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2003
Table of Contents |
I wish to take this time to thank everyone for this opportunity to speak at the conference. I farm in northeastern South Dakota. Farm rotations include corn-soybean-corn-wheat, on heavy soils. Wheat-corn-soybean, on medium soils and wheat-soybean-wheat- corn soybean, on lighter soils. My farm labor energy and machinery are as follows: seeding fertilizing and support energy .5-7.5-GPA labor includes two people per shift. Spraying & support Energy .2-.3-GPA. Labor includes, two people per shift. Harvest, transportation & support, Energy 2-3 GPA Labor includes four people per shift + 4 custom units. At our company, we also do a tremendous amount of on sight research. We have annually, test plots in fungicide tests, mechanical plots on openers fertilizer placement, residue sizing at harvest. Key Objectives of Modern Crop Producers fall into four categories: RESIDUE SIZING, SEED ENVIRONMENT, SMART FERTILIZER PLACEMENT, and SOIL SURFACE MANAGEMENT.
RESIDUE SIZING must be a priority during the harvest process. In the past farmers, have spent a lot of money on a bandage approach to try to size residues after harvest, such as stalk choppers, heavy disk harrows, burning, deep plowing, etc. Think about it, you shell out a quarter of a million dollars for a harvester, and all it does is rub the corn kernels off the cob and spit it out the back of the machine. This doesn’t make much sense. Modern farming systems must become more efficient than this to survive in the future. With the harvest of small grain crops, residue sizing is equally as important. We are finding the host for the most diseases is the lignin and cellulose of the longer pieces of residue. If we grind up the straw into small pieces, nature’s natural break down process is accelerated and disease levels are reduced. To do a good job of residue cutting, you may have to replace the knives in the straw chopper every other day. Every harvester operator knows what happens when the straw chopper starts pulling hard. WE RAISE THE HEADER AND LEAVE THE STUBBLE LONGER. I think now you understand what I am getting at. 99.9% of the need for tillage was due to the lack of RESIDUE SIZING AT HARVEST.
SEED ENVIRONMENT is next on the list. What do I look for to achieve a good seedbed? No-till rational in the past has always been DON’T USE A TANDEM DISK IT WILL RUIN YOUR SOIL STRUCTURE! On the other hand it’s ok to use a disk to seed with. A DISK IS A DISK IS A DISK! They are always round, and either flat or curved, notches wave bubbled on and on. The fact is, what they do in the soil is very much the same. They smear, pack, hairpin and can cause poor seed environment. I have experienced this many times in research as well as large-scale fields. We all agree that the mouth of the plant is its root system, and with poor seed environment that root system is sometimes compromised using a disk type system. The other situation that is bad with using a disk, is placing fertilizer in a smeared slot that later gets rock hard. It’s like putting your plant food into a ball jar. Root access is inhibited. New research is showing that the most disk planting systems will impact the soil with 5 times the pressure on the soil surface than a track type tractor. This is the reason why soil disturbance in the seeded area is so beneficial.
In the early 80's, I realized some of the problems on seed environment and fertilizer placement. I started to develop an opener. I wanted to lift and loosen the soil just in the seeded area (a process I now call micro loosening), place fertilizer below and to the side of the seed, close the fertilizer with soil, and place seeds above and to the side of the fertilizer. This process I now call PPF (Precision Placement of Fertilizer), fixing the relationship of the seed and fertilizer in the soil.
Over the years of trails and tests, the end results were always an increase in root structure, as well as, significantly improved seed environment. Plant health was always very good. In the late 80's, I was introduced to Dr. Jim Cook, USDA-ARS research staff and co. author of wheat health management. He took one look at my opener and said, that with the micro loosening would have a direct effect on soil born root disease. Soil disturbance in the seeded area once again is a benefit. In the last year, I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Dean Martins with the soil tithe lab. Dean, after many questions, said that the way the opener works in the soil would have a great impact on soil carbon and nitrogen in the soils. He feels that implementation of the PPF system will result in lower fertility requirements to achieve the same yield goals. This past year test plots have shown us that with a 40%, 60% and 80% reduction in nitrogen, the in plant nitrogen levels still maintained good yield potential as long as we fed the mouth of the plant, it’s root system.
The problem in the past with knife type openers, has always been air seeder companies would put openers on a frame section and either drag a harrow behind the machine to try to level out the field, or just go slow so not too much soil was thrown out. Over the last five years, I have been working on a closing system and have finally settled on something that will work. With a closer on each opener a hoe type-seeding system is no different than a planter or single disk system. Imagine, if you would take all the closing wheels off of your corn planter or single disk opener, and just pull a harrow behind. Another big benefit in having an opener with a specific closer is that ground speed becomes less of an issue. The closing tire or packer no longer has to fit into a groove is the soil made by the point, It now is rolling over a slight burm.
The next thing I needed
to address is the packing system. I went with a V-lug type tire, with the lugs
overlapping more in the center of the tire where the fertilizer is placed, and
less packing on the outer edges of the tire, where the seed is placed. The results
show that the fertilizer is pressed deeper into the soil than the seed. This
system works very well in heavy crusting type soils.
I than boiled all these ideas together, and am now building my own planting
system along with help from Michael Horsch, a young German Farmer- Manufacturer.
Our new company is known as HORCSH ANDERSON. Our new 60' planting system can
SEED AND FERTILIZE AN ACRE A MINUTE. Our new system really makes you think out
of the box. SEED LINER, this power unit is four wheel drive, will carry up to
a 1100 bushel pay load and pull a 60' air seeder at eight miles an hour, all
day long, on about .44 gallon of fuel to the acre during the first 600 hrs of
field test operation. The farmer of the future will think of his tractor as
just a $200.000.00 draw bar pinhole, because that is all this tractor can do
is just pull something. With the SEED LINER concept, we can pull a drawbar load,
as well as carry a payload. This makes the investment much more productive.
SEED LINER also has the ability to change its tank in just minutes. SEED LINER
is not for sale yet. We are still in the testing stages at the present time.
SOIL SURFACE MANAGEMENT -- Level fields are very important to the success of the modern cropping system. If you try to seed through sprayer tracks, combine tracks, grain cart tracks and other uneven areas in the fields, you will realize quickly that yields will go down. I feel every once in a while you must level your fields, if these conditions result. Very shallow surface leveling, 2-3" deep, is all that is needed.
I would like to take this opportunity to invite everyone to my farm to the second annual HORSCH ANDERSON field days June 11-12, 2003. You will have the opportunity interact with farmers and research people from around the world, as well as ride and drive the latest in state of the art farm machinery.
In conclusion the FUTURE OF FARMING SYSTEMS must focus on four key points.
GLOBALIZATION: Farmers
must communicate, worldwide to compete in a global market.
CLIMATE: Farm practices must parallel the environment to have control of the
land.
WATER: Farmers have control of one of the largest purification systems, Soil.
FOOD QUALITY: Farmers must prove to the world, we not only have the ability
to produce quantity but quality.
To understand how our farms impact these issues is the key to productivity and profitability.
Thank you
Kevin Anderson
 Contact
us: Hans Kok, (208)885-5971
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