 You know, that's one thing I haven't heard yet today is carbon and soil and that's a driving force in what we're doing I don't care anybody says that's a driving force and we've got to really focus on that You know and another thing I've learned over the years is you can't make all the mistakes yourself And I really try to do that so what I'm saying is team together you guys with your neighbor whatever and try to learn from each other because if Whether we realize or not we have to change what we're doing. We have got to change what we're doing We've got to be more sustainable So we're 9600 acres and we've been no till since 1993. We feel like residue is really a friend We'll do our rotation with heavier residue crop because we need the soil armor So residue as our friend. We did not take one if we'd out of our rotation because residue as our friend We've got to have that soil armor Brave 8,500 acres of grass on Missouri River breaks 850 head of cows cow calf pair and you can see that'll always be Virgin sod and and it's a good thing. The boys do a really good job of managing their pastures they They rotate them. They've got divide fences. They're doing a tremendously good job with our cattle And it's nothing but a where I used to think it was kind of a detriment to a farm and now I think it's All about our farm is about our cattle because one pays the other one off. So Here's our pasture and the bad thing is it's in one chunk And so when we run into a little dry spell we get hurt But then we run into in the wintertime. We've got two sections where we bring the cows home, too And so we so we had an issue so we're bringing them home. We were grazing them hard We're losing residue so we were getting to where our our home two sections We were losing productivity off of it because we were grazing it too hard in the wintertime And so then as the story goes along, I'll tell you how we tried to remedy that Okay, so I don't know how many you guys have read Howard Buffett's book 40 chances So what he's saying in this book is you've got 40 chances in your life to make a difference Just think about that your farmer maybe you've already used 20 So you've got 40 chances to really make a difference in your life So I've already used 48 But see what what I'm ashamed of and bearest of and what I'm trying to make better is the first 24 years I completely destroyed this soil Then what Dave was talking about in the 70s. I live the 70s. I Mean it was I did we did everything We could do to destroy the soil and we didn't know any better and I'm not so sure that is what happening right now So much to do in so little time To me, that's my main goal is what I want to do is if I can influence people to do the right thing That's a win-win situation for me So in the 70s, we were good farmers. We felt we were the better farmers around We our cover crop was wild buck what buckwheat and kosher weed and and We didn't really understand anything all we knew was we were so busy working so busy. No one doing we were doing the right thing till on the ground working the ground after harvest you'd go out there and you had you had ploward or discot When Dave said there when you started plowing you kept plowing until the color of the soil changed What we had do was I mean actually you guys in the time that we plowed We did we were plowing six inches deep and then all of a sudden you went to five because you're turning up yellow dirt We didn't understand why But so we were our own worst enemies The worst two-piece the machinery you can use this one's terrible cuts all the macro pores off We had to go to we had we finally went to buckwheat because our noble blaze because our buckwheat was so bad We couldn't get through our stubble because the buckwheat was so bad Right now. We don't have any buckwheat on our farm with our rotations. We pretty well take care of it So far in the 80s So you'd go along and every time the wind blew if you were in town or if you were someplace You were afraid to look like to us it'd be the West because there'd be dirt near and We're just so we just were so afraid it would be us that we just go home We wouldn't go out and look because it wasn't a lot you could do about it But we still thought we were good farmers So We didn't have really good We didn't really have really good deals, but we thought we thought we did one thing about the corn This 70 bushel We'd never plant corn with over three miles away from the farm Because we knew we were gonna have to cut it for silage We knew it wouldn't make corn So we'd always be close to the house and then another thing is this was on on black summerfell And we thought we were good farmers So our organic matter really you know it was going down and then we started using some fertilizer and and you talk about a response You talk about a response first we started using phosphorus and 50 pound bags And then we went to some nitrogen and we had one drill with the with Fertilizer open or fertilizer attachment the other than we didn't but you talk about a response So we thought we had this deal figured out you know I just compared Rainfall here Alexander you know they get about 37 and where am I at 24 about 25 inches and we get 19 6 only thing is you guys are a little bit warmer, but then look at this year Not a lot of difference is there? This isn't all this isn't our whole county But see the thing like with us you take our snow away And we had 17 3 inches of moisture this year and you guys had 18.1 So one thing about this whole thing With this snow were you able to capture it? Did you have the residue stand in did you not use the knife rollers? Did you leave that residue stand to catch that snow a lot of guys say you're too wet? And I think with the no-till and in In a high Diversity and rotation. I think you can handle that make it different So this is part