Through bad weather, a farmer has to stay optimistic
Spring is here, kind-a, sort-a. This recent winter wonderland like weather hasn’t just chilled the air outside but also our enthusiasm for an early start to spring planting. Even though this week shows a miserable forecast I am still optimistic for a decent start around our area because of two reasons: 1: There are less fall tilled fields than untilled.
2: With the year thus far added to this weather event, farmers will eventually run out of things to complain about. (I say this with a chuckle and an elbow nudge.)
Fall tilled is referring to an agronomic practice that uses tillage to usually incorporate surface crop reside or manure below the soil surface during September November. Providing advantages, such as clearing heavy residue from the surface, getting a head-start on more tillage in spring, creating ponding that has been cited to reduce manure runoff in the spring by UW Extension. With these benefits, why do we see less of it? Fall tillage can bring work up more drawbacks than a farmer would want. The more that soil is disturbed, the less structure it has, which reduces its ability to withstand erosion, filtrate water, and regulate temperature. It’s kind of like working out at the gym, but instead of having a recovery period (stretching, protein intake, resting) you just keep working out, and you’re left with cramps and a sore back. More specific, the soil aggregates (primary soil particles that bind together) that help with water filtration, trafficability, and holding nutrients, get busted up into small pieces with tillage. When they turn into smaller pieces, the soil particles become easier to move, increasing soil erosion and compaction. Even though fall tillage is an agronomic practice, having a field left alone until spring will provide the farmer a lot of agronomic advantages.
Other items that I have noticed on the landscape is the strong green up of perennial grass and clovers. As we wait for alfalfa to warm up, clovers haven’t skipped a beat and continue to grow despite the bitter cold nights. Grasses like Tall Fescue, Meadow Fescue, Orchardgrass, even Smooth Brome give hay fields a leg-up in these volatile weather systems. Adding clovers also bring big benefits, after all there is a reason why our farming area is known as the Cloverbelt They grow excellent here. With it’s nitrogen production, strong winter hardiness, and improved varieties that bring high quality forage, clovers are the iron man of crops.
As we inch closer to May, the anxiety will soon boil over, but our Cloverbelt region should stay optimistic. Warmer days are ahead of us.
The Soil
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