No-Till and soil erosion

Here in Southern Illinois we have received anywhere from 5" to 8"++ of rain the last 4 days!! Its sickening to see these freshly tilled fields with corn planted with TONS of valuable top soil totally washed towards the nearest creek or ditch!! I guess no-till would have helped but no one can foresee this much rain!! Ryan

As a farm owner I can assure you that only the most detached, city dwelling, "I inherited it.  I'm cashing in on it." type of land owner isn't very upset today.  Not to mention the actual farmer operating the farm!  Nobody wants to see the amount of rain we've had here or the amount of soil erosion.  But when the calendar says it's time to plant corn, hundreds or thousands of acres to go, and the inevitable competitive spirit between operators, it's next to impossible to hold off planting.  And nobody has a crystal ball.  History has taught us that we'd better plant when we can because we don't know when it's going to rain for 30 days and make us late.  I shared  your sadness as I drove by the fields this weekend and saw all the flooding and erosion!  Yes, we can do better.  The State of Illinois is essentially out of the business of funding soil conservation practices.  The Federal process of applying for, waiting for, and MAYBE getting cost assistance on conservation practices is far from a good system.  Minimum till and no till certainly have benefits and should be encouraged.  However too many of our landlords are too many generations removed from the farm and only look for maximum income every year.  And professional farm managers work for the landlord, not the farmer.  Maximum cash rents are what the landlords and managers are looking for.  Tenants don't know how long they'll have the farm so it's difficult to justify investing much in conservation practices.  And that high cash rent has to be paid so it's too tempting to plant every acre on every tract of land in hopes of harvesting a maximum yield.  "Gotta do it this year.  No time to worry about the future.  Might not have this farm next year."  In my grandfather's day the landlord (Grandpa) once lived on and farmed the land so still had a real interest in good stewardship.  And the tenant knew he had the farm for as long as he continued to do a good job so was willing to put in the time to farm it with good stewardship in mind.  It was a partnership and the land benefitted.  I remember driving with Grandpa out to the farm, observing everything, visiting with the tenant, having lunch, and making a day of it.  Ah, those were the good ole times!

Well said Ryan!

Leaves me scratching my head when folks do plow days to recreationally create erosion and damage soil structure. Over a several year period I bet we don't plow over 3% of acres only time we do it is the bury something. We no till our lighter better drained ground yeilds are as good or better than when we did tillage

     Ryan, You should have posted the video that you sent me of the "massive erosion" in progress.

And if you have 16" of top soil, you can loose 10" and still have more then we started with thousands of years ago.😄😄😄

Its too much rain period! I've yet to meet a farmer who doesn't feel sick when heavy rains wash their soil away. No one size fits all, I have done no-till past years and it was all well and good, going to no till beans into corn stalks this year but worked the ground going to corn cause it was spring anhydrous and needed leveled out. Have a neighbor who has no-tilled for 25 years and he has horrible gullies cause he never ever gets a dozer in to fix them or reshape waterways, Nothing. We have had a few 7 inch rains in 25 years cause erosion on ground with any slope to it.
I have an 80 acre field I farm I could get over in half the time if I would farm it all north and south like they did 50 years ago instead of this way then that way and so on.

CAL(KS) wrote: we plow to prevent erosion by maintaining our terraces.  we dont have flat ground or 16 inches of topsoil!

Saw a picture on the news today where the gasconade river took the fresh asfalt overlay off the bridge east of Linn mo. We got 6 1/2 inches in 4 hours. I don't care how you farm nothing stands up to that power.

Today I Checked 20 acres of corn that was in the low bottom planted 3 weeks ago and it doesn't look bad. It was chisel plowed in march and had 6' of current offer it Saturday. Worst problem is silt deposits From no till hill farmers up stream. Lol. Had to throw that in. I was surprised. I expected to see it all washed away but given the circumstances I won't complain. I know that no till works good in some areas but it doesn't work in our clay bottoms. If you don't open the ground up it will never dry out enough to plant. You do what works where your at.

Wow that's putting it out there, with this much rain that fast it's gonna erode some, that's up to Mother Nature, we have to deal with it,, happens all the time any more

Thats because where you farm ac fleet you have 45 3/4" of top soil. On average that is of course. Ryan

Well said Dgrader.

The problem in 98% of Nebraska, is it is to much slope to farm. Not everyone farms on mountains like Nebraska. No till was big around here 20 years ago when the government was pushing there agenda. It is less than 2% l would guess. You lose yield in corn, and you can't control weeds in beans, it's that simple. I would not ill my beans if l could, but the weeds would take you, or you have an 80 an acre chemical bill. And spray in the fall. To each there own. If you have to not ill to hold your soil. Your ground should be in set aside.

Cal  KS  as soon as I read your post I knew you were from KS.  I'm at Osage City  I can not loose 6" of top soil yet alone 10-16".