of counties so it's just like anything and I'm sure it's the same way the county is here See the difference in the rainfalls So there's our place. There's the main farm, but see there's our river. There's our pasture 13 inches of rain down there this year I mean so the boys and their their the native grass and their pasture rotations are bringing us through but it's It's an issue Okay, this is how it all changed Dwayne Beck You know I'm very fortunate enough to be on Dakota Lakes board And I'm very fortunate enough to be on South Dakota soil health coalition board Dwayne's the one that started this only reason Dwayne we were the first ones in our area to start no-till We have 750s and We didn't know what we were doing with Dwayne's lead But I mean you talk about someone you didn't have places like this to go to say what am I gonna do? We didn't have we were really struggling with rotations. We We just it was a struggle, but you can't put a value on what it's done for our area and When I say no till I mean low residue no till As far as I am concerned the shank drill will do quite a bit of damage. I'm talking about a disc drill You know, there's a lot of no till captures carbon and organic matter, which is full of nutrients So yes a tillage pass will release those nutrients causing a crop response But then you are back to square one. It's like burning your how your house for heat you did get some heat But you destroyed your house So basically you're not capturing that carbon all the carbon your plant took in you go working whatever in the way That carbon goes in the air There's a lot of truth to that you guys we have to focus on carbon. There's no question in my mind You have to focus on carbon So we were looking for ways to fertilize We had 750 drills and on and so we tried spreading urea And we do we really didn't like that because we knew we were volatiles and we knew we were losing some fertilizer and you're always There's a lot of times they're having to spread when they had time instead of when it should have been done So then we went to anhydrous and you can see why we didn't like anhydrous see what it did to the soil Anytime you do that you're going to release carbon then another thing you're going to lose that soil armor and We had to have that soil armor So this is how we do our wheat and there's a reason I'm going to tell you on how why we put our fertilizer down So we have an 1895 drill so the fertilizer will go the nitrogen to go five inches away from the seed and then the but The reason when you do that when it's five inches away for five inches away from the seed at the fourth week fourth leaf the nitrogen and fertilizer will get together and When it does that then that's how you can control your tillering So basically what you're doing instead of like having five tillers if it's broadcast We want about we want about two and a half good heads between two and two and a half of good heads per kernel of wheat We don't want to grow straw. We want to grow heads of wheat. So that really helped another thing about the 1895 The first one that John Deere built went to Ralph Holsworth. He's a neighbor. He started no till in a year before we did It went to he lives a mile or three miles west of us and and drill number two went to our farm so that's how much we believe that we're in this system and Then we'll put down we'll put down 1152 and we'll do some potash and AMS with our starter and The pot actually want the chloride for soil health And then we come back at stream bar. I know Dave said that with us. We have to have protein We have got to have quality We have to assure ourselves of quality. So what we'll do is we'll put enough on and then we'll come back the way the weather is Timing the weather whatever and heaven and then we'll come back at stream bar at about fecus five Because in our environment we have got to have protein If we do not have protein like on spring would if we don't have 14 protein, it's just about feed It'll cost you a dollar and bushel So this is our a field of no-till Long-term no-till sunflower stocks and you can see our residue I mean you can't say enough good things about our residue But so there's quite a bit of that around so that was in central South Dakota in 2007 just a little bit little what too far from our place That came off the sunflower field So we got to stop this we know how to stop this Well, here's 2012 That's four miles from my place That was a bean field that they planted the spring wheat and then it blew There's quite a bit of that where they'll put fertilizer on beans double in the fall and then it'll blow So, you know, we got over that we won't let that happen again Whoops, we did You know, that's organic matter there This is a this is a high no-till environment. That's what manage will do management will do We've got to pay attention to that everybody's got to pay attention to that we can't let that happen So, you know, and this is Dwayne helped us with this we so what do we do? So here's an 1895 drill. These are 10 inches apart So and then so all we did and this isn't a very good picture But see we just took and put the wheel over here wheel over there. So then you've got a row of stock standing right here We did we did that on both sides of the drill on the wings and that was enough So what our fields look right now? That's what our fields look like and that was enough to stop to blow in If you if we have enough residue, we won't blow but that's enough to stop the blowing So our row crop fertilizer will we put We on the river we do a little different but on our dry land are you real go? Three inches off the side and two inches down and we'll put our starter with the with the seed And I'm gonna there's I'm coming to this why we're doing this So if you broadcast Urea on top of soil the reas enzyme will break it down And that's