Todd Kimbrell on Cover Crops, No-Till, and Building Soil Health

0:08 Picture of my two kids they're trading Tessa corn in the background you can see we have a pretty good year this year, best ever row crop year here. Rain spill right throughout time and I did get two hot dogs like it usually does.

0:25 We're pretty diversified, not every year but it's got four markets. We were primarily 40 wheat this year but any given time again sunflowers, avocado trying sesame and soybeans. This doesn't tend to work out for us. I've had much luck with it but that's kind of our main thing. Porter weed right now just because in markets and sunflower markets kind of left us here.

0:52 I'm sorry a song. So if anybody needs to make sure all of them be more willing to give them out or if you find the way to make them profitable, I love them. They love to visit with you after. Here's a picture of what they do. The corn, most of you probably already know, they're very destructive.

1:19 Mike legs rely play 60 percent clay plus. I'd say that's being pretty conservative. Hodge thinks well so when he gets dry, stuff really strengths up, gives a big crack. I water holding capacity sometimes too high and that's hard to believe but it can't get there slow and grace flow and filtration. So runoff is a big deal, that's probably why an RCS is such a big deal. Lovely to the terrace trees and water.

1:52 All that goes super high seas these 2262. Just give you an idea, maybe even some higher, but on the upper range that is typical for us. The high calcium also high pH, 7.8 to really high climate, that's kind of our average precipitation. You can see mages ruin it, pitch the water we played for in the February 1st of March. That's what everybody gets going. You kind of see the rainfall. It's I wish there was a good average and always come out of that. Apparently doing these cover crops and notes, you know, more than up till and my Ellis County stuff. It's a little further away from home and it's six of benefits from just labor I guess would be the main thing, but that's kind of what got you into their, made this will easier to get into it with the Saints. What got me in it, a lot of stuff to see, such as your picture of no. No, we don't leave, you know, just average picture there. That's special, but it it's counter here. There's a lot of people, a lot of people notice it wondering what the heck's going on there. Once again, bottle solids was bigger than the dirt. I try to give them their own every acre a farm of some sort.

3:28 This is biosolids. This is actually two-legged lots of hugs up. This is human weight right here. This is really good stuff. I come from a metropolitan area, Fort Worth or Dallas. We've had really good luck with it and

3:42 That's the way I'm going for great livestock through manure personally, how livestock locale like out, but just the way we're set up in the farms and spread out right now, it's just not something I'm looking at to do and it's not feasible for me if it's and water is just we're too spread out, too many patches.

4:05 Cool and more season mix. I believe this is the first things I ever did, as you can see, a pretty diverse mix there, alfalfa all the way down to the turnips. That was the first go edit and this little scary first time, but it was pretty fun, pretty neat. Calvert and the drill, that's how it used to see in their learning curves for sure.

4:30 Wondering, I've symmetry. We were just out there throwing darts. We just started guessing and actually did pretty good, but we just use though the old myth that this is a light bulb drill before I have a better cedar. But the Baggies under there, your feet weigh it out, so that's just kind of how it go on. It's all getting pretty easy after the first time. It's don't over thinking, I guess, would be my biggest still there.

4:52 This is a picture of the obvious, you know, the erosion. This is actually blower shop. There's a waterway just above this, but this is a pretty like a seven or eight percent slope. This is just an experiment, let's see what happens. So we planted that there. I don't have a better picture a broader.

5:12 Picture but you can see right where the robber the comer stops this is leftover cover that's pretty exciting. Robert scoffs you can see the road the storm.

5:23 So that's just pretty festive Rihanna even have my grandpa's a little bit leery about all this stuff and so it's pretty neat to see something like that every day and you see it changing. I think everybody here said that before you try stuff you're probably going to get us not surprised to learn something about Washington increasing organic matter biology. We've seen a big difference in biology just by sticking a shovel in the loop.

5:56 That's why I did. I think retaining is a good test. I'm gonna say I understand it all yet but I'd like to think that's your nose but this tester showing we're making progress you can just see it you can feel it walk it out there and give a lot of people out there a lot of neighbors walk you out there and go and this feels different something's different walking in your field.

