On a farm near you…
No-till a work in progress at Pit Farms
By Mike Stanyard

Roger and Scott Arlis farm 1,000 acres along the Erie Canal in Clyde in southeast Wayne County. The uncle-nephew partnership at Pit Farms is a cash grain operation split 50-50 between corn and soybeans.

Roger began no-tilling crops about 25 years ago when the county Soil and Water Conservation District began pushing the program locally. Pit Farms milked cows at the time, and the fuel and time savings of no-till were attractive. Also, the soils at Pit Farms grow lots of stones.

“The fact that we were not going to have to spend so much time rock picking was also very appealing,” Roger says.

The Arlises fine-tuned the efficiency of no-till when Jim Capron, the former Cooperative Extension crops specialist, introduced them to zone-tillage in 1993. The one-pass tillage and planting system worked well but not under all soil conditions.

Arlis began experimenting with a zone-till cart which he ran across the field empty so its three coulters made a nice strip and helped warm soil quicker. Then he followed with the cart full and planted into the strip. This method definitely improved planting conditions.

Going one step further in 2001, the Arlises stripped down an old John Deere planter and made their own stripper with three coulters per row. They ran the stripper across the field and planted into the strips. Doing this, the Arlises could plant earlier and finish on time. Most years they can have a couple hundred acres of corn planted in April.

“We strip depending on soil conditions and only when planting corn,” Roger says. “We still no-till our soybeans with a single coulter on our corn planter.”

In 2004, Roger and Scott hooked up with Aulari Inc., Saint Barnabe, Quebec, which manufactures custom machinery. It makes a custom fertilizer applicator that can precisely apply dry fertilizers below ground. The system has several advantages: dry nitrogen products were cheaper, plus anhydrous can’t be applied in stony ground; the exact amount can be dialed in; it’s a 12-row applicator; and it holds 5 ton of product.

The Aulari applicator puts urea between the rows where the Arlises want it, covers it up, and minimizes nitrogen loss. “We do not want to go back to sidedressing, but we still can with the Aulari,” Roger says. The only downfall was the Arlises were running a three-pass system: stripper, Aulari and planter.

To maintain efficiency, the Arlises last year put the pop-up fertilizer and the stripper on the back of the Aulari. This brought them back to a two-pass system. Now everything is off the planter, and the Arlises can run more efficiently and plant more acres.

Pit Farms also plants rye in the fall following soybeans to capture nitrogen, lessen erosion and control some of the winter annual weeds. In the spring, the Arlises plant into the standing rye and spray herbicides off the front of the planter. They are very pleased with the results.

Roger, Scott and I have experimented with different nitrogen products and rates through the Aulari for the past three years. We haven’t seen any yield advantages as compared to a 2x2 application, but we’ve seen differences in total fertilizer savings.

“The N trials show that we are still adding too much fertilizer, and we still need to figure out that exact N amount,” Roger jokes.

He’s passionate about how much the condition of his soils has changed in the past 25 years as Pit Farms has improved its tillage system. “It’s like a biological machine,” he says. “There are no corn stalks left when we harvest our soybeans”.

One thing I have learned working with the Arlises is that they are constantly changing their cropping operation to reach these goals: make cropping better, faster and more efficient.

Mike Stanyard is the field crops and insect specialist with the Northwest New York Dairy, Livestock and Field Crops team. Reach him in Wayne County at 315-331-8415, ext. 123. Email: mjs88@cornell.edu
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