where you get it would release it and get your valid station So but if it's under the ground, it'll help it. It'll slow it down So this is my theory and it's just a theory. So Colton and you can Google it This was in the furl magazine. I've read quite a bit about this So what they claim is you if you pack it if you pack that? urea in the tight Deal it'll it'll slow down your reassess and make it slow release And I really I really feel that's working for so you say what's your benefit abandon? Someone will say well, you can cut back Someone say well, you know because it's close to the seed and I you know and this is my Thought now get into a little more of what I'm beginning to believe this all the time a Lot of you guys have probably read this book if you don't have this book you get this book 84 pages long That don't only get it but get one to give to your neighbor also Good book Much of modern agronomy is focused on feeding plants the nutrients they need to grow for harvestable crop Very little is said about the most limited element most needed for crop production. That is carbon We've got to have carbon We've got to have carbon so right now You put on your you put on your inorganic fertilizer And you plant a plant so that plants on welfare Most of the time what a plant will do is they'll take in through for the senses They'll take in it'll take out and you'll take the carton the sugar out and then the fun guy will take it And then they'll go get the organic Nitrogen so what happens when it does this is it's got it's on welfare So it's going to use that or inorganic nitrogen and it's going to get lazy. I mean why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't you use that if you could how many people if you had if you had free meals given to you Why would you have to go work? So that's exactly what the plant's doing So then when it comes time For the plant to actually say well, I'm running out of that Inorganic fertilizer. I need some more so it goes and it sends sugar out To try to get the attention of the mycorrhizae and the bacteria to go after and get the organic in So instead of taking everything to the head It's taking everything it's got to try to go after more fertilizer So I'm not saying we should quit fertilizing I'm not saying I think we we need to wash what we fertilize and maybe manage our fertilizer a little better but one thing I'm really is I One thing and I there's no scientific deal. This is just a farmer's thought I think when you put that fertilizer in a tight band like that I think part of this is helping where it's actually going off and finding it's not being overwhelmed with that inorganic fertilizer We soil sample we variable rate we do our own have been doing it since 2000 and the main reason we do this is because Not not for most production. We're just finding out what the fields need and I think the last thing we On our farm right now. We don't farm for max maximum yield We farm for maximum profit And we started doing that that made a lot of difference because you know If you're not you're gonna be going for them hundred eighty bushel yields And you might get them one out of ten years and we take an average and so we don't do that anymore We farm for maximum profit. So you put all them together and got a variable rate map Again same thing cost-efficient management Is in I think you really have to do that our feeling that's really taken us a long ways on our farm Here's another thing a Duane Quit putting band-aids on things When you have something wrong Instead of just trying to find out some way to well, how am I gonna heal this or let's see I need I need to go buy another fungicide that'll take care of this or they've got a new herbicide And I know I got to spray that herbicide what you do is you go find out what the problem is what the issue is and It took me a while. I'm a full learner so I Thought well, this is where we need to be and the reason these are the first rotations we started with and The reason this was is because before the freedom to farm We had to we had to plant our wheat base the only way we could plant our wheat base is plant When a wheat back on spring wheat So and so I mean we thought we had it made well The only thing that someone else was thinking the sheet grass said, you know, I'm gonna figure you guys out So we went we went two times around on this two and a half times around and we realized we had to make a change We could either spray for cheap grass and keep fighting the cheap grass Or we had to let rotations do it And our goal was to do it with rotation. So these aren't any big deals We just all we did was we stayed two years away from You know three years away from wheat, I mean But but doing this we still that's the reason we were doing it But in the long run what it was really doing was getting us more diversified and helping us with soil health And then we started cover crops in 2006 these are crop trees in 2017 and I know we've got four each crops in there But one thing we'll do is we'll go look for the markets, but you can see our high residue crop We value residue and our dry environment we Value residue have to have residue if you ever want to read something under us. He just Charles Darwin on worms. I Mean you can read for hours about what is what is what's his thoughts were on worms earthworms This is a field of it was volunteer lentils this fall and You know when you the lentils were short anyway and and when your full seeding rates 40 pounds So it wasn't anything to leave 30 40 pounds because they shattered. They're only six inches tall eight inches tall but look at the Look at the earthworm holes is water gonna go down is water gonna go down is risk got a place to go risk got a place to go but another thing with earthworms channels There's two and a half times more Nitrogen, there's a one half more