6:21 Well it's a lot to do with pathology and it's just softer it's like dog got my mattress versus walked on the stage and that's we get a lot of people telling me that all the time your ground feels different. This was taken a month ago and some of the stuff this has been a cover I think it's this is maybe the third season on this particular film this was.

6:44 Mine RCS guys they're out there and every time I expect the show on the ground there's 25 worms there. This was back at this dinner this year, this past year compaction and recycle insurance. Yet it's a big deal.

7:00 Compassionate one we always fight because it's been in tillage forever. It's always been tilled, everything around it too, so that's an issue. You can see the radish there where it's in the action zone and in terms of a little bit, so I can finish the job.

7:18 I do like they're anxious for that. And also the recycle nutrients stuff, there's obviously a lot of stuff there. Get it, could get away from this stuff.

7:31 Temperature, this is just the temperatures taken in August when it's really hot. Under 90 degrees, that's above. We had some flowers and we ran a roll the chopper no-tillage. You can see 280 degrees there. We had to cover pretty close to it under the four degrees, a whole lot of difference. But then a 1 inch same stead of 120 versus a hundred, then one or two versus 92. So there's a difference there. That's a good way to put a physical evidence on something's going on, something's different. Less evaporation stuff like that helps me. I'm a long time person so I like to see stuff like that. It used to water, I mean like your guys have said before, it's definitely a lot of merit to it.

8:26 Take this bare ground, you know what's going on there? It's all going up and we're keeping up here out. The pitiful as that looks, that stuff doing along a lot of good. It's not the prettiest to look at. What's he growing? Those weeds, he's going, he's just gonna let it go. It needs to reclaim that farm. I've heard it all, bring it on. I'm sure there's more iron smart so far powers, weren't they read every scoop fool? This is a big deal.

8:58 I've always thought it was cool to go be against the earthworms. I mean it's healthy, but this puts a little more evidence in. Every little circle there is weren't casting every one of them, and this is what it looks like underneath. But they, you know, I see us guys nicer than Bo. There's a whole gang. They like to come out there, look around. They took the worm castings. It's in that simple off. So that's what you have in front. Anything maybe that puts a little merit to? I like to see stuff like that. So those worms are done a lot of good, and that's proof. They don't just look green. They're actually doing this a lot of good.

9:43 How, like I said earlier, this farm is 35 hours long way from our headquarters. I'm doing busted stuff there. This makes it easier. And home we're still doing conventional tillage. I'm probably the guy that speaking today. I'd say I'm wrong.

9:59 Those guys before me now way more, we're just still learning. And the less flavor intensity sure does help, you know, it's supposed to be that far from home clown over there all summer. That's pretty nice for a change. It's a kind of changes your lifestyle of the challenges we have encountered a lot of challenges going in that makes us show. We were pumped up, got these gigantic tire up some radishes. That's cool, it's fun to take pictures of, it's fun to show your buddies in the back, your truck, whatever is there we can out there the planet and I was led to believe there wouldn't be any problem. You're planning on slice right through that turn up places here on the ground. If you look close you see it, sunflowers that you'd right there in the middle that seed did not produce anything. It sit right there and rotted very, gonna whatever happened to that.

11:00 That's been a big curve. I'll take the turnips out on fixes to this point. I do like the tournaments. I don't know about ocular turn around. I actually love the terribly tasty to buy the latest. I'm not mocking the tenant but that is a challenge that I have encountered since then. We have done some upgrades to my planner with downforce and rug cleaners broke later might be oppressed or another to the world but for now that's what I'm making or not saying the Department of this for now that's what.

