No-till farmers converge for conference
Around 80 Marion County farmers were on hand Tuesday for the Eighth-annual No-Till Field Day, organized by the Marion County Extension Office. It was held in the cafeteria of Goessel High School.
The day's events took farmers who practice no-till to surrounding farms. Attendees also listened to keynote speakers who discussed issues relevant to no-till farmers.
The no-till event began with morning field visits to two farms. First, the group went to the Glen Ensz farm, on 130th Road, to look at no-till equipment such as planters and drills. They then visited the farm of Lewis Unruh, who grows a cotton field on 13-mile road.
The first speaker of the afternoon was Dr. Brad Lubben, an agricultural economist. He spoke on the new farm program, which President Bush signed into existence this past May.
One change in the new farm program is a variation in loan rates, as compared to the 1996 farm bill rates. With the 2002 farm bill, loan rates increase for corn, sorghum, barley, oats, and wheat. Only soybean rates will decrease, Lubben said.
Direct payments show little increase, except for rice, which will go up from $2.05 to $2.35.
Sorghum seems to be the crop that Kansas always produces a surplus of, Lubben said.
"Kansas, on the whole, is a deficit corn region," he said.
But farmers aren't just limited to financial assistance through commodities — they can also get funds through conservation programs, Lubben said.
Funding for these programs is up, as is the number of people allowed in each one.
"There is substantially more money for this kind of program," Lubben said.
Some of these conservation programs include wetlands reserve, environmental quality, grassland reserve, and conservation security.
Conservation security is the newest program, and it's set to begin in 2003.
"It is potentially a huge program — projected to be a more than $2 billion program," Lubben said.
Since it's so new, the guidelines for this program are still being written. But it could benefit farmers who already have conservation measures in place.
That makes it different from many of the other conservation programs, Lubben said.
But overall, the picture of farm income isn't good. United States farm income was at $48 billion in 2001, and it's down to $41 billion in 2002, Lubben said.
Next up on the speaker's agenda was Dr. William Parker, an agronomist with the Monsanto Company in Boonville, Mo.
Parker discussed trends in tillage for both the U.S. and Kansas.
For full-season corn, the percentage of no-till acreage found in the country was 8.5 percent in 1990. In 2000, the percentage of no-till acres was 17.9.
In Kansas, 5.2 percent of corn acres were no-till in 1990. By 2000, that percentage was up to 21.7.
These numbers pertain to straight no-till, not including mulch tilling or strip tilling.
Soybean crops planted in no-till land have seen the biggest jump in Kansas. In 1990, 2.5 percent of Kansas acres were no-till, while in 2002 the percentage of no-till soybean acres was 20.2.
The state saw a similar increase in sorghum crops produced with no-till.
The day ended with a farmer's panel — a discussion time for the attendees to share ideas.
Panel member Ron Peters, a Goessel farmer and no-till advocate, said that the no-till method proved a big help come harvest time. When the fields got wet, his combine wheels didn't sink into the mud.
Lewis Unruh, who raises the cotton field on the 13-mile road, also said that not tilling his wheat fields after harvest had saved him a great deal of time.
