A seven-page special editorial package

R i d g e t i l l a g e s o a r s

i n a s t a g n a n t e c o n o m y

By Rich Fee, Senior Crops and Soils Editor

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T he tremendous growth rate of ridge tillage is something of an enigma, even to people long fa­

miliar with the system. In Indiana, the number of acres in ridge tillage has been doubling each year since 1981. The number of acres on ridges nearly tripled from 1983 to 1984 in Illinois. Story County, Iowa, now has 8% of its com and soybeans on ridges. In Min-

SUCCESSFUL FARMING, JANUARY, 1986

nesota, Cottonwood County has 11% of its corn and soybeans on ridges.

So it goes throughout much of the Com Belt. Ridge tillage—planting on ridges made the year before with the cultivator—just keeps growing despite the current economic crunch, or, as some would argue, because of the crunch. And ridging keeps growing even though it is a radical change in

crop production practices. "Switching to ridging is probably

the major change many farmers have made in their cropping system in the last 20 years, or will make in the next 10," says Gyles Randall, a University of Minnesota soil scientist.

Almost without exception, people familiar with ridge tillage acknowl­edge the practice is growing faster

Continued on next page 11

Ridge tillage soars

in a stagnant

economy Continued from previous page

than they would have predicted just two or three years ago.

Bob Dayton, conservation agrono­mist with the Soil Conservation Ser­vice (SCS) in Iowa, says, "I worked in Boone County, Iowa, awhile and watched Ernie Behn [one of the pio­neers of ridge tillage], so I saw the potential. But, I didn't expect ridging to grow as fast as it has."

"Not only is ridging growing faster than most of us expected," says Dick Dickerson, SCS conservation agrono­mist in Illinolis, "but farmers have gone ahead and adopted it on their own, without a lot of promotion from ourselves or anybody else."

Effect of economy mixed

There are conflicting opinions on whether the current economic crunch is hastening or slowing the trend to ridge tillage. Many people believe the tight economy is accelerating the adoption rate because farmers are anxious to cut production costs any way they can.

Bruce Julian, field specialist with the Conservation Tillage Information Center, is among those who believe

Jim Zenk, Danube, Minnesota, resumed ridging in 1985 in order to cut costs. the economy is hastening the adop­tion of ridge tillage. "It's not fun and games out there," he says. "Farmers are trying to keep input costs down any way they can because that's about the only control they have over net income right now. And ridge tillage promises to reduce machinery, fuel, labor and herbicide costs."

Just as many people believe the sour ag economy is preventing, or at least discouraging, some farmers from purchasing the equipment needed to make the switch.

Dave Breitbach, conservation agronomist with the SCS in Minneso­ta, says, "We just don't have producers investing in new cultivators, ridge planters or ridge-shaving attachments for planters like they would if the economy was growing."

While there is no concensus on the effect of the economy on adoption, there's no denying the large amount of interest in ridging. "If we had just half as many people practicing ridge tillage as we have interested in it, there'd be a lot more acres on ridges," says Randall.

Most of the ridging activity is in the

Corn Belt. The number of ridge-till acres in Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana jumped from 730,000 in 1983 to 1,105,000 in 1984, according to the 1984 Conser­vation Tillage Information Center (CTIC) survey. That's a 51% increase in acres. However, when the figures are adjusted to account for the num­ber of acres idled by PIK in 1983, the annual growth rate is about 20%.

Nebraska leading state Nebraska had more acres of corn

and soybeans on ridges than any other state in 1984—342,000—and it had the highest percentage of total corn and soybean acres on ridges. Minne­sota, with 322,000 acres, was second in both of those categories in 1984. Iowa had 229,000; Indiana had 135,000, Illinois had 76,000; South Dakota had 46,000; Ohio had 35,000.

Results of CTIC's 1985 tillage sur­vey, available soon, will undoubtedly show another big increase in acreage.

It looks like Minnesota had 20% more acres on ridges in 1985 than in 1984—385,000 versus 322,000. That means two and one-half percent of

Wayne Arthur, Hindsboro, Illinois, built ridges in 1984, and now sells Orthman ridging equipment.

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Minnesota's 12.5 million acres of corn and beans were raised on ridges.

Iowa had 277,000 acres on ridges in 1985, 21% more than in 1984.

