometimes use my grinder to grind up plant material. It's not just for branches you know .
Donald Miller maybe I will look into composting 2000 acres like your garden Donald since you think it is a good idea.... btw water hemp grows in my rock driveway... it would also grow in composted areas
@farmermatt629 I don't know much about farming. However I really want to know more. What seed do you use for your corn? GMO roundup ready seed? If the community is demanding an organic product that is strictly grown with no herbicides, pesticides, chemicals and so forth. Why are you growing these tainted crops?
Mark Mahoney if I was to raise “organic” crops and use no herbicide.... first I would have to get registered..... pay fees to get on a list I’m assuming then it takes 3 years of no chemicals or commercial fertilizer.... and that’s at today’s prices for crops before I even get a premium for organic... now assuming I don’t go broke before I get certified organic... I have to haul in chicken litter for fertilizer my yields would decrease from 200-250 bushels on average to 100-175 if I’m lucky... also I would have to hire a army of people to cultivate and pull weeds 7 days a week... I don’t know where I would even haul organic crops but I’m assuming the market isn’t real close.... I also would need a plow a field cultivator and a lot of diesel fuel to pull them... doesn’t sound real sustainable or green to me....!btw you wanna volunteer to weed crops in 100 degree heat? Ya know one else does either
@@farmermatt629 makes sense. Transitioning would be expensive and probably pointless for you. Starting from scratch though and being in proximity to a market that demands organic product helps. You can make a killing off of organic markets. People pay a premium for certain organic products so even a small farm can make money like SSL family dad. His methods make more sense to me given the market I am close to.
I'd love to have a short phone conversation with you cuz it would take me an hour to type everything I have to say about this!!
I used to work in the ag chemical industry and gave up very good pay due to the moral conflict I had with it.
You are about 90% right on everything you said 😁
Thanks for sharing & sticking to your principles. Surely 98 out of a hundred dont have the conviction to follow your path. May your future be rewarding
I am sorry that my comment seemed to start a 'firestorm of comments. 😐 I simply wanted to thank you for your opinion. I have found you to only speak the truth and respect your views. I wish other people would simply decide to respect your opinion or look for someone that they agree with.
Firestorms are cool sometimes;)
What is your % off organic matter in your fields?? How long does it take for your to soak up 1in of rain fall and how many inches in 1 hrs, I’m very interested in hear answers, thank you for your time
Excellent discussion. Thank you
The explanation is right on. Only other method to no-tilling is tarping which is prohibitive on a large crop area and will still require soil preparation. The question then is what harmful chemicals will the tarp leach into the soil. Farming with horses may create the least amount of compaction, still tilling the soil, now add the cost of the upkeep of the animals, that is the way we farmed into the 1970s. There is no best method for all applications, just individual choices. Keep up the great video's.
Marc and Paulette
Marc B ,
I have a question for you ? Does keeping a team of horses cost more than a $100,000 tractor plus the fuel and lubricants to keep it operating ?
I know of some Amish that bought farms of farmers that went belly ( those farmers used expensive machinery ) and turned the farms into successful and productive farms. Some locals resent the Amish for being able to do that .
The Amish farm the old-fashion way !
The modern machines are faster but apparently they do not provide enough return to pay for them selves. There are conditions when less is more.
I had a brother-in-law that bought a tractor ( only about $40,000 back in the early 1970's ) plus some other machinery . He said , " Look here , with all the lights and such , I can work in the fields until long after dark ." Which was true.
But , he could not make enough from his 250 acres to pay for the machinery.
The bank re-possessed his machines. Of course he still owed for them. The bank auctioned off his machines ( which were purchased by the bank at a huge dis-count ) and he still owed the difference. So , he lost his farm also .
I had advised him to purchase an older used tractor which would have served his needs. However , he wanted a new tractor with all of the bells , whistles and whiz bangs. And so like so many others , he lost his farm. He ended up working in a huge commercial bakery
obviously farming with horses/oxen is far superior, but then we need more farmers again like their used to be long ago.
Great video keep on tilling. No chemicals
The demands of farming are different everywhere. I would direct you to some of Gabe Browns work and Richard Perkins and Charles Dowlding on no till and no dig organic gardens. Labor is the limiting factor. However if one can employ willing hungry animals, if you have them. Recently I used ducks in the fall to prepare a garden for the next spring. From grass to beautiful garden. Not without harrowing weeds or aeration of the soil with a fork though. Never say never, only to chem farming. Carry on, it works good and is good! You have to release a little carbon to grow carbon, rototilling is composting.