13:13 Others, like I said earlier, that's been another challenge. The coffee shop challenge, I'd say that at all, and continued here at all. Manure, the other thing the nerves is a challenge buzzing houses, so that's keeping me from no-tilling as much as I'd like to. We run a BT I'm under a lot of times just to please the neighbors. If I don't do that, they probably when we have a county, so we are a particle to do. I like, you know, I'm going to say I'm the biggest fan of it, but something I have to do to mitigate the people complaining across the road. And it's just part of it. One of these days maybe I can get away from it. That's just kind of challenge we're thinking. I love the folks who I did there, either we're getting there, he was covered a residue. You can see on the left there, 90 to 100 pounds of residue, Exxon 926, that's actually lady measured there, and then on the ride of thousand pounds after the week. So that was about a month to get these a real, real recent picture, so you can see that residue is going away. It's not there forever. Something's working. The microbes are eating it, like they talked about earlier. Something's going on, something's working here. It's pretty neat to watch it, watch on your own place. You can be composition. There's that tart up again. That's another thing that those things not only go away, they stay there. How are they spit at night? Yeah, two and.

14:43 A half years those were there and that corn is disappearing like it is. So I don't know, that was a challenge for us. On the right there at alfalfa, yellow sweet clover. All I've ever heard about our alfalfa my whole life is we can raise a year in the black or the black schools can't arrange it, won't work. Well I can't kill it. It's two and a half, three years old and it said everything from worlds you can imagine sprayed on it and it just keeps coming around back. Sweet clover too, not quite as bad as alfalfa, but so that is a challenge we went right into it.

15:17 That was no, we got into that week was fine. I mean it was 70, 80 bush. The weeds out there, so the whole thing about the competition with your crop I almost start to lose a little American. Me, I'll just say that yields are really separate now. That was that particular sunflower crop where that seat got trapped in there. That crop did stuff but that was the first year of coverage that did something. Those sunflowers make seven or eight hundred less than the ones right next to it that did not cover. But a lot of it was a stand because of turnips, because of my planner quickman. I didn't, we're going in blind, so that's just something to think about.

16:00 This is a part of a farm that been left out in CRP, it just been sitting there really, really marginal school. I mean a lot of.

16:16 It is, it's really thin chalk there's not much there so we've got rivers, lots of what's ahead is trying a little project that's what it looked like solid Johnson grass. I mean as bad as whole as you get, Matt.

16:34 Been in there 15 years, Johnson grass had been touch, that's been done to it. You can see the structure of the sole just is terribly awful poor, getting matter on is just sitting there like this. There's the first mix we did a count be veg Sonya, my coat Sudan Syria, Iran as you turn into that port there pretty good work, really good a waiter a tweet, cool season Terminator cover came in at plenty tweet. No, I'm sorry Clint, another cover and then after that that falling fall we playing we, there's kind of a picture of it.

17:26 About a month ago that's it now it makes 40, 40 something bushel wheat so I was happy with them. Something that's just been sitting not doing anything not being productive so that's something to think about. That's, I still got the register still growing in that weed so I'm getting ready to terminate but they're not bothering me right now. I don't like to hurt my ween at all, it's just right now the future that's why am I doing it. I'd like to pass it on better than I got it so organic matter soil health.

18:03 I like that doctor actually leave it at home enhance equipment so like I said.

18:12 Rug cleaners, maybe that's a bad word for. No tilde, that's what I'm doing right now and it's working for me. So maybe, but if you keep doing covers, maybe, maybe not permanently, but. And then here's another picture of some of the summer stuff still standing into the week on the right there. That's a real recent picture, three weeks ago maybe, yeah.

18:38 Summary, I don't know what I'm learning about no-till and maybe come across students. The less I do it, the better off I am. And every single time that they know more, you, the more you get out there, the more each other do, the more back loops. Again, that's just a little bit. I found patience go out there and try something. If it doesn't work, don't you up say cover crops, the worst thing ever. Scrub there, give it a chance. If that mix doesn't work, just like the tilled such as, you try something else.

19:08 I'll say this past year we did have two good weather, but where we had those covers, we had record for Carl. So there is a lag there. I'm going to go find a cover crop and C25 worms are shovel slides. Tomorrow are this year? You, that's just my opinion. It's not going to happen overnight. Get over here, give it, give it a chance. Have a little patience, have a little fun with his unwatched stuff, your own balls and walk through some of it. Tastes pretty good too. I'm kind of partial to the rashes.