or a carbon one and a half more times nitrogen Seven times more phosphorus and six and a half times more potash So if you were a plant You're in a drier environment and you had to you said well, where am I gonna go? Well, here's an easy place and when I go down there. I'm gonna have all that fertility I'm gonna have all that fertility that the earthworms created You know the NRCS has done a lot of work on our farm and Along with that's the issue. I don't want to give one anybody one more credit than the other But you know the more you read the more you realize this what's under the soil Everybody drives by and say boy, that's a nice corn crop boy. That's a nice sweet crop How many times do you say boy? Let's go take a spade and go look at that soil. I Mean, I think we have to do that you guys I think we have to because soils are driving force and what's going to happen in the future So we took a Shannon Osborn and Mike Lehman asked told us we could bring some some soil samples over to the lab and it was 2012 extremely dry and I said, I don't think you'll do any good because we're dry. I mean, we're just terribly dry and it was the Middle of winter February well February 14th. Guess what else I did on Valentine's Day, but anyway, so Anyway, and this is this is how little like that I know about it So I was so proud of taking this one because look at the rotation. I mean, holy buckets I mean there wasn't any way that thing wasn't gonna be a you know a big rotation and it was the least count So it just kind of shows you how little we know about what's going on under our feet But the one thing that really helped me Is everything was still alive? When you warmed it up under a microscope, it was still alive and I just thought that meant a lot so my Karazai My Karazai fungi if you guys ever get it all you read everything you can about it Because that thing's helping us so much. It's been around forever but the it It moves in from lagoon plants that started fertilizer is reduced Destroying the the food web by tillage. I mean, I will heard it It can access water from very small pores in the soil bringing the water to the plants during times when the soil is dry When we were in Indianapolis with Dr. Ray Wells had a talk and it was all the talk on on what his talk was is on the my Karazai The ruddy structure of a my Karazai and he's got pictures of my Karazai where it'll go with aggregation When you get aggregated soils that look like cottage cheese That's the glomona from those it's from the sugar that the my Karazai takes to the center of that And then that's what makes it it's sticky and then that's but anyway He has pictures, but where it's right and it will go right right in the center of that And then that's where it'll take most of it'll go after most some moisture But I thought it was kind of neat So we put on we had four soy beans and Then we planted corn and we came back we did this two years and one year I took it to harvest and the other year we cut it for silage and so what we'll do what we did was we Came back and we Planted the corn and came back about right when the corn was spiked and planted some forage soy beans group sevens You know and the thing that was really stuck out of me is So these are the this is the corn with the soy beans and we thought we were running It was a drought but you see the tip to these that corn house tip back So basically then forage soy beans were feeding the nitrogen in our limited Rainfall we have to be careful with this because then forage soy beans took quite a bit of moisture But it's just something we kind of have to be careful of You know this is another thing dr. Dave Francine. We plant flocks. I love flocks But it's my carizae friendly flocks doesn't take any and he'll he would have told you that today. That's in his book It doesn't take any phosphorus because the my carizae it goes after the organic phosphorus If you could get him to say it and we should ask him today He'll tell you that sunflowers doesn't take any phosphorus He don't recommend any phosphorus the sunflowers and if you would ask him is it my carizae And he probably would have said yes Because the sunflowers are very my carizae Love me a cover crop mix There would be sufficient length the my carizae hyphae in the top four inches of a four square yard of healthy grassland To stretch around the world There's a lot to this. I mean you guys I really Encourage you to read about it because the more you read about it the more you plant my carizae plants There's a lot of them just to realize the value of them Okay, now we're gonna get into carbon We were at a meeting in 1991 and Dwayne Beck said do you see what I see? And he was talking about carbon and blew over the top of my head only took me 20 years to figure it out But it's you guys the more you the more you realize we have to take carbon in not only take carbon in but we have to store it 57% of Organic matter is carbon. We have to take carbon in That's the biggest thing about you Carbon's a driving force anytime you can grow bring it in through the plants. You've got to have carbon Another thing we're doing is we're working some native Grass and are nothing big but you know it's kind of a rotation type deal kind of slough area some hunting area We'll put 60 acres in leave it in four or five years and take it out again We're getting a written structure. We're getting we're bringing that land back I mean we're bringing it back to where it was so when we then we will take it back to a crop But I just think that's really going to help us in the long run Jay fear Think the world to Jay. This is a trade cronin. That's Mike's son. He's going to be one of the the main Owners the farm shifting gears next year And Casey and Corey that's Monty's two sons and Mike and Trigger it's going to Monty stepping out of the picture He's going