Change from Conventional Tillage

To

Minimal Tillage

Rotation before change:

1. Peas,

2. Winter or Spring Wheat

3. Beans,

4. Winter or Spring Wheat

5. Flax, Mustard or Canola

6. Spring Barley

Tillage before changing to Min-Till:

Plough after flax every six years, straw incorporation with chisel plough and double disk, seed bed preparation with vibra-shank/harrow packer.

On average four to five passes plus seeding operation.

Change To Minimal Tillage:

2000

No change in crop rotation.

Problems and modification of operation:

2000

Winter wheat seeding (custom seeded) into standing, spring wheat stubble.

Good emergence, but the crop showed Nitrogen-deficiency in spring, because we could not get on the field with fertilizer before May. The crop recovered well after we fertilized, but could not achieve optimum yield.

Seeding of peas, winter wheat, flax, and spring barley with our own equipment (Flexicoil 5000 with 1720 Tank stealth openers)

 

Stealth Openers

 

Winter wheat - good seed placement, good stand and yield.

Peas - no problems observed, good stand and good yields

Flax - seeded to deep, uneven germination and uneven stand. We made the mistake to place the seed with the front chisel and the fertilizer (80 N + 30 P2O5) with the rear spreader.

Spring barley  - good seed placement, good stand and yield.

Mustard - good seed placement, good stand and yield.

No Beans this year

*** We learned, that we could decrease seeding depth with the change to minimal tillage and direct seeding because of better water holding capabilities in the top 2 inches.***

Winter wheat - good seed placement, good stand and yield.

Peas - good seed placement, good stand and yield.

No flax this year

Spring barley - good seed placement, good stand and yield.

Mustard - good seed placement, good stand and yield.

No Beans this year

**abnormal rain fall in 2002 gave us very wet seeding conditions in 2003**

Winter wheat - good seed placement, good stand. Problems spring 2003: to wet for timely weed control, deep tracks from spraying.

Peas - very late seeding (one month later then normal), wet conditions leading to bad emergence, late harvest and problems with late germinating weeds (kochia).

No Flax this year

No Spring barley this year

Mustard - good seed placement, good stand and yield.

Beans - single pass with double disk and harrow packers. Good stand, warm summer very good yield.

Winter wheat - good seed placement, good stand and yield.

Peas - first problems with heavy straw loads after durum wheat on rented land, diagonal harrowing did correct this problem. Good stand and yield.

No Flax this year

Spring barley - good seed placement, good stand and yield.

Beans - thick straw matt on all fields dedicated for beans. Single double disking with harrow packer did not burry this straw matt. In addition we had very cool and wet weather with low soil warmth, resulting in slow and uneven germination. A cool summer increased our problems, luckily we had no frost in September and harvested a normal yield with average quality.

We learned for our growing conditions, that minimal till has clear advantages, but several aspects need to be considered and respected:

• The slower breakdown of organic matter (because of not being incorporated into the soil) changes the soil structure. We noticed the lowering of the Ph-level in the top 1 - 2 inches by 0.5 (from 7.9 to 7.4) this should lead to increased availability of N and P since our soils (Sl to Ls) are high in mineralized and immobilized N and P.
   
• Increased soil cover will definitely improve the soil structure and will increase water holding capabilities and/or will decrease moisture loss. This is an advantage for cool season crops like peas, grain and in part oil seeds.  
   
• Contrary, beans and soy beans with a need of higher soil temperatures for germination and even plant development react negatively on the increased ground cover. Experiments to move the straw out of the seeding area where not successful.

Must's:

• Straw needs to be chopped as good as possible at harvest time.
   
• Irrigation stubble length: 6 - 8", dry land 12 - 16"
   
• A better distribution can be achieved if the field is fall prepared with a heavy harrow diagonal to the stubble direction. Four to six weeks should have passed after harvest before this is done, since the straw breaks up much easier because of biodegradation.
   
• The straw should be incorporated for beans (including Soy beans), since the darker soil warms up faster. In our rotation we do this every six years. This results in the possibility to level any tracks and uneven field contours, but has a negative factor that we destroy the achieved soil structure.
   
• Drive over the fields as little as possible, particularly with heavy equipment like heavy trucks, etc.. Tires with a surface area as large as possible should be used for seeding and harvest. But the costs need to be within reach.

Total machinery costs plus fuel and wages decreased by about 70%. Yields did not go down, we rather feel that they are on an upward trend.   It is important to understand and realize that min-till fields can not be compared with the conventional farmed fields of the neighbours.

Burn-off with roundup before or after seeding is a very important operation.

Positive depth control on our Flexicoil 5000 is certainly not optimal, but it is questionable, if the change to a Barton type opener can warrant the high purchase price and increased maintenance costs. We also like the capability to apply high fertilizer amounts with the double shoot setup.

A positive fact is the better seed bed utilization, with the 3" band width of our double shoot stealth opener.

For beans, we will have to stick to a field cultivation until we find suitable technology that is affordable.

Contact us at:

Klempnauer Farms
P.O. Box 657,
Grassy Lake, Alberta
Canada T0K 0Z0 

Phone: 1-403-655-2507

Fax: 1-403-655-2230

Jörg Klempnauer

E-Mail: joerg.klempnauer@klempnauer.ab.ca

Mobile: 1-403-330-5480

Petra Klempnauer (Chief Administrator)

E-mail:  petra@klempnauer.ab.ca

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For problems or questions regarding this Web site contact Jens Klempnauer.
Last updated: 03/10/06.