Darrell has been implementing no-till in his farming operation for the last 2-3 years. He has been trying corn into corn, corn into alfalfa, and corn into sod. Darrell recommends talking to other producers before starting to get a good idea of what to expect.

Darrell has a John Deere 1770 12 row planter with row cleaners, furrow openers, posi closing wheels, and coulters.  He does not do fertilizer with his planter. He applies Anhydrous and does his Phosphorus and Potash by broadcasting. He has tried to surface apply manure on about 8 acres. Darrell does soil sampling every three years on his farm that consists of mostly clay soils.

Some of the things that didn’t work as well as he would have liked them to were the row closers didn’t work like he planned when he first used them because he was unsure how to set them for his farm the first year. Also the weather conditions, especially this last year being a wet spring, made it more difficult to get in and plant. One thing that he wished he knew going into no-till that he knows to do now is to keep your population high. When selecting hybrids for this he talks to a crop specialist to figure out what would grow best on his farm.

Darrell started implementing no-till on his farm because it saves time and money on labor. If you would like more information about Darrell’s farming operation feel free to contact him at (563)419-3819.