North Dakota

Mike's Seeding Rig

Mike Zoot is a zero- till farmer in the Beach area of Western North Dakota. He grows a variety of crops in an area considered too dry in the past. This area was traditionally a wheat fallow area, but now Mike successfully grows corn, wheat (spring & winter), alfalfa, durum and cranbee (oilseed). His growing season is very short at 100 days which is half of our mid north SA growing season. He sows over 10000 acres each year with the range of crops. About a third of this land is rented and the rest owned. He has been zero tilling this land for nearly 20 years. He started with an average of 2.8% organic matter and has some now in the range of 5% organic matter. Mike is finding that his microbial activity is working exceptionally well and is finding it hard to maintain full stubble cover as the residue is breaking down too quickly and he is losing some of the soil moisture through evaporation.

Some of His Macro-Organisms at Work

He works hard to ensure that there is a crop or stubble cover on all paddocks at all times. He is currently doing some work with precision agriculture on a small percentage of his farm to see how he may be able to make the systems work. In the last few years he is seeing a reduction in the amount of fungicides applied as more farmers in his area have taken up zero till practices on their farms.

Mike's JD Assembly with Spacer to Increase Spring Tension

These Are on Tynes Behind the Wheels 

Mike has grid soil tested a number of his paddocks down to 2 ha blocks and he is changing his nitrogen fertiliser applications to get yield potential dependent on the rain and the soil zones.

Mike maintains a number of areas on his farm for wildlife habitats and even plants corn and alfalfa in some areas for them so that the birds and animals have some feed through the winter months.

Ring Neck Pheasant