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Soil health boosts yields

There aren’t many acres on Indiana farmer Mike Shuter’s farm that aren’t no-till.  As he talks to farmers around his area – he finds out his yields are pretty comparable.  “I think we even have some fields that yield better than some of the other operations where they’re doing a lot of tillage,” he says.  “They’re not really looking at soil health as much as we are.  It just seems like the fields look greener, longer.”

And when comparing fields within his own operation – he tells Brownfield there are some surprises.  “If we look at all of our corn on corn fields compared to all of our corn on soybean fields and average all of it together,” he says.  “Our corn on corn fields this year and last year have out yielded our corn on soybean fields.”

Shuter says there are several contributing factors.  “It’s cover crops,” he says.  “We also strip-till both our corn on corn and corn on soybean ground.  Through strip-till, I think we’re getting better stands out of our corn on corn ground.”

And, he says, they also follow an extensive nutrient management program.

Shuter spoke last week to farmers attending the first Soil Health Partnership meeting in Indiana.