Despite an impressive growth rate in many areas, ridging lags in other areas apparently well-suited to the practice. What seems to be missing in those areas is a catalyst—someone to spark interest as Ernie Behn did in Iowa, and Mel Boyer did in northeast-em Indiana and Dan Towery did in east-central Illinois.

Without neighbors to turn to, many ridgers have sought moral support and knowledge through ridge tillage clubs, which have sprung up like mushrooms after a spring rain.

Thanks to these clubs, the farm press and field days and meetings sponsored by industry or government organizations, the knowledge level among farmers about ridge tillage has recently increased dramatically.

Dale Kumpf, Fleischer Mfg., says

Perry Butler, Cosmos, Minnesota, re­placed an aging line of conventional equipment with a ridge planter and culti­vator. "I figured if I didn't switch now, I'd have to wait another 7 to 10 years."

the nature of questions has shifted from "What is ridging?" to "How do I make it work?"

"Two or three years ago, we had people asking how the planter made a ridge," he explains. "Now, they're ask­ing detailed questions on such things as fertilizer placement with ridging."

And many farmers are now the true experts on ridge tillage. "Some of these guys not only make a living from ridge tillage, they eat, breath and sleep it," says Joe Peden, SCS conservation agronomist in Indiana. "They're now the most knowledgable people about the system."

Along with the knowledge has come a change in attitude. "Many peo­ple who were totally negative toward ridging two or three years ago are loosening up," says Hartley Ellingson, sales promotion engineer with Alloway. "The waiting and watching phase is about over. Rather than up­date when their conventional equip­ment wears out, a lot of well-established farmers will switch to ridging."

Economics the motivator Who is switching? "By and large, it's

farmers who have figured costs down to the penny and are excellent manag­ers," says Randall.

Glenn Olson, of Product and Mar­ket Planning for John Deere, which just began marketing a ridge-shaving unit and cultivator (a move which some say puts a "stamp-of-approval" on ridging in many people's minds), agrees, "By and large the people adopting ridging are hard-headed businessmen looking for ways to keep production costs as low as possible."

With the rapid growth of ridging a surprise to many, and the effects of the economy hard to pinpoint, no one is very confident with predicting what the future holds for ridge tillage. In the short run, most observers expect it to increase at about the current rate.

Randall thinks 30% of Minnesota's corn and soybeans could be on ridges by the year 2000. "But," he adds, "I'm not sure it will go much over that. The chisel system is pretty flexible, and we have some drilled crops and steep slopes in some areas that don't lend themselves to the ridge system."

Faced with a labor shortage as his boys grew up, Darrell Hennin, Bird Island, Min­nesota, saw ridging as a way to reduce his labor needs and other crop produc­tion costs at the same time.

Dickerson wouldn't be surprised to see ridge tillage surpass no-till in Illi­nois, which has more no-till acres than any other state. "There are very few no-tillers—even experienced ones— who commit 100% of their acres to no-till. But with ridge tillage, a farmer may start small one year then jump to 100% within the next year or two. When you have several farmers switching 1,000-1,500 acres a year, that makes for significant increases each year." [_3

Brainerd Wein, Renville, Minnesota, and his two partners sold their four-wheel-drive tractor and switched to ridging on more than 3,000 acres.

Ridging economics

S p a r t a n m a c h i n e r y l i n e u p s

g i v e r i d g e r s t h e e d g e

Leonard Binstock with his total equipment inventory

L e o n a r d B i n s t o c k s h a v e s

p r o d u c t i o n c o s t s $ 2 0 a n a c r e

By Mike Holmberg, Associate Crops & Soils Editor

f t's hard to justify investing in new equipment in order to change tillage systems when the price of com is headed down. But Leonard Binstock did just that. In fact, the

prospect of lower corn support prices made him switch three years earlier than he had planned.

Binstock figures it cost about $4,700 in net, out-of-pock­et costs to convert his 12-row system to ridge till. But his fuel use dropped from about 7.5 gallons per acre to 3.85. With 1,250 acres, that amounts to more than $4,300 per year in fuel savings.

Overall, Binstock feels he's saving at least $20 per acre annually in total costs compared to conventional tillage. Pinning down specific cost savings is a bit more difficult be­cause of year-to-year variations.

