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Noah Newman:

Welcome to another edition of the Strip-Till Farmer Podcast, brought to you by Sound Agriculture. I'm your host, Noah Newman.

Great to have you with us. Thanks for being here. We're going one-on-one with Blakely, Georgia strip-tiller Caleb Traugh, who accumulates ideas from across the country and finds creative ways to make them work on his farm in Georgia. Let's waste no time jumping into the conversation.

Here's Caleb.

Caleb Traugh:

My name's Caleb Traugh and I'm in Blakeley, Georgia, it's a small town in the southwest corner of Georgia, so basically right where Alabama, Florida, and Georgia come together.

The area that I work, I primarily work right now as a crop consultant and agriculture consultant, but then I also do farm with a buddy of mine. We run a small operation that has transitioned, more or less, to the research side of things. We do a lot of test plots, variety in hybrid testing here in this area. So as far as agriculture in this area, we grow peanuts, cotton, corn, soybeans, small grains, and then some specialty crops depending on the operation here.

Noah Newman:

And what would you say are some of the unique challenges, or unique characteristics of the region where you farm, and where the customers that you help farm?

Caleb Traugh:

So our growing season can present a lot of challenges, as well as the soil. Here in this area we typically deal with very low-CEC soils that are highly weathered, typically very acidic, not very fertile. So it takes a lot of priming to get our soils up to par, especially to produce some of the good yields. As well as with our weather, we struggle with hot dry spells during our growing season in the summertime.

Last year, let's say we went to a hundred degrees during the day and 80 degrees at night for a three-week stretch. So learning how to manage crops and mitigate some of those stresses is definitely something that we have to really focus on with this climate and area we're in.

Noah Newman:

And when we talk about strip-till, how does strip-till help tackle some of those challenges? Do you feel like that region of the country is fit pretty well for strip-till?

Caleb Traugh:

Absolutely. Strip-till is something that has been done in this area for a lot of years, but one thing that we have started doing now that, well, when we first got started, I didn't even know you could do this, that you could actually band fertilizer with a strip-till rig.

I was listening to some shows, and podcasts, and people speaking from up in the Midwest and they're like, "Yeah, we're strip-tilling, we're placing fertilizer." I'm like, "That makes so much sense. That solves a lot of the problems and issues that we're running into with our soils." And so that's where we really took hold of strip-till and ran with it once we started being able to put down fertilizer with it.

Noah Newman:

And how long have you been strip-tilling in your operation?

Caleb Traugh:

So we've been strip-tilling, of course, for a number of years, but back in 2019 we finally were able to purchase a Montag cart after years and years of searching, because in this area nobody really put down any fertilizer with a strip-till, so it took us a little bit of time to find the equipment to be able to get ourselves set up to do that. But this'll be our fourth year of using it as part of our fertility program as well as our history of using it as a tillage pass.

Noah Newman:

And do you remember your big motivation for making that switch? Was it mainly what you just mentioned about being able to place the fertility right where you want it with the strip-till rig?

Caleb Traugh:

Exactly, exactly.

With the fertilizer prices today, it's easy to outspend your budget and our crop is still lacking. So instead of focusing on building up our entire soil profile just to get things balanced for the plant, we really key in on keeping that row, that root zone, balanced and high fertility and it's really helped us in terms of pushing our yields.

Noah Newman:

And speaking of yields, I know you placed second in the NCGA contest in 2021 in the strip-till irrigated class with a yield of 270 bushels per acre.

So what did that accomplishment mean, and what all went into being that successful with strip-till in terms of achieving that high yield?

Caleb Traugh:

Well definitely strip-till had a lot to do with it. Those high yields of corn, they take a lot of fertility. And so, one thing that we've been able to do with fertility is to build a balanced nutrient program.

When we first started, we were just putting out one or two different products with our strip-till pass, but one thing that really helped us take things to the next level was to be able to come up with a complete fertility package to go in our strip-till. So not just our N, P, and K, but also our secondary and micronutrients.

So, balance is everything. And so we don't really want to focus on just one or two things. So the fertilizer blend that we've been using now is a homogenized fertilizer that's got N, P, K, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, boron, manganese, and zinc that are in ideal ratios for our crop. And then being able to build that zone right there really helps us to make sure that we satisfy the nutritional requirements of that crop so we can check that box, and we're not lacking in the fertility area.