to retire which is you know fine, but anyway I really believe that if you have more carbon entering your soil than leaving your kids will probably farm that land If you have more carbon leaving than entering they probably will not What he's saying is you got a farm for the future So we had some corn and heavy stripper stubble in 2017 nice-sucking corn. Oh D's we had a frost June 26th Was it going to come back? I don't know if it's going to come back. It was really it was probably six color plus The thing but is out of that we'd have 160 acres and we lost maybe 80 acres out of the quarter But it was being the low ground Didn't know how to make any sense of it So we knew we had to do something We weren't going to leave that land alone because it had the fertility there. It wanted something growing in it So we planted you can't see it very well But we planted a pearl millet because that's what the chemical let me had Callisto on it and brown midrib forage sorghum Because we had cows Because we had cows Here's what we ended up with I should have done a biomass unreal unreal what we did and to show you Ruth came up Ruth back and and I shouldn't have to say Ruth back I should be able to say Ruth and everybody knows her cuz she's up But anyway Ruth came up and Jason and we went out there you guys and it was it was really something It was really felt like success story So what we did is we had the so what are you gonna how are you gonna handle it now? So we went on with the site now. This is our better soils. So we knew we had the fertility there We knew organic matter is a little higher there. We knew the we had still had good ground cover You saw that on the picture So what do you do so? We cut up for silage and you say boy you took all that stuff off, but you know that was terrible Well, I understand but we had to do what we had to do so we took the silage off But I kept thinking look at all the rip mass we have Look at the rip mass we'd have with that it probably down three three foot Two and a half three foot so I felt I Didn't want to take it all off, but it's something in the way the temperature was or the weather was the rainfall We felt we had to So here's another thing about if we need cover or not So look at the temperature Look at the temperature when you start the start evaporating 85% of the moisture lost through evaporation and transpiration at 95 degrees So what happens on bearer soils? You know if you guys ever done much of this it doesn't take very much to go out with the thermometer and get a hundred and hundred and ten degree Soil on bearer soil So this is just one of them things and this is isn't my pictures in our CS My thermometer sideways, and it's hard to take a picture, but look at the difference Same day same place these came from Jay fear We have to have that soil armor We have to have that soil covered So here's where our organic matter When we started taking off I mean So it's building and we felt good about it and it were no telling and you know you feel you know We're going in the right direction because if we would not have I don't know where we would have been Because when you The microbes are gonna eat something and they're gonna eat organic matter if they don't have anything any carbon that you brought in So they're gonna eat something So this is 10% is where we used to be We let a lot of places in the United States were less than two What do you think that grandpa's telling his grandson? I'm sorry When we were in Indiana With the Buffett people we had people from the the the thumb of Michigan and we had from the boot hill Missouri from Nebraska to Indiana to Iowa and a lot of guys you talk about organic matter They didn't want to really talk about organic matter But when they did talk that a lot of them were in the one and a half to twos the two and a half's They're trying to do it all with they're getting into cover crops now. That's what they should But we because they've got to get carbon back to make organic matter They're trying to do it with the inorganic nutrients So this is what we've done on our farm And so what I did was I took a that grass is planted in the 30s It was planted back in the 30s. So I took a soil sample of it I should have gone to native but so it was 5.1 an average land in 2008 was 2.8 and we have a lot of land in the forest right now What I'm going to say about cover crops Anytime you get a cover crop going on your field I mean, I'm talking a pretty active cover crop where everything's really perking well I think you know, I used to say if you could gain a tenth per percent a year You're doing well, and I think you can get to two tenths or maybe even three tenths a year by use of a cover crop I think cover crop is just going to jump start that soil One thing too is and Jay talked about a lot is when you plant covers Don't be disappointed after the first year because he explains it kind of like a soybean where the second year Soybeans always better than the first year native and he says it's just something about it because you plant a cover on that stubble It's just kind of a shock to it because it's had stuff It's never had before but it's always better the second time around So all I'm really saying to you guys is just this this ain't just a one or two year deal We just got to have to keep working on this Benefits 20 to 30 pounds of nitrogen sulfur phosphorus the one I Pay attention to the most is your organic matter water holding capacity and our drier environment That's tremendously important. If I can hold another half or through the horizontal water That's going to get me through that tough time time and time again. It shows that Mineralization this fall we really you know, we just everybody said boy, I can't believe we've got that much nitrogen Well, all it is is the microbes are really working and they're working on