Rubicon farmer shares planting success using no-till and cover crop strategies

RUBICON ‒ Anyone who has ever driven through the hills of Rubicon in eastern Dodge County knows the challenges those steep slopes present for farmers.

Ralph and Lisa Weninger raise 1,500 acres of cash crops on those hilly acres and as a result, they were among the first farmers in the state to adopt no-till practices.

“No till has many benefits," Weninger said. "It not only means fewer trips across the field with equipment but also eliminates picking stones and more importantly, prevents soil erosion.”

Not only was Weninger an early adopter of no-till practices but the Dodge County farmer was also one of the first on board with the idea of establishing cover crops as a means of controlling erosion control.

Weninger shared his ideas last week with other farmers from the area when he hosted the spring meeting of the Dodge County Farmers for Healthy Soil & Healthy Water.

Planting cover crops has been a practice on the Weninger farm for the past 20 years. Weninger says there are more opportunities for establishing different blends of cover crops because he has so many different crops in his rotation.

The biggest challenge he faced after adopting no-till was growing a good stand of sweet corn.

Sweet corn seed is more fussy than field corn and needs just the right moisture and temperature in the soil.  Getting the seed down to where the soil moisture is can be a challenge, he said.

Using a soil temperature monitor enabled him to plant seed at the right depth.

“In some places, seed was placed 2 and a half or even three inches but it worked surprisingly well because the seed was where the moisture was,” he said.

Over the years Weininger eliminated the front wavy coulter, saying it was “basically strip tillage”.  He often worried about erosion using that method. 

“After all those years of no-tilling, our ground is mellow,” he said.  “Of all of our attachments, the trash cleaners and closing system are the most important.”

The biggest challenge he faces is raising canning company crops.

"The company has a narrow harvest window and, too often, the canning company wants to harvest, even if it is too wet," Weninger said. "They are getting more agreeable when it comes to determining the harvest date. They now will hold off a little if it is too wet but they also know that after 30 years of no-till and covers my soil can hold up better than some.”

He has also grown peas in the past, however, there is even less flexibility with harvest dates for this crop. Weninger says he was concerned with compacting the soil if the peas had to be harvested when the fields were wet.

Weninger also raises soybeans and for years has drilled the beans but didn’t like that system as it was too hard to achieve an even stand planting into the trash on the field.

He purchased another planter designating it for just beans. The corn planter could have been used, however, Weninger says he didn’t want to make the conversions back and forth during planting season.

“For ten years we established side-by-side areas in the field to compare drilled beans to sown with a planter. We couldn’t see a significant difference," he said.

Brendon Blank, a cover crop specialist and farmer from Ashippun area, moderated the discussion about cover crop experiences. 

“Water is the most important variable influencing crop yields and managing it is important. Because last year was so dry we terminated the cover crop earlier so it wouldn’t suck all the moisture out for the future crop,” Blank said.

Asked whether it is better to use rye or wheat as a cover, given that wheat seed is cheaper, Blank said rye is a better choice due to its long roots burrowing deep into the subsoil. Wheat, however, is still a better cover than doing nothing.

Blank recommends trying some sort of cover and then gradually experimenting with more varieties of covers. The idea is that each cover brings its benefits to the soil beyond just preventing erosion. Covers also serve to add nutrients to the soil, build organic matter and feed the life in the soil.

Blank points to the benefit of having a way to monitor soil temperature from the planter.

“I worked with a farmer who was planting corn at night and went once around the field and noticed the soil temperature was pretty low so he quit and returned twelve hours later after the sun warmed the soil all day," Blank said. "He planted the rest of his field and there was a world of a difference in the emergence.  The inside of the field came up much sooner.”

Also on hand at the workshop was John Pernat, a crop and livestock management consultant, John Pernat, brought a drone to the workshop and described the machine's efficiency at spraying and establishing cover crops.

Operating the drone requires two trained and licensed operators. Pernat described the battery-operated system and how it is controlled using a cell phone. The drone's flight is aided by pre-programed field maps.

“Knowing the history of a field is important. The biggest challenge is when a farmer takes on new land and doesn’t know the field history,” he said.

Because of the permitting process required for drone usage, Pernat supplies the spray. He also needs to pullt special permits when spraying is done near buildings or public areas.

The meeting also included University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Rodrigo Werle, who shared his research results utilizing cereal rye cover crop management for weed suppression.