Posts Tagged: strip-tillage
Documentary video on no-tillage in California being prepared
Documentary video on no-tillage in California being prepared
July 1, 2023
A video documentary featuring five of the CA and AZ farmers who have been part of the USDA NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant project, "No-till network for California," is in the final stages of production and will be released in the near future through the University of California's Conservation Agriculture Systems Innovation Center's You Tube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVd3wKF3P6fA4zQWVKIouWA
The documentary will feature Eddie Sajian of Hanford, CA, Rick Adams of Laton, Paul Strojan of Farmington, Dr. Henri Carter MD of Yuma, AZ, and Cary Crum, of Fresno, CA and will show them describing details of the innovative approaches that they are working on to improve the overall performance of their agricultural production systems. The release date for the documentary is scheduled for late July 2023.
Capture Eddie Sajian Still shot for CASI website
Capture Hank Carter Yuma still shot for CASI website
Capture Rick Adams still shot for CASI blog
Strip-till Operation Thrives in Face of Heavy Regulation and High Costs
February 28, 2023
Strip-till Operation Thrives in Face of Heavy Regulation and High Costs
Tipton, CA dairyman and long-time CASI farmer member, Tom Barcellos, was featured in the Winter 2023 issue of Strip-till Farmer, a quarterly publication of the National No-till Farmer Association and Lessiter Publications. The article details Tom's 23-year history as a strip-till trailblazer right here in California's San Joaquin Valley and describes how he came to find how strip-tillage "made everything a lot easier" at his 2,000 cow dairy just east of Highway 99 in Tulare County. The Strip-till Farmer magazine article was written by Noah Newman when he came to California recently to interview Tom. A copy of the article is attached below.
Barcellos Strip-till 2023
Capture Strip-till Barcellos 2023 jpeg
Conservation agriculture success story at Rollin Valley Farms!
Fifteen years of stunning conservation agriculture success at Rollin Valley Farms in Burrel, CA!
June 22, 2020
Andy Rollin, along with his brother, Donny, are dairy farmers near the small western San Joaquin Valley town of Burrel, CA. Their farm, Rollin Valley Farms, milks over 2,000 cows and has about 700 acres of silage crops including alfalfa, corn, oats, wheat, and sudangrass. About 15 years ago, they began some of the earliest efforts to develop reduced disturbance production techniques for their silage crops (see video below). They pioneered the successful development of strip-till corn way back in 2003 and 2004 and then a few years later, began working with Monte Bottens and Cary Crum of California Ag Solutions (CAS) in Madera, CA, to further improve their production systems. Monte and Cary helped them with state-of-the-art planter improvements, an Orthman 1-tRipR strip-till implement and also the use of CAS's Landoll no-till grain drill. (See Picture 1). In addition, the Rollins have in recent years added a late-summer multi-species silage “cover crop” which has now augmented their annual forage production over their prior double-cropping practices. Strip-till corn yields at their farm are up about 2 to 3 tons/acre over prior production rates and there have also been 10 to 15% improvements in their feed quality that have resulted from the coupled, innovative efforts that they have made.
The Rollins were also involved with a research study back in 2004 and 2005 with CASI's Nick Madden, Randy Southard, and Jeff Mitchell to determine the impacts of their reduced disturbance practices on air quality. (See Picture 2.)This work showed that over 85% of dust emissions were reduced by strip-till compared to their previous standard till system (see the attached article by Madden et al. 2008). (See Picture 3).
The Rollins are now firmly behind their transition to strip-till and no-till cover crops and small grain seeding schemes and attribute an early spring savings of about 10 days to their reduced disturbance corn planting systems. They now have switched to watering up their strip-till corn following the very minimal soil work they do following winter small grain chopping and harvesting. In recognition of their innovative and steadfast progress, they were Finalists in the 2018 Leopold Conservation Award Program. The following short video shows one of their strip-till corn fields this spring. (See Picture 4.)
Here is a link to a You Tube video of this project: https://youtu.be/mq8itVs3Iak
Picture 1. Strip-till planted corn at Rollin Valley Farms, June 20, 2020
Picture 2. Randy Southard, Rob Roy and Nick Madden discussing dust monitoring plans at Rollin Valley Farms, 2004
Picture 3. Particulate matter sampling tower located in silage production field of Andy and Donny Rollin, 2004.
Picture 4. Strip-till planted silage corn using soil health principles of reduced disturbance, residue preservation, and diversity at Rollin Valley Farms, June 20, 2020