Jack Boyer is no stranger to experimentation. As a retired ag engineer, the Reinbeck, Iowa, farmer spent more than 3 decades proactively problem-solving equipment issues.
For the last 10 years, he’s applied his trial and error methods to cover crops and today, utilizes cover crops on 100% of his corn, seed corn and soybean operation. But Boyer acknowledges a successful marriage of strip-till and cover crops takes work and a willingness to learn from mistakes, while also celebrating the successes.
As Jack explains, “In corn, we’ll go in with a burndown application plus 30 units of N per acre with UAN before planting, but we’ll no-till soybeans right into the cereal rye that is almost 4 feet high, then come back with a burn-down within 5 days,” he says. “We find the soybeans are not limited by the rye, but it helps control the weeds.”
In part 1 of today’s Strip-Till Farmer podcast Jack details his experience integrating cover cropping practices into his operation, to include examples of nutrient application savings (as much as $30 per acre of N), water infiltration benefits and of interseeding trials.
You can follow along with this podcast by downloading Jack’s corresponding PDF presentation.
Strip-Till Farmer's podcast series is brought to you by Topcon Agriculture.
Agronomy matters and Topcon Agriculture application solutions make it work. From planning to precision machine control, Norac’s boom height control, monitoring and mapping, to data management, you have the total set of solutions to maximize your agronomic plan. Find out how to make the most of your 4R Nutrient Stewardship with precision technology that is unmatched in ease of use. Visit them at TopconPositioning.com/GrowingSolutions.
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