To start with, he lopped about $15,000 off his crop-production equipment inventory. Total value of the equip­ment pictured at left (excluding the combine) is just under $80,000. Depreciation, interest, taxes and insurance comes to about $10.40 per acre on crop production equipment. That compares to approximately $12.50 per acre for his conventional tillage equipment.

Fuel savings come to $3.45 per acre. His 12-row equip­ment and four-wheel-drive efficiency both help keep fuel costs low, Binstock says. He cites other farmers with the same acreage using two-wheel-drive tractors and 6-row equipment who use 20-25% more fuel.

Repairs are another area of big savings. "Our repair costs have dropped drastically," Binstock says. "We figure they're about half the cost they were before because we're using fewer pieces of equipment and have reduced our trips over the field."

Other production costs drop When he went to ridging, Binstock started sidedressing

anhydrous—so he cut his application rate 10%—from 150 pounds down to 135 pounds per acre. By putting the nitrogen on closer to when the com needs it, he's not losing as much N. He also saves another $1.80 per acre.

Banding his grass herbicide with the planter saves anoth­er $7 per acre. Since he cultivates anyway, he can get by with banding.

Perhaps the biggest total saving for Binstock is in part-time labor. With his conventional operation, he was hiring one or two part-time people in spring and fall. Depending on the year and the season, that meant an extra $4,000-$8,000 per year. Now he and his wife handle everything themselves. Eliminating an average of $6,000 annually for part-time labor, he saves another $4.80 per acre.

Binstock's conversion costs Equipment purchases 12-row Hiniker cultivator w/NH3 attachments $14,500 Ridging attachments for 12-row IH planter (Acra-Plant trash whippers, Hiniker v-guidance wheels, stabilizing disks) $3,400 Versatile 555 4WD w/duals (net w/trade-in) $12,000 Total bought $29,900 Equipment traded for Versatile tractor 1977 IH 4386 4WD, 225 hp. 1974 IH 1066, 125 hp. Equipment sold at auction IH Super C $1,080 JD 4430 w/duals $11,400 35-foot Wilrich field cultivator $4,250 33-foot multiweeder $800 22-foot Kewaunee disk $2,450 2 gravity wagons $2,875 Miscellaneous parts and inventory $2,375 Total sold $25,230

14 SUCCESSFUL FARMING, JANUARY, 1986

Binstock's switch to ridge tillage looks pretty straightfor­ward—he bought what he needed and sold what he didn't. But it wasn't an overnight conversion. The first step was getting a combine with tires spaced on 120-inch centers.

Then he went looking for a tractor. Using a four-wheel-drive tractor for row crops may look a bit unusual, but Binstock likes it. He knew he wanted to stick with 12-row equipment—and needed a tractor with enough hydraulic capacity to handle the ridging equipment. "That 12-row cultivator with anhydrous attachments weighs around 12,000 pounds. You don't find many two-wheel-drive trac­tors with enough hydraulic capacity to pick up 12,000 pounds with a three-point hitch."

Since he liked his IH 800 planter, Binstock felt if he could add attachments to convert it to ridge planting, it would be foolish to spend another $20,000-25,000 on a new planter. Instead he spent $3,400 in conversion costs.

R i d g i n g ' s l o w e r c o s t s l e t

G r e g B o h l e n s t a r t f a r m i n g

By Rich Fee, Senior Crops and Soils Editor

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Greg Bohlen

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lthough not one of i the large acreage 1 farmers that typify the

new breed of ridge tiller, Greg Bohlen is a textbook example of another type of farmer that economists say can benefit substantially from ridge tillage. For one thing, he is a beginning farmer. For another, he is a part-time farmer (with 450 acres to cover in a hurry).

As a beginning farmer, Bohlen was faced with a large front-end investment and heavy debt load if he purchased a line of conven­

tional farming equipment. Bohlen wouldn't have been buy­ing new equipment, but figures developed by Iowa economists show what a beginning farmer considering new equipment is faced with, and the savings made possible by ridging. They compared annual ownership costs for the machinery needed to farm 600 acres in a com/soybean rotation. Eliminating some implements and downsizing others resulted in reducing ownership costs from $51.95 per acre with the conventional moldboard plow system to $38.52 per acre with the ridge tillage system. On 600 acres, this reduced machinery costs approximately $8,000 per year, based on 1982 costs.