the organic matter and whatever whatever But the more organic matter you have the more mineralization you're gonna have This is our work organic matter is going now and that's I feel good about that. I just hope we can keep the one thing about it is we're not going backwards. I Do not take credit for organic matter in any soil test. I will not 1% of organic matter is like 1.1 trillion waters a gallon per day Over Niagara Falls 1% over the United States That's how much water that 1% of organic matter could hold. It's our savings account When we fertilize for 140 and you can have a good moisture and get 160, how do you get that you get it from your organic matter? but Dave Francine says just like on he and he just came out with this on his corn deal if you have 6% organic matter over he'll credit. He won't credit until you get 60% He sees the value of organic matter. So like when he talks about Fertilizing wheat which I'm not saying I don't I'm a farmer. I don't have I don't have enough knowledge or education disagree with Dr. Francine, but I don't I I don't really believe that because what he's saying He's gonna fertilize for two bushel wheat and if he gets rain the organic matter is gonna kick in The only thing is is what if you don't have 5% organic matter, what if you're two and a half and so I think I think I Really think that's critical that you that's why we won't use any organic matter credit We do what we don't we don't use this credit, but we do use our organic matter This is on the internet six hundred dollar six hundred eighty dollars for 1% of organic matter, and I just put some of our own numbers in And you still there's really still quite a value to 1% of organic matter If you own your land if you own your own land Why aren't you doing that? Why aren't you trying to get more organic matter? Everybody says I'm too hot to drive whatever whatever, but optimum management and add an external carbon source Anytime you can Anytime you can Cover crops you guys This is our first cover crop Dwayne. You know he was going he was trying to get someone to try cover crops And he got me kind of cornered and so we did it the only thing is is We come off a really dry year. We had 13.7 inches of moisture, but it was really a low carbon only a 20 to 1 carbon and and I Was worried about it and he was worried about it enough He called one day and he said when you're gonna start combine and that and I said well We're probably gonna be doing it Tuesday and Tuesday morning. He pulled in and he rode with me So he was as nervous as I was but it turned out pretty good for his we ended up with good moisture in 2007 But it turned out for us So another question, so we're gonna plant cover crops There's not enough people a lot of people what they'll do is though and I'm not I Think there's a tremendous lot of good seed salesman I hope I don't offend anybody but when you walk up here seed salesman you say this is what I want to do I want to graze it. I want to increase organic matter You know, whatever you want to do you want to use up the excess moisture Whatever you want to do you have them goals and usually what I do when I sit down to make my my Cover crop plans I have three things in mind If it's grazing organic matter, but it'd be one two three I always have my first one, but don't just go up there and say I need a cover crop They can help you. They know what you want, but you let them know what you want This is from the NRCS Jason Miller and and Jeff Hemingsway made this and it's a good chart and and what I usually do Let's just take flocks for instance. So, you know, it's high highly mycorrhizae. It's good You know and it tells you it's fair with organic matter carbon and nitrogen ratio high But so one thing too is you look at the seeding rate full seeding rate 20 pounds So when I make a cover crop mix if I got five things and I went in and so I that five things will be like I Want so I'll do 20% of each one So right now that would be four pounds of flax And that's how I build my cover crop mix So do a percentage if you feel really good about it if you've got enough more sure I sometimes go to 115 to 120 percent That's that's what I I'm not saying. It's the right way. It's just the way I do it another thing Chris mentioned this This is on the Google cover crop chart ARS and you can go and they'll tell you anything you want to know about any Cover crop the carbon and nitrogen ratio everything salt tolerant good website One thing I found in the Sarah book And I started doing this because when we plant sorghum sedan grass we always plant Piper sedan grass I never plant one thing alone Piper sedan grass and probably like either a white a white wonder a German millet Because I never want anything alone. I think that everybody gets along better when there's something else there Then another thing about that millet is it keeps the windrow fluffy and but the one thing That really Just look at that. So a few and we've seen this Six inch double look how much deeper the roots go more root mass More it takes in more carbon the more benefit the soil microbes. I Mean if a guy has cattle, I mean I think this is a win-win carbon and nitrogen ratio so you know One time Dwayne was up and I was talking about all our high carbon crops and all the stubble We had and and he made the comment to me. He said but you have to learn to manage that that's a high management and That I thought well, you know anybody could but it is I Mean is eight inches of stubble It's okay, but is it too much so you just have to kind of realize what you want to do with your cover crop Or with your soil cover with your carbon But one thing you you have to be awful careful That you don't use it up and you leave some Right now like on our lentils and peas where a lot of guys will go on corn stocks I'll plant them on some on spring wheat