Farm Transitions From Conventional to No-Till

Dan Crummett, Contributor

Fifth-generation farmer Dennis Frey has guided his corn and soybean operation from conventional tillage through various attempts at conservation tillage and finally to total no-till 15 years ago. It has been a journey.

Frey's path to eliminate tillage was taken to combat soil erosion and boost productivity. "When I graduated from Southern Illinois University in 1973, everything was in tillage," Frey recalls. "My work wasn't done 'til everything had been chisel-plowed. Every year, it took my father and me and two employees to get fields prepared and a crop planted." Today, he and son-in-law Brock Holston complete the task in less time and with far less fuel, and erosion is well below USDA's soil-loss tolerance rates.

Frey began farming in 1975 with his wife, Jackie, on land that had been in his and her family for years. Located just off Interstate 64 in Hamilton County, near Dahlgren, Illinois, Frey Family Farms has consistently averaged more than 200-bushel corn over the past seven years, along with 60-bushel soybeans.

NO-TILL BENEFITS

The southern Illinois farmer points out no-till fields are always protected from wind and water erosion with crop residue, as well as on highly erodible fields going into soybeans, a cereal rye cover crop, sometimes augmented with a mixture of turnips and radishes. By not disturbing the soil, fields remain firm but not compacted, resulting in more timely and consistent planting. Residue-covered fields also conserve moisture by reducing evaporation and increase soil moisture by enhancing water infiltration from precipitation throughout the offseason.

"Our soils vary from heavier clays on bottomland to easily erodible hillsides," Frey explains. "I'm convinced to make no-till work in the bottoms, subsurface tiling is a significant addition. That drainage is critical when farming alluvial soils."

The 1,500-plus-acre farm lies south of the deep, rich prairie-developed soils of traditional Corn Belt fame. Yet, Frey says over the years, no-till -- and more recently the use of cover crops -- has helped build soil organic matter levels. Hamilton County soils generally hover around 1%, but Frey's fields now range from 1.5 to 2% organic matter.

"It's a slow process," he says. "Ours are not prairie-based soils to begin with, but now we're not tilling away the carbon and are seeing increases." He estimates annual soil erosion losses are in the 1- to 2-ton-per-acre range, half what USDA recommendations term "tolerable."

TILLAGE MINDSET CHANGE

Frey graduated with a plant and soil science degree. In addition to farming, he worked for a USDA Soil Survey team as a resource conservationist in the county identifying and mapping soil types. "I saw firsthand the results of erosion on upland soils and practices that could prevent those losses," he says. "At home, we also had a lot of erosion from 100 years of tillage. I began to realize we needed to change how we farmed, but it was a slow process of changing from what we'd always done."

Frey's father, Edwin, had built some of the first terraces in the county in the early 1950s and shared his son's interest in conservation tillage, even no-till. Like many newcomers to the practice, however, they found it difficult to make the commitment to park the plow permanently.

"We'd try it [no-till] a year then go back to the chisel," Frey recalls. "We were never pleased. It was a long time before we realized you must fully commit to no-till before all the benefits become evident."

After eliminating tillage, microbial populations begin to rebuild in the soil profile. Living roots throughout the season (with off-season cover crop use) feed specific microbes with their exudates, and those organisms are linked to improved water and nutrient transport.

OTHER MANAGEMENT MOVES

Frey admits he hasn't found the perfect recipe for using a cereal rye cover crop ahead of corn. He generally applies 45 pounds of cereal rye incorporated with a mix of 18-46-0 and potash to lighter soils going into soybeans. The fertilizer rate is determined by soil-sample analysis completed every three to four years on 2.5-acre grids.

"Once the mixture is down, I hit it with a TurboMax VT to incorporate it, and we get great stands starting in mid-October to early November," he says.

Over the years, Frey and Holston have experimented with cereal rye around their soybean and corn rotation to tweak cover crop planting and termination dates.

Most of the farm's corn nitrogen (90%) is side-dressed in-season, with starter fertilizer dribbled on at planting through a 28 to 32% liquid system on a Kinze 1223 planter. The planter was recently updated with an air-delivery system to replace the stock mechanical system. Thanks to the increased levels of soil biology following years of no-till efficiently cycling residue, the original coulters and trash whippers were removed. On odd-shaped fields with terraces, Frey and Holston still use anhydrous ammonia at preplant. Lime is dealer-applied using variable rates keyed to grid-sampling analysis of soil pH.

AWARD-WINNING CONSERVATION EFFORTS

To further boost farm productivity, the Freys enrolled 240 acres of less-than-optimum farm ground in the Conservation Reserve Program. They planted it to native-to-the-area prairie grasses and wildflowers.

He also took 4 acres across a drainage ditch he couldn't farm and planted it in trees. "I've been planting trees (mainly hardwoods) since I was 20 years old. Now, there's about 30 acres of the farm in timber."

Frey has constructed several miles of terraces, installed erosion-control structures and nurtured more than 80 acres of native grasses near the farm's headquarters.

The couple's ongoing conservation improvements were recognized with the inaugural Illinois Leopold Conservation Award in 2021.

Meanwhile, Holston, an avid hunter and fisherman, has planted multiple food plots and clover patches during the past 10 years with conservation in mind.

"All this has made our farm more productive and is improving its productivity," Frey explains. "Brock represents the sixth generation here, and he has a 10-year-old son. If he wants to farm, the place may see its seventh-generation steward."

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