As a part-time farmer, Bohlen has plenty of things be­sides tillage to occupy his time. Generally speaking, he needs to be able to cover more acres in a day than a full-time farmer with the same size farm, either by cutting trips

SUCCESSFUL FARMING, JANUARY, 1986

or running bigger, more expensive equipment. Ridge tillage is a time-saver. University of Nebraska agri­

cultural engineer Elbert Dickey figures you can realize a 40% savings on labor by ridge planting rather than mold-board plowing. Importantly, that labor savings is split be­tween fall, when harvest often delays primary tillage, and spring, when secondary tillage can delay planting.

Getting started Bohlen charted his entry into agriculture thinking like a

banker—easy enough for him to do since his off-farm job is managing The Bank of Findlay (Illinois).

Two years ago, Bohlen's father was ready to retire and Greg wanted to take over the operation near Moweaqua, Il­linois. "But, I just didn't see any way I could make it pencil out if I had to buy all of my father's equipment, and farm using a lot of tillage.

"I'm very capital conscious," he adds. "I've seen a lot of farming operations fail because of high capital costs. So, I was convinced that if I was going to make a go of it in farm­ing, I was going to have to keep my capital costs as low as possible." Ridging, which Bohlen and his dad had experi­mented with on a few acres, seemed to offer the best way of holding capital costs down. So, Bohlen picked the items he wanted to purchase from his father, who then sold the rest.

"I'm operating basically the same size farm my father operated," says Bohlen, "and he was able to sell $45,000 worth of machinery at his auction."

Low-cost equipment Bohlen figures his total machinery lineup is worth about

$80,000—$177 per acre farmed. "That's higher than it should be," he says, "but I could farm another 200 acres with the same equipment, and I do need to be able to plant a lot of acres fast. If I were farming conventionally with the time I've got available, I would have to have more work cus­tom done or go to a four-wheel-drive tractor and bigger equipment."

Bohlen does virtually everything with one tractor—a John Deere 4440 (he does have an IH M for the auger).

He has an IH 500 mounted planter modified with Kinze planting units and Hiniker ridge-shaving units. He also has a late-model Buffalo 8-row cultivator, stalk chopper, high-clearance sprayer for applying 2,4-D late in the season, and an old lightweight disk. He rented a chisel plow last fall to work end rows and tear out some crooked ridges.

Quite a few dollars are tied up in harvesting equipment, which he would need regardless of tillage system. He has a JD 7700 combine, two grain trucks, and two augers.

Bohlen used 2 gallons of fuel per acre up to harvest last season. He figures he would have used 4 or 5 gallons with conventional tillage. Repairs were unusually high because he modified several pieces of equipment. Further savings resulted from banding a grass herbicide on com, then com­ing back with 2,4-D as needed. He bands both grass and broadleaf herbicides on soybeans.

"I got into ridging because of the economics," he con­cludes. "I'm staying with it because it also solves so many other problems." E_j

15

Beyond the blacksmith-shop era

N e w i r o n f o r r i d g e t i l l a g e

By Charlene Finck, Assistant Machinery Editor B r i d g e tillage equipment and its mJ availability have both come a • • long way in just a few years. Until 1980, Fleischer Manufacturing's Buffalo line pioneered the idea and gained a comer on the market. For 20 years, their only competition was farmer-fabricators who built their own ridging equipment and maybe sold some to neighbors.

Competition sprang to life when Hiniker Company introduced their ridge planter packages—a step many mark as a turning point for ridging.

"We saw more improvements in ridging equipment in the three years following Hiniker's introduction than we'd seen in the previous 15 years," says Sam Parsons, Purdue University agricultural engineer.

Even Buffalo is quick to point out the acceleration of changes and im­provements. Dale Kumpf, inside sales representative, echoes Parsons' com­ment. "We're a better company be­cause they came in," he says.

A race for the ridging market For a few years Hiniker and Buffalo

were the only ridging equipment man­ufacturers, but it wasn't long until a drove of companies were clamoring to get a slice of the growing demand.

"Ridging equipment is one of the few things that's selling so companies want to cut into the market," says Jim Johnson, Hiniker product manager.