stubble Okay, so I got spring wheat stubble Then lentils and then I'll and then I'll come back to corn corn or winter wheat For one thing. It's the weed control if I've got a cheat grass issue downy brome issue Behind the spring wheat the lentils I can take anything out I want as far as grass is concerned And then I can come back to winter wheat the next year and then corn So I just take a break. I don't have any set rotations And I don't know if that's right or wrong. It's just something that works for us carbon and nitrogen ratio So like that one we said was right here on that first cover crop Ideal is right here. And I don't know on our Our soils are so active with the mature soil. So I like to be a little higher than that We started working covers into our pivots covers and rotations because I thought this is Really an important thing is we were the corn bean guys were kind of caught up in that And that was the best thing we ever did was get Was get rid of that corn bean corn bean corn bean We got rid of our white mold issue. I mean you talk about a win-win situation So we plant a lot of different crops down there You know and I've heard the comment today. How do you make money on wheat? How do you make money on oats? You plant a cover behind them You put your cattle on there So we had a we had a pivot that was field peas and we planted the full season cover in 2016 And the boys always pasture weaned. So what they'll do is they'll take the They'll they'll along the river They'll take the cows on one side of the fence and the calves on the other The cows will stay next to the river where they used to drinking out of And then they'll then they'll just leave them like that. Well this year what they did So it was a we planted a ten-way mix That snow in the air these are the calves So what they did is they put the pears in And then after about seven days they took the cows out And the calves didn't have any idea what happened. They just they were so satisfied They didn't care whatever but the one thing that really noticeable about that Usually we bring the cows home about the 15th the sep the calves home about the 15th of september And this year we that year they didn't have to Because this is like the 7th of november and them calves are still there and they're still doing good There's no dust. There's there's plenty of grazing. So I that was really a and we're going to try to copy that again We got two pivots kind of set up for that purpose this coming year So this is the we planted the corn in 2017 and this is a heavy gumbo Circle heavy heavy soil When I broke them the circles back in 70. I don't know 77 or 78 With the disc There's two circles side by side hundred forty acre circle and this circle was virgin sod The homesteaders knew enough not to farm this So we always struggle with raising the crop Always struggle. So then we got into no till and we really helped ourselves This is the second time this fields had covers on it and it's responding It's getting so we can manage it now. We're getting good yields We had 220 plus on it this year But this is something I'd like to be able to do it again And I don't know how but this is the volunteer cover from the year before The cattle stomped the oats and the radishes and the turnips and five minutes. Okay, I'll have to hustle but they But it really is a win-win situation for the cattle So we started in 2016 I said well, let's I think we can make more money raising a full season cover crop than what we can plant and weed And I so my goal was is so we planted june 6 and the test double really diversified mix So you can see the one thing I really focused on is our mycorrhizae Everything I put in there had a had a reason to be put it in there. I wanted a 32 to 1 Racial carbon and nitrogen. So we'll just follow that through So this is our this is a quarter section. We left some in free strips. I put a three-way in Just to see what if the three would be rather than a 12 way Put 50 pounds the end of planning and and you know, I I didn't know if I should really do that or not And j furor said he didn't think a guy should and then this is where our cross fences went when we fed during the winter time So that we so the different paddocks june 29th You can see the end free strips So full season That's a hard picture to see but I love kale kale last way into the winter So here's what we what happened. And so this is what we ended up with with most of the field 8200 pounds of biomass. We're down to 25 to 1 carbon and nitrogen ratio But uh, you know 11 protein you can see that how much more we gained from with the no end Though no in earlier. We had 7600, but it really fell off because the young succulent plants gave out with the cold weather So this is just a relative feed value So what I did is is I said, okay, let's find out what we're going to do here So I wanted to know I knew how much it cost us. I knew what I wanted to save We went ahead and I tracked all the the temperatures of what the cattle should eat There's a 650 head eating there But one thing I didn't really count on we had a lot of snow and then we had we got really cold and uh, so In the long run we had to feed we fed a fourth of our feeding through the wagon Was it really a win it was still a win did we make as much money as we thought we did? No, we didn't but the big it really showed up this year coming off that full season cover We went at 150 had a deer and Kind of waiting for the game fishing parks to pay us for that one, but I guess we'll wait a while so Jason and Ruth and jose and dwayne set up a plot plan and this is kind of uh So this is 28 percent and then the rest of this is seated there this way with their planner So here's what we come up with or they came up with I'm just here for the I can say I did it But they're all here so I better not But one thing I really