We used to disk the hell out of the ground. All we did was tillage to produce livestock feed but gasoline was cheap; I think the oil embargo of 1973 changed all of that. The early pioneers of no-till we met at NNTC in Indianapolis in January were well on their way to successful notill farming before the embargo ever hit.
I just hate to sit on the tractor every spare hour, disking and grinding clods into tiny pieces until I used my brain to figure out how not to do that. Some enjoy doing that but that is un-needed recreational compacting tillage I can't afford to do. Now if I was organic, the disk might be an important tool to me.
Do you still disk ground? Do you enjoy it? The notill planter and drill took that all away from me and I was quickly glad to see it go. I can't remember the last time I disked a field but it's been decades.
NoTill is not easy, I've never said it was but it sure beats disking in my mind. My disk is mounted on a notill planter and cuts a true Vee to plant the seed into or it is notill disk opener that cuts a nice slit to slip my seed into. It works pretty well and I probably wouldn't be farming without it.
It's beautiful weather in southwest Ohio again today but it is cool and it is damp. We have not had good growing weather yet weather you till or not. Some of the tillage guys have big muddy messes on their hands and I know for sure that doesn't promote a good seedbed for a new crop.
The wheat is the best looking crop around this year. Somehow mine has escaped serious disease pressure so far. The cooler temperatures have helped but that soil oxygen thing might really be working.
Ed Winkle
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