Companies who historically had nothing to do with tillage tools started

Hiniker's new ridge-till tractor

manufacturing ridge tillage equip­ment. Farmers, such as Iowa ridging pioneer Ernie Behn, began making and selling their own design of planter attachments. And John Deere recently became the first full-line equipment manufacturer to enter the market by offering a ridge-shaving unit (built by Hiniker) and a cultivator.

At last count there were 10 compa­nies selling either planters or ridge-shaving planter attachments, and 17 companies offering cultivators.

Of course, that count does not in­clude others like Paul Kirchner of Dundee, Minnesota, who capitalized on the aftermarket. Kirchner, who farms and operates a repair shop, manufactures Straddle Duals for com­bines, which help preserve ridges dur­ing harvest.

With recent equipment advance­ments and more farmers adopting ridge tillage, new trends are unfolding. And as they do, it seems that when one company capitalizes on it, several of their competitors often^follow suit.

Are disk hillers over the hill? Cultivator disk hillers that build

ridges are finding themselves being re­placed by ridging wings. Designed to push the soil rather than throw it, wings are credited with building better ridges. Most of them can be raised out of the way by repositioning a pin or bolt. Some, like those offered by Buf­falo, are adjustable to different widths.

Tall shields offer versatility Companies report that tall, open-

top shields are starting to dominate

Buffalo's adjustable ridging wings Dakon's version of open-top shields the cultivator-shield market. Versatility is why. The shields are less limiting on the height of crop that can be cultivat­ed, and are usually fully adjustable— up and down as well as in and out.

Shaving units break the ice Farmers are finding it easier to ven­

ture into ridge tillage by adding ridge-shaving units to their present planter rather than by purchasing a complete ridge-till planter. Going that route means making only a $500-a-row in­vestment. This compares to approxi­mately a $2,000-a-row cost for buying an entire planter.

Kumpf says sales of Buffalo planter attachments soared last year. "We def­initely sold them beyond what we had

SUCCESSFUL FARMING, JANUARY, 1986

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John Deere recently began marketing this ridge-shaving unit expected because we were robbing show machines to fill orders."

What's in the crystal ball? Experts predict that every major

equipment company will be offering some kind of ridging equipment with­in the next five years. Deere's entering the market is only the beginning.

At the same time, the number of companies competing in the market will probably thin out. "Typical with any new technology, the cream of the companies will filter to the top and stay while the others drop by the way­side," explains Parsons.

Guidance systems are expected to be a hot sales item in the future. They also will become more sophisticated. SUCCESSFUL FARMING, JANUARY, 1986

Companies will be making equip­ment, especially cultivators, multipur­pose. An indication of this, which can already be seen, is the increasing num­ber of companies offering nurse-tank and fertilizer hitches for cultivators.

Right now the most common size of equipment being sold is 8- and 12-row, but don't be surprised to see a lot more 10-row machines in the future. Interest in 10-row equipment is grow­ing as farmers become more con­scious of controlling field traffic.

It is still uncertain what the future holds for Hiniker's ridging tractor. The prototype pictured on the opposite page was introduced last year, but the company is still doing testing and re­searching its market potential. E 3

Rol l ing b a s k e t s b r e a k u p c l o d s

Innovative farmers have often taken the lead in pioneering ridge tillage equipment. Many of their ideas and inventions have found their way onto manufacturers' equipment.

Someday you might see rolling baskets similar to these designed by Dave Park coming out on commercially available equipment. The Towanda, Illinois farmer add­ed the baskets to his ridging cultivator to break up clods during the first cultivation.

"I was tired of clods caus­ing problems during soybean harvest. The cultivator sweeps were making clods—and once hardened—were being picked up by the snouts on the combine," says Park.

After using them for one season, he says the baskets took care of the problem— and more. They gently pack the soil between the ridges, creating a moisture-saving mulch that keeps the soil from drying out so quickly. Breaking up the clods also

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Rolling baskets in action makes it easier to build better ridges for the next year.

At the time when he need- , ed them, Park was too busy f to make them himself so he I had a local machine shop J build them. Small steel rods % welded onto round metal | disks form the baskets. I *

A four-piece attachment ! | mounts the baskets directly § 8 behind the cultivator shanks. <± 1 Flat pieces of metal are used ja | to bolt them tightly onto the %& shanks. f f

An old cultivator spring Q- * puts tension on the baskets and allows them to flex with changing terrain.

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