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In this episode of the Influencers & Innovators podcast, brought to you by Topcon Agriculture, editor Frank Lessiter talks with Ray Rawson, who is known to many as the ‘Father of Zone Tillage.’ Rawson spent a number of years promoting the zone-till system at meetings across the Corn Belt and working one-on-one with growers. A number of today’s reduced tillage tools got their start in the Rawson farm shop, with several strip-tillers citing Rawson as direct inspiration for adopting the practice.
“It’s tillage in what I called ‘organized zones’ in which we’re only tilling the areas that we want to warm up and place fertilizer In … the plants actually pick it up quicker and don’t have to hunt and gather so much …” — Ray Rawson
Join in as Frank and Ray discuss the philosophy of zone-till and how it differs from other systems, the Zone Builder and other implements Rawson invented over the years, Rawson’s role as an early pioneer of the soil health movement, using “liquid sunshine” as a foliar feed program, the economics of no-till, and much more!
P.S. There’s lots more great no-till, strip-till and conservation tillage stories and history in Frank Lessiter’s new book, From Maverick to Mainstream: A History of No-Till Farming. Check it out here.
Strip-Till Farmer's podcast series is brought to you by Topcon Agriculture.
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Intro Music: Adam Selzer - True North
Interlude Music: Alialujah Choir - Little Picture (Instrumental)
