Current Edition
Better machinery makes continuous corn work
Originally published in the March 5, 2010, print edition.
— Yellow Medicine County farmer Doug Albin doesn’t wrestle with continuous corn issues because he’s in a multi-crop rotation program of corn, soybeans, wheat and even alfalfa.
“But I still try to leave crop residue on the soil surface because soils can, and do, blow out here during the growing season,” said Albin, past president of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association, at January’s Conservation Tillage Conference at Jackpot Junction.
His yearly goal is to minimize tillage, keep his machinery costs down, and closely monitor each crop during the growing season.
“I’d like to be on a strip-till system,” he said. “Some very good equipment at this conference, and some good data on cost savings. But I don’t have enough crop acres to invest in the machinery so instead I pick and choose what works best each spring.” A chisel plow and field cultivator are his tillage tools.
Albin liked what he saw and heard at the tillage conference. “The equipment industry has really responded,” he said. “I think you now have equipment choices to let you handle stalk residue even on continuous corn and in strip tillage. And yields don’t get hurt. Matter of fact, better yields with strip till, special fertility programs and insect management. Also we’re talking $10 to $15 per acre less fuel costs.”
As margins get tighter in crop production, he sees various strip till and/or no-till programs as a better answer.
Public perception
Reflecting on his past leadership of the MCGA, Albin said his biggest request of members is that they stay focused on renewable fuels — and speak up. He suggested going to www.mncorn.org for lots of information about the renewable fuels programs.
“But the No. 1 challenge as I see it is the public’s perception of agriculture,” he said. “The public just doesn’t understand agriculture and the complexity of a farming business. Unfortunately many don’t care, which is all the more reason we need to tell them our story, not the half-truths and misconceptions foisted off on them by the anti-ag groups.
“We need to transform our image from one of secrecy to instead inviting them to our farms and see firsthand what this farming business is all about.”
He thinks more promotion, more advertising and more public events that simply tell the story of agriculture — including conservation, renewable fuels and food production — is a continuing mission.
Albin said “cap and trade” is a dead issue, and is pleased that the National Corn Growers Association, which straddled the fence initially, now has come out against the legislation.
“The problem with cap and trade as originally proposed was that it was pitting one section of the country against another,” he said. “You can’t have winners and losers in this game. It has to be such that everyone benefits.”
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