INFORMATION PROVIDED BY A GRANT FROM
THE HOWARD G. BUFFETT FOUNDATION
THIS FARMER KNOWS
NO-TILL WORKS ON HILLS
By Lynn Betts
NO-TILL ON HILLS: No-till and terraces tie the soil down on the steep C and D slopes Nate Ronsiek farms in northwest Iowa.
N
ate Ronsiek has farmed for only five years, but that’s long enough
for him to know no-till works well on steep hills in northwest
Iowa.
The 29-year-old tried no-till on all the acres he planted in his first year of
farming and has never looked back. Limited on time and resources when
he started with his mother, Lisa, in 2006, Ronsiek chose no-till in large part
because he’d seen it work in Kansas.
“Dad and I had always thought I’d get a job away from the farm; then
come back and farm later. But he passed away from a brain tumor in 2003
when I was in school at Kansas State, so I came back sooner instead of
later,” Ronsiek explains. “I helped Mom with the farm for two years, but
then started making the crop decisions in 2006,” he says. “What I learned
about no-till in school and seeing it work in Kansas convinced me that notill was the way I was going to farm.”
The fifth generation to farm the steep C and D slopes on easily eroded
loess soils near Hawarden, Ronsiek says saving soil is one of the reasons
he chose no-till early on.
“Dad was big into conservation,” he says of father Vince. “He built a lot
of terraces and grassed waterways, and taught me to take care of the soil.
He attempted no-till, but didn’t stick with it.” His father usually made one
pass with a disk before planting, Ronsiek says, which is standard in the
neighborhood. Ronsiek still has that disk, but doesn’t like what it does.
“I do some custom farming, and when the land is uneven, sometimes it
needs to be disked to even it out before no-till,” he says. “And I disk some
around terraces. But every time I do, I kick myself later for doing that tillage.
Each time you disk, you get more erosion and make the ground rougher.”
Ronsiek says his fields have become much smoother over time with
no-till. “It’s a night-and-day difference,” he says. “My soils have structure
now. People think it’s hard ground with no-till, but it’s really structure. That
helps at planting time. I go as early or earlier than anyone else around here.
The day it’s fit for neighbors to disk, it’s fit for me to plant. I throw seed in
a timely way. Timing is an issue with sidedressing.”
the planter and go,” he says.
After nitrate stalk tests last fall, he found he was out of N. So it was back
It’s really easier to no-till corn into soybean residue, but not difficult to
to using mainly anhydrous in the fall for this year’s crop, he says. “I put
plant beans into corn residue either, Ronsiek says. “Beans will compensate,
on 30 units of N last spring with the preemerge herbicide. I think what I’ll
but you want corn in the ground just right,” he says. “You can do that better
end up doing is using anhydrous in the fall for the majority of my nitrogen,
with no-till.” Ronsiek’s 12-row planter came from the factory ready to noalong with manure, and do some over-the-top N in the spring. I know I lost
till, with an offset leading disk and trash whippers in front, and a closing
N last year because it was so wet,” Ronsiek says. “The hills produced better
system in back.
than bottom ground. I like split application, but it’s a time issue mostly for
Ronsiek likes the way earthworms form channels in no-till ground to
me. And on the contour, you can run over some corn when you sidedress.”
allow water to infiltrate and roots to grow deeper. “In tilled ground, you
In general, Ronsiek says all his land needs its fertility built up. He gets
might think it’s easy for roots to grow, but what happens is they grow
manure from a nearby feedlot and spreads it in the fall. “The response to
through the fluff on top and then hit the hardpan,” he
manure has been phenomenal,” he says. “It helps build
says.
organic matter. But I also buy nitrogen.”
He sees the difference firsthand in side-by-side test
Ronsiek tests manure and does all his own grid samate onsiek s
comparison strips he’s used for five years. “We had a
pling.
“I’ll keep testing; it’s a good indicator for manno till advantages
1-inch rain in 20 minutes last year. I saw water sitting on
agement and general soil fertility. I don’t want to be
1. Better soil structure
top of the conventionally tilled strips long after the rain
overapplying,” he says. “I do some variable-rate planting
2. Equal yields with less time
stopped. But in my no-till strips in my fields, the water 3. More moisture on hills in dry years and use GPS when I spread manure to apply more
went straight down. The no-till infiltration rate is great,”
manure where the land needs it.”
