Andrew Focht is in his happy place as he plants corn on a late April day. The Villisca, Iowa, farmer not only likes growing corn — he loves it.
"This is my favorite time of year," he said. "Well, maybe my second-favorite time of year, because I love harvest. But both times, I like just being in the cab, planting and harvesting."
Focht grows all corn. "I’m just better at it than growing beans," he says. It also helps from a weed-control standpoint. An earlier-canopying crop such as corn doesn’t have the late-emerging weed problems — such as waterhemp — with which soybeans struggle, he says.
Two years ago, Focht began strip-tilling continuous corn into standing cover crops. Last fall, he applied phosphorus and potassium in a 6-inch deep strip, and then came back in the spring and applied nitrogen, sulfur and zinc. By moving to strip till, he aims to trim his fertilizer bill by 30% and improve his efficiency use to 0.8 pounds of nitrogen per acre. (Normally, it takes 1.2 pounds per acre of nitrogen to produce a bushel of corn.)
He also has revamped his starter fertilizer program, shifting from a conventional starter fertilizer to one that laces starter fertilizer with liquid chicken manure. "I’m trying to get more biology around the seed earlier," he said. He’s also experimenting with various biological products, with the same goal of increasing biology in his soils. One biological product he is applied broke down corn residue over winter, even on fields that yielded 300 hundred bushels per acre. Meanwhile, a cereal rye-wheat cover crop helps boost soil biology.
He also saves on machinery costs, such as not having to buy a soybean head for his combine. He is able to funnel money saved into future purchases, such as a sprayer. This would enable him not only to do his own spraying, but buying one that enables him to apply fertilizer though Y-Drops, enabling him to meet late-fertility needs.
So far, it is working. Strip-till has enabled him to slice fertility without sacrificing yields in producing 250 bushel-plus corn yields. Reducing tillage trips also has enabled him to curb water-wasting tillage trips. May rains alleviated drought concerns that have plagued his part of southwestern Iowa in recent years. Still, University of Nebraska research shows tilling soil can spur a 0.5- to 0.75-inch-yield loss of soil moisture per tillage pass.
