"Torsten Brinch" wrote in message
snip Torsnsins ranting
Bwahahahahaha

Can you say 'continuous no till'?

I am starting 90 acers of what we intend to be continuous no till cotton
That the wheat was killed early this wee with round up. and putting 60 some
acres of a alfalfa meadow that is past its productive life in to cotton as
well on my home place. Historically we have kept this place it 14 to 1/3
Alfalfa. No matter the out come I expect we will continue to do that.
Alfalfa is the number on cash crop on this farm. The land just need some
time between alfalfa crop to get rid of the diseases.

On my wife's place in west Texas they had a break down with the drilling rig
and are just now finishing up the testing of the 125 acers of drip so I
expect the farmer will elect to do reduced tillage and with the trenching
that has been done it will take a little more than what world be normally be
in notill cotton grown on drip irrigated land. This combination made 5 480#
bales to the acre in the area in many fields. His intention it to manage
this as no till cotton. Her other place is very short on water an I expect
he will dance with the one that bring him on that place until he has more
experience. Irrigation with limited water is tricky.

While many with pivot irrigated cotton were making 3 to 3.5 bales to the
acre. Drip won't do this much better every year because the weather was
perfect for drip. I need to study the soils there to see what the best
rotations are by they do well wiht long cotton rotatonions if they are
careful to replace what the use. Now with no till the can replace the one
thing than no crop that depended on tillage could do by replacing organic
matter at as slow rate that should start to show results in 5 years and
continue for at least ten more before reaching equilibrium.

In Oklahoma if the water quality is good enough on my home place I plan on
drill in two more wells and see ho much water we have. I currently have 175
Gallons per minute. 600 is consider the ideal to water 120 acres the amount
of ground you cover with a center pivot. I don't expect that much. If I can
get as much as 200 I have a number of options open. put in a center pivot
and water half cotton and half wheat. If I can get the wheat pay. A second
is half alfalfa and half cotton and shoot for three good cuttings a seed
crop and a final forth cutting. Using the low level of water to insure a
better crop every year or install drip in an area where I would be the first
one doing it. If I lived there I would be more likely to do it. But we are
20 years behind on irrigation technology from west Texas. I would rather
some one else introduce the technology to the area. Of course I have the
choice of leaving it alone and be satisfied with the 8 or 19% it pays on its
value every year and depreciation allowance starts all over again and
between all farms will eat up the taxes on 15 or 20 thousand dollars a year.

That's what we are doing for agriculture to reduce erosion, increase
production, better utilize water and increase income.

What are you doing to improve the state of agriculture. Are you raising your
organic garden so you can be sure you food is organic an not the commercial
stuff that was sorted out because of blemishes, marked organic and the
prices doubled and sold to organic wholesalers. Do you trust your organic
food in the store any more than any other company that gets food from all
over the world. They have far less inspections than conventional food. From
the folk that push organic food I wouldn't put anything past them.

Gordon Couger
Stillwater, OK
www.couger.com/gcouger