I'm just a backyard gardener who lives in the typical Midwest suburban subdivision. My house does butt up against 70 acre farmland. This guy sprays and I can tell, like you pointed out, that they care nothing about the soil. They spray several times, adding herbicides and pesticides (which I actually suspect why my ALL of my tomatoes and beans have leaf curl this year)...anyway...I digress.I amend and create my own garden soil every year. Someone once told/asked me "why don't you just take soil from the farmland?". And I told them the same thing you just talked about. The soil is dead. The crops are kept alive by chemicals. Why would I want that for MY garden?? I also truly believe that there is a real link to Cancer that no one wants to talk about... We are what we eat! EXCELLENT rant! GO ARMY!!
Very good points Todd! I've always thought you need to turn under last year's growth
Farm Fit has a method I've never seen anywhere else before. It's called a kelvin cultivator or a kelvin weeder something like that. It is a device that uses heat to kill weeds. He says that it doesn't penetrate deep enough to kill off the bacteria and other good life forms in the soil. Supposedly it heats up all the weeds enough to cause their cell walls to burst killing the plant. It is also supposed to sterilize any weed seeds at or just below the surface. It is supposed to be as or more effective than tilling, though Mike uses both methods. It wouldn't hurt to check out his channel to take a look. The model he uses pushes like a lawn mower but they may have one that you can pull with a tractor too, it'd be kind of silly for them not to. He had an episode featuring it fairly recently.
I went back and checked, and the channel is actually The Fit Farmer-Mike Dickson
And the episode that it was on was;
We are prepping for our fall gardening now
The relevant part starts at 8:20.
Yeah but you cant drive a cool tractor
@@rjtherocker the model Mike has is hand pushed like a push mower, but the manufacturer may make a model that can be towed. If so, what's cooler than a John Deer? A John Deer with a flame thrower on the back!
Yeah, I've seen this but aren't you just robbing Peter to pay Paul? I mean, the no-till folks say not to till because you are releasing carbon and all that. Imagine the carbon released while you drive around a field with a tractor sized flame thrower. The amount of fuel that would burn would be astounding. On a small scale it would not be so bad. But, then, if you are going to do that. Why not just till it and be done with it?
@@roflstomps324 actually you do still till, but not to kill the weeds, only to prepare the ground for planting. The reason for the burning is that it is the only non poisonous method of killing off ALL the weeds. Not even tilling can do that, it can only destroy existing weeds. Tilling does nothing to prevent seeds in the soil from germinating later, burning kills the seeds too. That's why slash and burn is such an effective (if destructive) practice for initially clearing land. This method also greatly reduces the possibility of burns getting out of control, since the plants are only scorched, not actually set on fire. This method also works on wet ground where a ground fire is not realistic.
@@juliebaker6969 No. Sorry. I prefer tilling. With tilling I release less carbon into the atmosphere (the whole premise of no till) and allow aggressive plants to take hold before the weeds can move in. Right now I have corn that I planted two months ago. It has native grass spreading between the rows. I have since hilled the corn, covering the grass. By the time the native grass recovers, the corn will have grown two feet or more... in affect. The grass will just become food for the corn.
I think when people talk about "no till" they are referring to the "back to eden" style, not industrial farming.
sometimes they are, and sometimes they aren't:)
@@evolvingwiththewilsons5927 what do you do under the wood chips? I've collected multiple tons of wood chips but I'm not sure what to lay under them.... Can't get enough cardboard to lay on such a large area I'm turning into a vegetable garden-- about 3200 sf.
@@evolvingwiththewilsons5927 the grass doesn't grow thru? I put about 3 inches down in a small area and the grass grew thru. I will try 8 to 10 tho. Thank you very much!
@@evolvingwiththewilsons5927 and you plant directly into the chips? Doesn't that drain the nitrogen from the plants?
@@evolvingwiththewilsons5927 ill look for it. On UA-cam?
I think what you mean is your truth about no till from your perspective I have areas of till and no till it depends on what I want the end result to be. We rarely use chemicals. I agree with burnpistn check out what guys like Gabe Brown on the subject of no till are doing. John
Love this video!!!90% in agreement...SSL we should talk
A no till raised garden beds is one thing but a till farm has to almost impossible to do it the same way. One thing is how do you get enough compost and everything to pile up so deep that kill off grass and stuff. Haha. I like the video. Thanks
I totally agree on the harmful chemicals , and Round-up is in all kinds of law suites . I wish there was a safe one to use but I don't think there is. I would love to roto till my field but don't have a tiller , but we raise hay and pasture so it needs to be tilled every 4 or 5 yrs . How much maintenance do you do on your rototiller as I always thought it would be rough on one ? Good video!