Noah Newman:

How big of a difference do those micronutrients make? Do you recommend strip-tillers should start using those more on top of your typical NPK?

Caleb Traugh:

Absolutely.

And when you look at 300 [inaudible 00:06:15] for corn, the amount of micronutrients that it removes, they're not really micro amounts anymore, we're starting to get into some pretty good amounts. And when we look at our normal fertility program, how much zinc are we putting out? How much copper are we putting out? How much manganese are we putting out? Yet every year we're constantly removing these things from our field with the yields that we've been pulling off.

So when we go and pull soil samples, we'll see that we're trending downwards after we're pulling off these good yields. So being able to focus on some of these micronutrients, in addition to our N, P, and K have really helped us push through some of the yield levels that were holding us back.

Noah Newman:

And do you implement this nutrient-management strategy throughout your entire operation, or was it just this high-yielding field, or is it pretty much the same throughout all of your acres?

Caleb Traugh:

Our goal is to basically treat all the acres the same.

While we might have some areas here and there that we do push a contest field, we really try to use those areas to see what is going to move the needle. Because, if something gives us a good return on investment that we're trying out on a small scale, whether it be for a contest, we take that information, and then move it to our standard practice, and we've really been able to see things grow from there.

Noah Newman:

And then in terms of the rates of each nutrient that you're applying, is it variable rates? Do you do split applications, or approximately how much are you putting on?

Caleb Traugh:

Sure.

As far as the products and the rates, there's a couple of different theories when it comes to strip-till, I'm sure that your listeners are aware of. We can look at our soil analysis and say, "Okay, what do we need to put out to build the soil with?" But then what are we left with at the end of the year? How do we pull samples? All these other things entering the conversation.

So our stance on things is we're placing crop uptake rates. So we take our yield goal, whether it be on a field level, or now we're moving over to management zones to where we know, "Okay, in this part of the field we're going for 200 bushel corn." So our strip-till program includes the nutrients and the rates that is needed for that yield goal. Or, if in this area is 250, then we're putting on what that area needs, especially when it comes to here where we have a lot of dry corners with our pivots. So it's basically two different fields in one. So being able to variable-rate apply those nutrients based on our yield goal has helped us to be more efficient with our fertilizer applications, not have to go in the hole too bad with these fertilizer prices, and be able to increase our profitability on each of those acres.

Noah Newman:

I'm sure you've done a lot of studies on this and research on this, but how much does planting depth matter?

Caleb Traugh:

It matters a pretty good bit. In our sands it's hard to plant too deep. So one problem that we've found is planting too shallow, is that with our sandy soils, it's highly variable when it comes to our moisture and even our temperature.

So getting our seed down to where we are consistent in terms of temperature and moisture helps us to get those even stands, and then keep our nodal roots from coming out above the soil surface, that's been really key for us is to keep as much of that nodal root system in the ground. And that can only be done before that planter [inaudible 00:10:04] is closed, and by putting that seed at the proper depth.

Noah Newman:

I saw you in one of your most recent tweets, I did a little research on you, so I saw that you mentioned planting depth in one of your most recent tweets, so I figured that's why I'd bring that up. I knew you'd have a good answer for that.

Cover crops, do you use cover crops?

Caleb Traugh:

Yes.

So we use cover crops on pretty much all of our acres and good share of the growers that I work with also use cover crops. And strip-till and cover crops to me go hand in hand. Some of the reasons why we do use cover crops is because our soil does not freeze over the winter, so when we get our heavy December, January, February rains, even like today, in the last 48 hours we've gotten around five inches of rain. Well, our cover crops are helping to protect that soil.

Before we had cover crops, every spring we would have to go out for one to two weeks with a dirt pan just to put our dirt back in our fields. Whereas with cover crops, that allows us to minimize the erosion so we're keeping the nutrients in our field. Then if we have fertilizer that's leftover, year-over-year in our sandy soils, we are prone to losses, mostly through leeching over the winter. So our cover crops help us to protect our soil nutrients and be able to keep those for the following year.

