In a recent blog written for our sister publication, No-Till Farmer, Randall Reeder offered valuable insight to farmers dealing with an ever-changing world. In “Farming is Changing: Are You in the Driver’s Seat?” Randall, a retired ag engineer from Ohio State Univ, and who serves as director of the Ohio No-Till Council, suggested ways farmers can address many of the reasons to change their operation.

He addressed the changes over the past half century, since the mid-1970s, including more acreage, bigger machinery and new chemicals for managing weeds, insects and disease. Crop yields probably doubled or tripled, he contended, and if that wasn’t the case, he said farmers would be hurting due to stagnant commodity prices.

While his writing was targeted to no-till farmers, the perspective and intel on the changing landscape of agriculture in general merits attention from equipment dealers dedicated to serving and servicing. Here are a few reasons he offered to farmers to change to continuous no-till:

• Cost of inputs. Tractors, fuel, seed, fertilizer, herbicides … have any of these come down in the last 10 or 20 years?
• Commodity prices. Just like corn, most crops have not had a substantial boost in price.
• Weather. Regardless of your views on global warming, some regions are experiencing more intense rainstorms and longer droughts (sometimes in the same year).
• Erosion. Most farms with tilled ground are losing topsoil faster than it is being replaced by Nature. Even if you are fortunate enough to have a few feet of topsoil (instead of a few inches), the lost soil is taking valuable nutrients with it.
• Societal demands. The U.S. has standards for air quality and water quality. The general population demands clean air and water. Bare ground is a source of dust storms and sediment in streams.
• Consumer demands. This is more specific than society demands. They are looking for evidence that their food meets their standards, whatever that might be. Food processors, such as General Mills, react to their consumers and may only buy grain from farms that meet their standards (often without any premium).
• Resistance. Weeds and insects “change” to become resistant to chemicals that provided perfect control at one time.
• Technology. This is a good change. Technological advancements make farming more efficient.

“Change, in general, isn’t easy,” wrote Reeder. He continued, “Most of us develop habits that are comfortable. For farmers, one or more of the items listed here may have to impact their operation dramatically to cause a change. A 60-year-old farmer may decide he or she can make it another 5 to 10 years without changing. Farmers who plow enjoy the aroma of freshly tilled soil. Remind them they can walk behind a no-till planter, pick up a handful of soil from a row, and get the same delightful smell without losing precious organic matter from the field. A bonus is that it ‘smells like money.’”

Reeder says autonomous tractors are part of the change. He noted that there are already tractors pulling a grain cart without a driver in the seat. It can move from the edge of a field into position beside the combine to unload on-the-go, he notes, adding that from there, it can return to the field edge, unload the cart into a tractor trailer, and be ready to return to the combine.

“Imagine in a few years, a ‘swarm’ of 10 robotic tractors, 50-horsepower, with each pulling a 4-row no-till planter. The farmer has traded his seat on a tractor for an office chair, overseeing the whole operation on computer screens. Kinda like the director of a televised NFL football game,” he says.  

In offering a viable and, as he and other no-tillers see it, valuable solution, Reeder offers this: “Meanwhile, farmers can address many of the ‘reasons to change’ by parking the plow and adopting a conservation agriculture system with no-till and cover crops. You can still enjoy time in the tractor seat, just a lot fewer hours per year.”