For a larger scale I would recommend a plow and a disc to replant the hay or over seeding it. You can find used plows and discs for super cheap, I think I paid $200 for my 2 bottom plow and I see discs for the same all over
@@SSLFamilyDad the biggest problem you will discover if you do this to your hayfields, is that you will release the seed bank buried in the soil. You will end up with a lot of undesirable weeds. Just look at your pumpkin patch. How many different varieties of plants and weeds appeared after you tilled that area the first year? That is what would happen to your hayfields if try to replant them via tillage methods.
First, Thank you for sharing. I feel there are a number of things involved in building soil that does not profit the farmer in this years $. No till is great in vegetable garden beds where people manually remove weeds. And lastly thanks for including hay and cover crops in a plant rotation, few people with small farms, homesteads or whatever is the trendy name this wèek give hay, weeds and grasses the credit they deserve for simply providing areation and building healthy soil.
@SSLFamilyDad. Please look up presentations by Gabe Brown and/or Ray Archuletta for a full explanation of how no-till and no-chemical works on any size farm. I bet you will come back sharing a different truth.
LKH Fun totally agree. Also Jon Sticka.
Look closely! I seriously doubt the "no chemical" claim.
Staying on the topic of no till. My family have been farmers as far back as the 1800s. From Iowa to Washington, to Idaho. We were pretty close to the Mennonite lifestyle. I know what sustainable and organic farming can produce. One thing my father did in the early spring was to do a controlled burn of the pasture areas. Then he would plant a cover crop of Alfalfa ( green manure) I don't remember once him using any toxic chemicals. We would rotate the fields between pasture and fields of veggies. I wish that the modern day agriculture would look at the old ways. These big monstrosities of agrichemical companies are not our friends. And, this no till method is as toxic as the herbicides and pesticides that they are dumping on our food. So sad. I am not speaking from lack of knowledge, and am in very much agreement with what you have said in this video.
Ditto. Same boat here.
@Kathrine Kerns ,
I don't know if your father actually thought about this or not . But there are some plants such as alfalfa that are very deep rooted. Depending upon how long they are left in place , those roots can grow anywhere from five to twenty feet underground. What they are doing is bringing minerals that are deep underground up to the surface. If the alfalfa is then turned under those minerals are now available to more shallow rooted plants such as corn.
There is a book about restoring a worn out farm in Ohio by using that very method. The title of the book is " Malabar Farm " . I do not recall the author.
It should be available at your local library. One thing that I got from the book is that farmers are actually , indirectly , miners of the minerals in the soil. The farmers grow plants that take up those minerals and then we eat the plants.
Malabar Farm by the way is now an Ohio State Park which you can visit.
@@donaldmiller8629 exactly. That is why alfalfa is called green manure. And, yes my father knew exactly what he was doing.
There are lots of farmers converting to the old ways similar to what your people did, but with improvements proven over time since then--without sprays or so much machinery. No-till is not the evil this guy would have you believe. He is so wrong about the whole concept, start to finish.
@@pmessinger I am not in agreement with you. Don't you think it depends on your soil, and the weather. Also the region of the country you live in. Monsanto and other companies have brought this no-till to the idea that tillling is bad. He is not wrong. I am in agreement with what he said.
You really hit the nail on this.
You should watch some GrowingDeer.tv videos about their use of no till drills and how they got to the point where they use no fertilizers or chemicals and have almost no weeds in their fields
It’s a UA-cam channel
Please go watch some of Gabe Browns lectures on no-till farming and clue yourself in about how it should be done. No GMO's no chemicals!
I prefer the methods used by Amish farmers who have been feeding themselves since who knows when, over one guy everyone has a hard on for on the Tubes.
I think perhaps no-till only works for micro farms? Where you can use sillage tarps for killing off existing cover or cash crop? I guess wouldn't apply to large scale ops where you have to use herbicides. We are moving to a new state and want to start a small homestead micro farm and grow veggies but mainly flowers. I also just want a sub compact tractor to help with the work and save my back. Any thoughts on what I should use? I was going to just get a rototiller - not sure what else to do for small scale 40x50 plots?
Interesting... To be honest, I never really paid much attention to the subject because all I have had is a 10x20 garden space. We are looking for a homestead right now, so I may be faced with this kind of choice soon. Thanks for the great info!