Underground Movement - 3

More Than a Philosophy

Gregg Hillyer
By  Gregg Hillyer , Progressive Farmer Editor-in-Chief
Mark Mueller is digging into the benefits of no-till planting with a cereal rye cover crop. He says it has improved water infiltration. (DTN/Progressive Farmer image by Bob Elbert)

Spend a few minutes with Mark Mueller, and you quickly discover he's a student of history. The fourth-generation farmer sprinkles historical facts into his conversations calmly, effortlessly, much like a philosopher, as he talks about his farming operation.

"I do believe civilizations have fallen because of their inability to feed themselves," Mueller says. "Go back to the ancient Romans. They conquered Egypt because it was becoming increasingly difficult to feed the empire. They needed the fertile fields along the Nile. Egypt became Rome's granary. History is filled with examples of man moving to, discovering or conquering new lands when soil was depleted."

SOIL STEWARD

Mueller wants to be sure history doesn't repeat itself on land his family has farmed since the 1890s. He has been embarking on a journey focused on no-till, cover crops and soil health to help keep soil in place and maintain its productivity.

Land in this part of northeast Iowa is gently rolling. Most farming is done with a chisel plow. "When I was growing up here, the sign of a good farmer was to have a field as black as possible," he recalls. "My dad was always on the forefront of trying new practices. He was one of the first in the area to chisel-plow."

HISTORY LESSONS

But when Mueller returned to the family farm in 1995 after a stint in agribusiness, the harsh lessons of past civilizations trying to feed themselves shaped his farming philosophy.

"Agriculture today is based on a monoculture system that encourages intense tillage," he says. "We are mining the good soil we do have. We won't be able to produce enough food if we don't have the soil to grow crops in."

That worry hit home for Mueller after a heavy rainstorm in 2004. He has an agreement with a nearby dairy to grow corn silage on what is now 275 acres. Soon after silage harvest, an intense rain battered the unprotected ground. Deep ruts and gullies scarred the field.

From that day, his soil stewardship efforts took on new urgency. The following year, he started transitioning to no-till and trying cover crops. No-till forms the foundation of his conservation efforts, cover crops the mortar. Today, his entire 1,600-acre operation is no-till and has been for the past seven years. About two-thirds of his land is planted to cover crops.

Mueller's rotation is corn/corn/soybeans. In any given year, half of his corn acres are corn after corn. During the years, he has experimented with different cover-crop species such as tillage radishes and hairy vetch, but has settled on cereal rye for its winter hardiness, rapid growth and management ease.

Mueller incorporates several approaches with cover crops. As soon as silage is harvested (around Labor Day), he uses a fertilizer buggy to broadcast cereal rye at about 1 bushel per acre. A Krause Excelerator vertical tillage tool set at a depth around 1 inch lightly incorporates the seed to give the cereal rye a head start. In the spring, the dairy custom-harvests the cereal rye for forage for its dry cows. Mueller plants into the 6-inch stubble.

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On field corn, he flies on cereal rye into the standing crop about a week after Labor Day. On soybean fields following harvest, the cover crop is either broadcast with the fertilizer buggy or aerially applied.

The following spring in fields going into corn, Roundup is sprayed on the less-than-knee-high cereal rye a week before planting. Timely spraying is critical. Windy conditions one year delayed spraying for two to three days after planting. Mueller saw a 5% to 10% yield hit.

For soybeans, Mueller plants directly into waist-high cereal rye and applies Roundup immediately afterwards.

He estimates total per-acre costs for cover crops are $15 for ground application and $25 for aerial application. Conservation Security Program cost-share funds cover most of the expense.

ADDED VALUE

His two-pronged practice of no-till and cover crops provides several benefits, a few unexpected.

"I started out just trying to keep soil in place," Mueller explains. No-till gave the expected savings on fuel, machinery and labor from fewer field trips. After a slight yield dip as he converted to no-till, he says, "I'm making at least 98% of the yield of conventional-till farmers but easily spending less than 95% [of the conventional tillage costs] to do it."

He has seen "great improvements" in soil tilth and water penetration thanks to no-till and cover crops. "That allows me to get into the field a day or two sooner after a rain compared to fields that have had some type of tillage," he adds.

Cover crops have provided some surprise benefits. "Cereal rye does a tremendous job of cleaning up weedy fields," Mueller explains. "It chokes them out. The rye won't make a field spotless, but any weeds that do come on show up late in the season."

He believes cover crops also improve water quality. "If a cover crop holds soil in place, you control your phosphorus runoff; and if it ties up nitrogen, that will help control the nitrates leaving your fields."

PAYOFF QUESTIONS

While Mueller is seeing positive results from his soil-preservation efforts, definitive economic data is still hard to come by.

"As farmers, we know we need topsoil," he says. "But, when you hold a handful of rich, black topsoil in your hand, what is that worth? What do I have to show for my costs associated to hold my topsoil in place?"

He hopes to answer those questions by participating in the Soil Health Partnership (SHP). The National Corn Growers Association initiative is partnering with farms across the Midwest to improve soil health and determine the economics of soil stewardship.

"That's the question every farmer has when talking about soil health in general and specific practices like cover crops," explains Elyssa McFarland, SHP field manager for Iowa. "What's the return on investment? We know robust soil health is one way to improve the land and make it more profitable, but many farmers are on the fence to taking that next step until they see the hard data."

Since the SHP was launched in 2014, McFarland says it has been expanding the network of research farms with more than 65 sites in 2016 and a goal of enrolling 100 farms by 2017. These field trials include soil, production and economic data collection.

ROI MAPS

SHP is working with software company AgSolver (www.agsolver.com) to help analyze the data and develop return-on-investment (ROI) maps to determine if cover crops, for example, are providing a higher return than fields with no cover crops. McFarland anticipates initial economic data to be available in 2017.

"I believe we have the opportunity to see some significant economic advantages on Mark's farm from the practices he's implemented," she says.

Mueller is banking on it. "I don't need to have the highest yield per acre, but I do need to make the most money per acre. I think I'm on track to do that with no-till and cover crops, but I need the economic research for my own peace of mind and to prove to the doubters they are money ahead to improve soil health on their farms."

Ever the farmer and philosopher, Mueller understands the challenges ahead for him and all of agriculture.

"I think it's crucial to our society we have healthy soils," he stresses. "It's not going to happen overnight. It takes 500 years to make an inch of topsoil. And even if I do everything absolutely perfect, I'm still probably losing a half ton of soil per acre per year. So I'm trying to preserve what I have. After all, our civilization depends on it."

Gregg Hillyer can be reached at gregg.hillyer@dtn.com

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Gregg Hillyer