CUT COSTS, NOT YIELD

When soil health improves, fewer inputs may be needed.

- Raylene Nickel

FARM SCHOOL

An educational series for farmers who want to take their skills to the next level.

Profitability can increase when inputs are reduced and yields can be maintained. The key is to first increase soil health.

Near Carroll, Ohio, Jay Brandt continues a legacy built by his late father, David Brandt, an iconic farmer who started no-tilling and growing cover crops in the 1970s. Today, on the farm's 1,000 acres of corn, soybeans, and wheat, Jay Brandt uses 50% of the synthetic nitrogen fertilizer used by conventionally farming neighbors, he says, and 60% to 70% of the herbicide.

Despite these reductions in inputs, yields and profit hold strong. "We're in the yield average for our area," says Brandt, "and profitability is good because of the crop rotation and because our cost of production is very low due to our reduced use of inputs."

No-till farmer and cover crop grower Sonny Price has experienced similar results on his 6,600-acre farm near Dillon, South Carolina, where he grows corn, beans, soybeans, cotton, winter wheat, and cover crops. In 2016 and 2017, Price stopped applying phosphorus, potash, and lime despite general assumptions that yields couldn't be sustained in his region without those inputs.

But yields have maintained and even increased, while the reduction in inputs brings significant savings. "In 2017, Price was saving $50 an acre just by not applying lime, a savings that easily paid the cost of his cover crop seed," says University of South Carolina researcher Robin (Buz) Kloot. At 2017's prices, the savings from not applying phosphorus and potassium amounted to another $50 to $70 an acre, adds Kloot, generating a total savings of $120 an acre.

Cut Costs 101: No-Till, Cover Crop Combo