Noah Newman:

Let's burn a quick timeout and thank our sponsor, Source by Sound Agriculture. Source provides 25 pounds of nitrogen and 25 pounds of phosphorus, leading to more productivity and supporting your fertilizer reduction goals. This foliar-applied biochemistry has a low-use rate, and is tank mix compatible getting a free ride into the field. Check out Source, it's like caffeine for microbes. Learn more at www.sound.ag. Now, back to the conversation.

How many species of cover crops do you use? Cereal rye is the big one around where we are up here in the Wisconsin area, and across the country really. But what species do you use?

Caleb Traugh:

So we use a lot of cereal rye, and oats are probably the most common ones. There's been years that we've had 13 species, I believe, was the most that I've ever put into a field together, but usually in that two to three is my sweet spot. Depending on the grower of what their capabilities are, if they're like us and using our own seed that we're producing ourselves has been a big help, but then also the more species that we have, it makes it even more important that we set up our tillage system to go into the next crop.

So I remember one of the first years that we had cover crops, I put out five or six species in there, and didn't really have a good handle on the rates and put about two to three X what we're putting right now, and it made it a challenge, and we had to set up our strip to a little bit differently to be able to still do a good job with those cover crops. And now we've been able to make some adjustments and changes on the equipment side of things to where now we're able to go through, even if it's a waist-high cover crop that we've just terminated, and be able to make a nice consistent bed to give us a good foundation for our plants.

Noah Newman:

So you plant green?

Caleb Traugh:

We do some green planting, pretty much with our pests and disease profiles that we struggle with, we typically do terminate ahead of time, and it does make it a little bit easier on the equipment side to be able to run our strip-till unit.

Noah Newman:

Gotcha.

Well, speaking of equipment, let's talk about it. What strip-till bar do you use? And just give us the rundown of the equipment you're utilizing right now.

Caleb Traugh:

Sure.

So we use a KMC strip-till bar on our farm, and pretty much that would be the norm for a lot of the growers that I work with. Some of them are running Unverferth units. And then along with that strip-till bar, the KMC that we have, we're also running a Montag fertilizer cart behind that.

Noah Newman:

Gotcha.

And what about precision technology? How important is that to what you do?

Caleb Traugh:

It is encompassing a lot of the aspects of our operation. Of course, like we talked about, we're really trying to focus on managing not just on a field level, but even on an acre or smaller level.

So building our management zones where we're taking into account our soil fertility, our irrigation patterns, our yield history, and being able to combine those together to build maps that we can use variable-rate applications and be able to put the right product, in the right place, at the right rate.

Noah Newman:

You work with a lot of growers from different backgrounds, I'm sure. And how much inspiration do you take from other farms taking ideas that work maybe somewhere else and making them work on your operation?

Caleb Traugh:

That's been key for us, because in this area there wasn't a lot of strip-till fertilizer being placed in this area, so it was a foreign concept to me. So we had to go a good ways away to be able to benefit from the expertise of the growers that were already using that in their programs. But then when we started doing it, we had to learn on our own.

We had to learn some things like how to set up the equipment, and even the quality of the fertilizer that we were using. I tell one thing that when you start putting fertilizer through a pneumatic system, you'll learn quickly the quality of your fertilizer. Last year we had some issues, some supply issues, where our retailers were starting to get some fertilizer that was a little lower quality, had a lot of fines in it, and that gave us a little bit of trouble. We had to go back to the drawing board on some of the products that we're using, but then we found a homogenized fertilizer.

So, it's very consistent and the product doesn't have very many fines in it. We don't have the moisture issues, and that's one thing that we have struggled with in the past, and some of the guys who have done fertilizer placement with a strip-till have struggled with our humidity. It can be a challenge, especially with using certain fertilizer blends, so using the homogenized fertilizer that we found, it minimizes those issues that we've had, and we're able to keep a consistent product, nothing settling out with the blends that we're using because we're putting out a lot of different things with our strip-till trying to achieve that balanced fertilizer ration. And so we've been finding these fertilizer blends that have really worked well for us and have really helped shorten our learning curve a little bit with some of this new technology for us.

Noah Newman:

And about how deep are you placing the fertilizer?

Caleb Traugh:

That's something that we've actually went back and forth on a little bit.

