In this video Nick Jorgensen provides a simple calculation related to equipment costs and economics based on what Jorgensen land and cattle may have done 30 years ago in a wheat – fallow system compared to today. By not operating tillage equipment and running a sprayer the Jorgensens are saving between $25 and $45 in…
Economics: Jorgensen Land and Cattle Case Study (Part 1)
Economics are a complex issue. At Merit or Myth, we have found that getting farmers to talk about money can be tricky, so we were particularly grateful to find that Bryan and Nick Jorgensen were willing to talk dollars and cents with us! This is the first in a 5 part series on the money…
South Dakota Soils And The Families That Call Them Home
This past week, we were blessed with another opportunity to visit the Mount Rushmore State and pick the brains of several leading farmers in East River. Unlike trips of the past, this go around we paid less attention to the isolated nuts and bolts of farming. These oft-discussed “nuts and bolts” include individual topics like…
What are SD No-Tiller saying About Soil Temperatures
In the previous three videos we have looked at and discussed some soil temperature data from the 2016 growing season in Vermillion, SD. In this video we speak to some long-term no-till farmers from Crooks in the east to Box Elder in the west of South Dakota and gauge their opinions. While all recognize that…
Soil Temperature Part 2: How do No-Till Temperatures Catch Up to Conventional Till?
In our previous video we saw that by the end of the season, there is no difference in the number of heat units and temperature as seen by a conventional versus a no-till soil. In fact any differences in cumulative heat units between the two systems disappears by the first week of July. In this…
Soil Health = Record Yields?
It’s been said that what comes easy doesn’t last, and what lasts doesn’t come easy. This adage is especially true when it comes to change. Any change worth making isn’t going to be done overnight and it isn’t going to be realized without difficulty. One Iowa farm is showing the Midwest though that, when it…
The Economic Effects of Biodiversity
Extinction is a perfectly normal part of nature. Scientists of all backgrounds, belief systems and areas of study can agree on this. What is often overlooked, however, is the potential cost of extinction – whether within a single ecosystem or multiple. Still, no one plays a larger role when it comes to the loss or…
Infiltration: The Effects of Tillage, Cover Crops and Manure
This spring (2017) SDSU Extension’s Anthony Bly and farmer, or shall we say “citizen scientist,” Al Miron got together to look at the influence of tillage, cover crops and manure on infiltration in a number of fields in Minnehaha County, SD. They compared soils in two long term (9 year) no-till fields, two conventionally tilled fields…
Residue Recap
In this video, we recap the last 11 videos on our Merit or Myth Series that deal with residue and tillage. We sum up the information provided by our farmers and researchers, from West River to East River of South Dakota. As we consider the statement: “Farming without tillage and with surface residue is not…
Spiral of Soil Regeneration – Part 3 (Dr. Randy Anderson)
This is the third part of a three part series in Dr. Anderson’s 10-minute talk on his spiral of regeneration. Dr. Randy Anderson, Research Agronomist with the USDA-ARS in Brookings, SD, shares with us his spiral of soil regeneration. The concept of the spiral had its genesis in Dr. Anderson’s work in no-till where he…