Profitability is the byword at 2022 Farming Evolution workshops – Journal Advocate

Increased crop yield is no longer the measure of a successful farmer. Nowadays, the yardstick is profitability, and that probably wont come from dragging iron through the soil.

The Farming Evolution symposium returned to an in-person event in Holyoke this year, and its a popular as ever. The two-day workshop on soil health attracted more than 150 attendees this year. Its being held Wednesday and Thursday in the Phillips County Event Center in Holyoke.

The theme of this years workshops is profitability; it doesnt do any good to increase crop yields if it costs too much for inputs like seed, fertilizer and fuel. Hays, Kan., farmer Brice Custer, told the group Wednesday that two principles long held sacred by modern farmers arent necessarily good for them.

Farming for top yield is not necessarily profitable, Custer said. If it costs more than it returns, that high yield isnt the right goal. If you get a lower yield at a much lower cost, youre going to come out money ahead.

In a presentation titled How Not to Loser Youre A$$ Farming, Custer showed two scenarios based on real-life experiences of those attending. In a traditional farming operation, attendees estimated costs of wheat farming at about $300 per acre for a yield of about 60 bushels per acre. All agreed that higher yields were possible but only at higher costs. In the second scenario, using no-till practices and cover cropping, inputs for the wheat crop were estimated at about $150 per acre for a yield of about 50 bushels per acre. At a price of $7 per bushel for wheat, the difference was roughly $45 per acre.

Dropping the price of the wheat, according to Custers scenario, cut much deeper into profits on the traditional farm than on the no-till farm.

The other dearly-held principle that turns out to be a money loser is fallowing fields. Letting a field lie fallow one year in three had been thought to allow the soil to rest, but Custer said the fallacy is that the fallow field returns nothing and doesnt really regenerate microbials by lying vacant. Instead, Custer said, putting in a cover crop that actually does increase microbial soil health offers the opportunity to graze livestock or harvest and sell yet another crop while improving the aggregate quality of the soil.

Custer advised audience members that converting to no-till and cover cropping isnt a taking the plunge endeavor, but requires moving into it a little at a time.

You have to do whats best for you, he said. Dont do it all at once, but do some experimenting, get your soil tested, get some advice from people who are doing it.

Earlier in the day Candy Thomas demonstrated the difference between intensively tilled soil and no-till soil with a cover crop. Using a miniature wind machine she showed how easily the daily breezes of the High Plains can erode bare topsoil. She also put water through various types of soil to show how an aggregate soil will hold up but a dirt clod will break down and shed water.

Thomas, who is the regional soil health specialist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Salina, Kan., said the tests she ran can be conducted for a few dollars on the tailgate of a pickup. Thomas region covers Colorado, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska.

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Profitability is the byword at 2022 Farming Evolution workshops - Journal Advocate