So when we first started, we were placing fertilizer six to eight inches deep, but the strip-till bar that we were using is going 12 to 14 inches deep. So we were placing it halfway, and with the tubes that we were using it was stopping right there. But then the problem that we were having after that is we would get a two to three inch heavy rain, as typical in our springtime weather, and then our fertilizer would fall to the bottom of that trench. So we would pull soil samples every one to two inches down and we would see that our fertilizer had fallen down to the bottom of our trench. And even some of the soil sensors that we're using that are measuring the salinity, they were agreeing with that.

So for this year, we're swapping things up a little bit different, trying some dual placement to where we are putting some down six to eight inches deep behind our shank, but then we're also putting some on top of the ground behind the shank, and then we're using the coulters behind the shank to mix up a band of fertility that's in the top three to four inches, and hopefully that's going to help solve some of our issues that we've been running into. So I'm looking forward to trying that.

Noah Newman:

It sounds like that's...

One of the characteristics of your operation and your approach to farming is it seems like you, you're not afraid to try something new. How important is that to not get complacent. Every year you're looking at numbers, data, and trying new things. How important is that?

Caleb Traugh:

It's rare that we do things the same thing every year. One of the National Corn grower representatives, a good friend of mine, and he says, "Caleb, take two or three things and change them every year on your operation." And I said, "What if we take two or three things and keep them the same and we change everything else?" He says, "Well, I don't know about that."

But that's where we've been at these last few years. I'm always trying to figure out how we fix whatever issues or limitations that we're experiencing, because we only have one chance a year to farm, so I want to try to speed up my learning curve as much as we can. That's why we focus a lot of our stuff on research stuff, small-scale plots, so we can learn as quickly as possible, whether it be practices, products, hybrid stuff, to be able to accumulate our knowledge and hopefully expand that out into our entire operation, and of course for the growers that I work with, so we can improve our profitability and keep in mind our conservation aspects too.

Noah Newman:

It seems like you're always open to sharing new information that you've learned, and I saw that you hosted a big field day recently, right?

Caleb Traugh:

Yes.

That's quickly becoming something that I've known for now, but we've hosted three field days annually so far, and I'm actually sitting down trying to get things planned out for our summer field day this year. So it's something that I really look forward to.

I try not to be like the growers who learn something and just keep it to themselves. That's not me. I want to take what I learn, I want to share it, and use it to help others. So at our field day last year we had, in our corn hybrid plot, we had 41 different hybrids that we put side by side to learn some of the characteristics, whether it be yield or other management practices. We had a lot of strip-till fertilizer rate studies. That was something that we did a lot of, whether it be using different lab recommendations, or with crop physiology. What leaves are the most important on a corn plant? Which ones can we afford to lose to disease or insects, or even what our population is. Does two-by-two pay do [inaudible 00:22:12] products pay? Which biologicals are showing us benefits? Are there things that we can do to lower canopy temperatures? All these questions that we have that we're trying to find the answers to and share that with others.

Noah Newman:

That's awesome.

Sounds like you're keeping pretty busy. I'll let you go 'cause I know you have a lot to get to. But before you go, I'd say for the listeners right now, is there anything else you'd like to add in terms of maybe a strip-till truth, something that over the years of strip-tilling, something you've learned that other people could apply to their operation, maybe anywhere in the country? I know it's different region to region, but I'll just let you have the last word here.

Caleb Traugh:

Sure.

Always try something new and always try to take that net step in your operation, whether that be paying attention to, if we can use the equipment that we already have, do things a little bit better, or if there's another product that we can use to increase our efficiency in our operation. Because all these things that we're constantly being monitored, so we have to figure out how we get more efficient, how we get better. Even when it comes to the climate issues, there's a lot of talk about that into the industry, and we have the solution to these problems that we're facing. So it's up to us to improve our operations, improve our sustainability, and then that will help us to make sure that we stay in good light with all the non-producers, non-farmers in the area.

Noah Newman:

That'll wrap things up for this week's addition of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast. Thanks to Caleb for joining us. Thanks to our sponsors, Source by Sound Agriculture, and thank you for tuning in as always. Until next time, for all things strip-till, head to striptillfarmer.com.

I'm Noah Newman. Have a great day.