4. Better water infiltration
Ronsiek says. He says the increased crop residues that
The fact that all his land needs fertility built up is
5. Fertilizer stays put
6. Consistent, smooth seedbed
come with no-till reduce soil erosion and make more soil
one reason Ronsiek is interested in cover crops. “I tried
7. No disk or second tractor needed
moisture available for growing crops in dry years.
turnips, radishes, rye and hairy vetch cover last year. I’d
8. No-till is really easy
like to get the nitrogen in the ground that comes from
YIELDING MORE PROFIT
hairy vetch,” he says. “It was too dry for the cover crop
Six side-by-side test plots total 6 acres on Ronsiek’s farm,
to germinate last fall, so it didn’t work out well. But I
with three replications of disk-plant and three of no-till. To replicate his
do need to build the soil, and I’m going to try again with a similar mixture
corn-soybean rotation, all the strips are in corn one year and soybeans the
next year.”
next.
The comparison strips are a result of his work with the Iowa State
NO-TILL IS EASY
University On-Farm Research and Demonstration Grant Program — a
Ronsiek persuaded his father-in-law to try no-till beans last year into corn
partnership of ISU, the Leopold Center and Practical Farmers of Iowa — as
residues. “His 30 acres of no-till turned out better than his conventional
well as the Iowa Learning Farms. He’s used the comparison strips to help
beans, so this year he tried no-till on several hundred acres. I think he’s on
guide his decisions from the first year he farmed.
the path to converting to no-till,” Ronsiek says with a grin.
“I wanted to track progress in no-till. When you start no-till, you commit
“Years ago, landlords maybe didn’t want no-till, but now they know
to stick with it. I got involved with on-farm research that first year and
you’re saving their soil and they know yields are similar,” says Ronsiek,
every year since, and it helped me know that no-till is working on the land
who rents most of the 600 acres he farms.
I farm,” Ronsiek says.
“At first, your mind and your preconceptions are that no-till isn’t easy,
The test trials have consistently shown that no-till yields on his cornbut you find out that’s not true,” Ronsiek says. “It really is easy. And with
soybean rotation keep pace with disked fields. The yields are almost idenno-till, you have the opportunity to be a steward of the land.”
tical after five years, with no statistical difference, Ronsiek says.
Ronsiek and his wife, Rachel, have a son, Jeremiah, 2, and are expecting
“But there’s more profit, because you save when you skip the disk trip.
a second child. “I’d love for Jeremiah and his brothers and sisters to become
And that’s a savings in time, too,” he says. Saving time at planting is importhe sixth generation to farm this land,” Ronsiek says. “I want to keep this
tant to Ronsiek because he’s a seed corn dealer. “Planting is crunch time,
land in shape for them.”
when everything happens at once. That’s when I need some extra time,”
Betts writes from Johnston.
Ronsiek says. He does all his own fieldwork, with the exception of hiring
out for anhydrous and preemergent herbicide applications.
“They say year three is the toughest year for no-till. I’m past that now,”
Ronsiek says. “Now I wonder if I’ll see a yield increase after six years of
EASY PLANTING: “People think no-till is tough to do
this. I’ll keep doing the comparisons as long as Iowa State University and
in heavy residues, but it’s easy with the soil structure
no-till builds,” Nate Ronsiek says.
the Iowa Learning Farms are willing to carry it on. I’m open to trying new
things. You have to be willing to learn,” he says.
“I’m still trying to figure out my nitrogen program,” Ronsiek says. “My
first year of no-till, I used 130 to 150 units of N. I started with 100 units,
then sidedressed. But I wasn’t able to get into all the fields to sidedress in
N
-
R
’ 8
Learning farms share conservation info
NATE RONSIEK is one of about 50 farmers volunteering as partners with
the Iowa Learning Farms. They’re helping call attention to the importance
of improved water and soil quality through conservation farming practices
by demonstrating various practices, including no-till, strip till, terraces,
waterways and cover crops. A number of them compare data on conservation systems, and they all share what they’re learning through field days
and on the Web.
The Iowa Learning Farms is funded by the Iowa Department of
Agriculture and Land Stewardship through the Integrated Farm and
Livestock Management Demonstration Program, in partnership with the
Iowa Department of Natural Resources, and the USDA Natural Resources
Conservation Service. Cooperators include Conservation Districts of Iowa
and the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation.
For comparison data and more information, go to www.extension.
iastate.edu/ilf. For ISU Leopold Center on-farm results, go to www.
leopold.iastate.edu/research/topics.html.
THE
HOWARD
G.
BUFFETT
FOUNDATION
www.HarvestingThePotential.org