Partnering to Refine Organic No-Till Production in Wisconsin

Research Results and Discussion/Success Stories

Doudlah Farms

Unfortunately, Mark’s plans for no-till organic corn did not reach fruition - the winterkilled cover crops did not leave adequate residue on the soil surface to suppress weeds and proceed with no-till corn. However, Mark did continue to trial mixes of ‘Aroostock’ cereal rye and ‘Purple Bounty’ hairy vetch with success.

Mark’s standard crop rotation for his highly erodible land (HEL) is to crimp cereal rye and plant soybeans (Aroostock/vetch planted in mid-October), harvest the rye and vetch seed for further use, seed down more vetch,  disk down the vetch in year 3 and plant to corn, then after corn harvest apply manure and again go to a cereal rye/vetch crop.

On his other fields, Mark disks vetch or medium red clover in the spring, then plants corn. Aroostock rye (3 bu/ac) follows corn in the fall (drilled directly into the corn with an air seeder, working the residue to get good seed to soil contact). Then, Mark crimps the rye with a Riteway crimper and no-tills soybeans. This is followed by a oat/mustard cover crop, and the pea or dry edible beans the following year, with winter wheat and daikon radish planted after pea harvest. Medium red clover is planted into the wheat.

The most challenging weeds in his fields are thistles (in places), foxtail, and a little giant ragweed, with foxtail being the most challenging weed for soybean.  Manual weeding and the weed zapper are used to augment weed control in the soybeans. No-till soybeans allow for the elimination of the typical tine weeding, rotary hoeing, and flame weeding that his does in his typical organic soybeans.

His cover crop cultivars of choice are ‘Aroostock’ rye and ‘Purple Bounty’ hairy vetch.  With respect to his fertility management program, for his Corn-soy-wheat rotations, he adds 3-4 tons manure on corn, and humates and a dry micronutrient pac on the soybeans.

He finds the biggest benefit to the system is that it allows him to farm his HEL fields. His biggest challenge has been getting a consistently thick rye stand to suppress weeds. However, if the cereal rye stand in the spring is too thin for roller-crimping, his Plan B is to disk the rye and co-plant spring seeded cereal rye with the soybeans for an alternative reduced tillage organic technique.

The biggest challenge in this system is to find the appropriate cover crops to allow for a no-till organic corn phase. The biggest lesson that he’s learned is if you do not get the cover crop right (planting, seeding rate, etc), organic no-till will not work.

Wallendal Farm

Megan and Erik Wallendal are the next generation of farmers on the Wallendal farm. Overall, the farm has existed for 52 years, with Megan and Erik farming for 5.5 years and doing organic since 2016. They have 750 organic acres out of 2500 total acres farmed. Their standard rotation includes silage corn, soybean, potato, snap beans, pumpkin, dry edible beans, and other produce. Their rotation for organic includes forage crops and fewer vegetables. The most challenging weeds in their fields are lambsquarters, marestail, purslane, and bindweed.

Typical weed management for organic soybeans tine weeders, rotary hoe, Lilliston cultivarors, and aDanish tine with finger weeders, with manual labor used as needed. Their cover crop varieties include ‘Aroostock’ rye (with vetch in no-till pumpkins). They don’t add extra fertility in their organic cover crop-based no-till fields, but will irrigate if needed. In their conventional cover crop-based no-till fields, they will add 32%N when the rye is 6-7 inches tall. Rye is planted at a rate of 2.5 bu/ac, and vetch at 10 lbs/ac.

They have found the biggest benefit of the system to be reduction in cost and labor, management time, and not having to run cultivation equipment. If the organic no-till fields are weedy, they will do some high-residue cultivation. They use a Rodale-style roller-crimper from I and J Manufacturing.

The biggest challenges they’ve faced has been getting the Aroostock rye to the right maturity stage to hit their target planting dates for soybean and pumpkins. The biggest lesson they’ve learned is to match the roller-crimper width with the width of the planter to avoid disturbing the rye.

John and Halee Wepking

John and Halee have been farming since 2015 and farming organically that entire time. Their standard crop rotation includes alfalfa hay, winter wheat, corn, buckwheat for seed (with winter wheat drilled into the stubble), beans, spring cereal grains, and seed corn.

The most challenging weeds in organic fields have been velvetleaf and other broadleaves, and foxtail. They have found that their diverse rotation tends to keep giant ragweed down (especially the inclusion of hay and cereal grains that provide different row/plant spacing versus corn and beans). The broadleaf weeds tend to go away in the organic no-till system. Their biggest weed management challenge in their typically-managed organic fields has been cultivating early enough to get ahead of the broadleaf weeds. While they do not use manual labor for weeding of soybeans, they do use manual labor for seed corn and dry edible beans. Their weed management tools in the standard organic soybean fields include the rotary hoe, the row cultivator, and a harrow, although they just invested in a tine weeded.

Their cover crop varieties are simply ‘variety not stated’. Thus far, they have not added any fertility to their rye cover crop, but are now trying a liquid product. They plant the rye at 3 bu/ac.

They’ve found the biggest benefit of the system is the time savings they gain due to the reduced weed management, especially with respect to spring tillage. They’ve had better success drilling the rye versus establishing the cover crop with a broadcast seeding. A challenge that they’ve faced is the management of the rye thatch after combining the soybeans.