thought was so right now you take the one with the one with the No side side band in was 181 bushel No side band in was 149 beside with more nitrogen it was less So we put the stream bar on the second of may 46 degrees temperature humidity 74 percent But it was seven days before we had a quarter inch of rain Was that the reason I used stream bars, so I didn't want to spread it out. I wanted to have a stream bar come down. So the uriasis was slowing and uh Breaking it down so I mean it just really showed us a lot of things and you'll talk to jason dwayne ruth or anybody and usually your yields are 10 to 12 percent more when you hand harvested these were hand harvested So they're usually more they were dried down to 8 percent. This is official as you could get It's just like we the more nitrogen the more protein But look at here. So everybody says boy, I've got a like there's not such a thing It's put too much nitrogen on Look what it did 180 pounds of nitrogen 176 bushel That's 60 pounds of nitrogen. Look what it cost us nine bushel 11 bushel, but So anything and the thing what is on this field we're going to go back on that same spot and they're going to do that Same thing they're going to replicate the same exact spot Everything's going to be the same We're going to have three or four of these trials around the farm We have to find out if we should be using one or 1.2 Everybody's going to be different. We're not going to use 1.2 But we have to find out if we can use in our environment with our system We got to find out if we can use uh eight tenths of a pound or nine tenths of a pound So this is the one thing this we did a strip with uh Starter different races starter But one thing I want you to notice So this was soil sampled in the spring before we planted corn And you'll see this time and time again. I mean You know a lot of people talk about it after a cover After a cover later in the year you'll get a spike in your phosphorus And this here might have been a fluke The only thing is that a lot we're gonna see at 4.4 than 3.8 So I mean at least there's an increase I'm going to get hollered out again here So this is what this is basically how our plots turned out So there wasn't there wasn't any significant difference Send it to ward lab. There's 388 Pounds of organic phosphorus in that soil The mycorrhizae went and looked after went and got that organic phosphorus This test right here is a is a 12 and 50 cent test at ward lab If you want to find out your total phosphorus in the field So full season grazing we're going to do the same thing the only thing is I'm going to Maybe try to increase the The carbon and nitrogen ratio. It's going to be a dry So we soil sample there excuse me We planted covers and a lot of talk was its covers was negative So we had this field side by side there this did not have covered they were just 16 rows apart And so we went so I soil sampled it in the In november of 16 before the corner is 9 pounds where there wasn't covered there's 38 pounds So I came back and we soil sampled After corn harvest and we had 89 pounds and here we had 38 So I gave it back to us. It just doesn't give it back to us in time for the the cattle I soiled I fertilize this accordingly So this is uh The our cover crop mix is kind of a there's a reason in that but I went to that mix but this is what I the so we ended up with A no cover was 160 with cover is 156 So you take all there cost you $26 when I credited ourselves back to the residual end And all I'm saying is you can't say anything off a side by side. This shouldn't even be shown You've got to be replicated. You've got to be replicated three times Value of it This is what our corn though, you know, this is these are three years These are three years all I'm trying to say is I know the corn varieties gets part of that But look at there 1994 19.5 2016 18.8 Are we going in the right direction? This is what it's kind of scares me a little bit Look at the amount of grass that came out in potter county. Look at the amount of beans over 2006 to 2017 Corn went up. Look at the winter wheat and the winter wheat is going to be last winter wheat is going to be down there around 12 000 this year The tea yield on beans is 38 bushel the beans are going to be way over here So then we'll look at davison county. Look how much you guys took away from pasture Increased soybean some corn some your wheat's dropping Corn requires nine inches moisture vegetative growth adds 10 bushel for each additional inch So a yield goal 140 pounds How can you do that? How can you reach that? And it's organic matter. We use some of our savings account 58 percent of organic matter is carbon low disturbance no till there's a lot of reasons We need to learn to farm for the maximum profit not the maximum yield let the soil help you with that You know a great deal of carbon that once restored the soil now stored in the atmosphere And it's there you guys all we have to do is learn to get it And and we definitely need to return the carbon back to humus This is really makes you feel good because right here look at the youth on our farm and everybody says Everybody says boy you guys got a lot of people on the farm Well, three of these aren't ours, but you got a lot of people on the farm and but everybody's getting along fine We're making it work and we're not real big But we're making it work and just because we're we're trying to make the we're taking care of the soil and the soil's taking care of us You know, this is something that Change happens when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change Just think about that I feel we should do everything we can to make this the better world And why who cares and just this picture is going to tell the story. I'm not going to say anything about it I don't think we have a choice Okay, thank you guys. Sorry. I took