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Farmer chooses no-till to reduce labor

A Northwestern Wisconsin farmer began no-till farming several years ago, but not for conservation reasons. Peter Arcand of Clear Lake says, “I didn’t go into it to save the environment. I went into it because I was losing my son to college. When he went off to college, I thought I have to do something different if I’m going to continue to run the same number of acres that we’ve always ran, so it was no-till.”

Arcand tells Brownfield he was farming about 500 to 600 acres, and now he’s farming about 800 acres of corn, soybeans, and alfalfa with less labor.  Arcand says he is in very rocky ground that required a lot of rock picking every spring and he had to try something different to cut down on labor. “When I went into it, I was a little skeptical but I knew I had to do something. I knew I was going to take a yield hit, and I did.”

Arcand says yields have bounced back and using no-till makes it possible for him to continue farming with less help.