More years ago than he’d care to remember, Opey Rowell got some sage advice.

“I was told, ‘Opey, farm like nobody’s around you. Don’t worry about everybody else; just do your thing,’ ” Rowell recalls, as he navigates a tractor and planter across an irrigated field south of Manito.

Rowell took that statement to heart. In short order, he was on a mission to figure out a better way to farm, even if it didn’t look like his neighbors.

His goals are the same as those of nearly every other farmer: Increase yield. Improve soil health. Manage weeds. Retain nutrients. Make more money per acre — long term.

How he goes about achieving all those things just looks a little different, mostly because of those last two words.

“I think there’s a lot of benefit to cover crops on our soils in March, April and May,” Rowell explains. “So, incorporating a strip-till process in the spring allows us to have a seedbed and let the cover crops go, and be able to farm around it and get more benefit from the cover crops.”

Rowell farms in the irrigated sands of Mason and Tazewell counties, where dry, sandy ridges that will blow away give way to heavy, flat soil. Irrigators arch across much of it. Plenty of farmers in that area plant cover crops on those dry, sandy ridges. Rowell started out doing that, too. Then he realized how much it helped the soil, so he planted cover crops on the whole field.

Related:Cash in on clover as cover crop

“Strip till lets you farm around the cover crop, so you still get all the cover crop benefits,” he says.

Today, he’s strip-tilling soybeans into standing cereal rye, and strip-tilling corn into standing wheat. The cover crops help control weeds longer, reducing the need for as many residual chemicals. Plus, they help retain nutrients in the soil.

Beginning in late October, Rowell broadcasts cereal rye into stalk fields and buries it with a vertical tillage tool. When it’s 2 to 3 inches tall, he comes back with a Schlagel Rapid Till strip-till bar and creates strips. Then in the spring, he plants soybeans in the strips. He terminates the cereal rye with his preemergence sprayer pass.

For corn, he plants wheat instead of cereal rye.

“The whole goal is long-term weed management, nutrient retainment and, ultimately, to back off of residuals, so we can gain on yield and soil health,” Rowell says.

Evolution of an idea

Four years ago, Rowell gave his idea a shot on 160 acres and rented an anhydrous bar and a soil crumbler. He planted the cover crop, built the strips and then planted into it the next spring. Success.

Related:Sowing cereal rye earlier pays off

The next year, he invested in the Schlagel strip-till bar — the same tool Georgia farmer Alex Harrell used to hit his 218-bushel record soybean yield. That year, Rowell added a few more acres.

“I love that strip-till bar. I mean, I love it,” he says. The Schlagel bar gives him more options, including to build fall or spring strips, or to come back in the spring and “firm up” strips that were made in the fall.

“Once I knew that I could plant on strips and into foot-and-a-half-tall cover crop and not worry about it, that’s when I realized there’s a lot of opportunity here,” he adds.

By 2023, Rowell went full scale and strip-tilled every corn and soybean acre into some type of cover crops. He quit applying anhydrous ammonia.

Heading deep into the fall this year, he’s preparing a new cover crop mix. For ground that’s going into corn, he’ll seed 45 pounds of wheat and 5 pounds of annual ryegrass. For ground going into soybeans, he’ll seed 70 pounds of cereal rye and 2 pounds of camelina. All will be blown on with an airflow spreader truck; then, he’ll work it in with a Turbo-Max vertical tillage tool.

This will be the first time he’s tried those two mixes, but he’s confident in them. “I like the root structure on annual rye, and I like what wheat does in the top 3 inches and aboveground,” Rowell explains.

Related:Scouting can help evaluate cover crop investment

He also raises 300 to 500 acres of seed corn and 150 acres of seed beans for Bayer, and he’ll grow all those acres using the strip till into cover crops system.

“They worked awesome this year,” he says. Rowell is a big fan of how the wheat helps control early-season crabgrass — a long-fought battle on his farm — and he’s seen solid results from cover crops’ ability to help control waterhemp.

Like a lot of farmers, he’s tried everything to control resistant waterhemp and found the most success with a high rate and high volume of Liberty. Before that, he used Enlist.

“We’d try to chase it early to save a little money and kill it early. All it did was make it mad,” Rowell says. “I think this process will help with waterhemp in a major way.”

Fertility first

“The whole goal of the cover crops is to get the soil working for us,” Rowell says. He’s not headed toward organic production, though his soil health and fertility plans are similar. He’s currently in years three to five on his soils, and he soil-tests annually. So far, he’s seeing a good yield response. He believes by year five, he’ll see the soil and cover crops creating their own biological responses.

“I’ll use less and less biologicals as my soil health gets better,” he says, adding that he’ll reduce dry fertilizer as he monitors soil tests.

Over time, Rowell’s yields have gradually improved, but he’s quick to say a cover crop doesn’t necessarily increase yield. Cover crops improve the soil, which lets you reduce certain inputs, which lets you grow a crop more efficiently.

“It’s a combination of factors from the cover crops: more active biology, nutrient retention, weed control, carbon return. It’s not just one thing,” he explains. Residue breakdown on corn-on-corn acres has been huge, too.

That means profitability has increased — and that goes back to his original goal to make more money per acre long term.

Rowell has eliminated one herbicide pass already, a $40- to $60-per-acre savings, and hopes to eliminate a second pass in the right conditions. He tried a side-by-side test this year with no upfront residual on soybeans, which worked well.

“I’m pretty much guaranteed just one post pass,” he adds.

He’s spending $20 an acre on cover crop seed, and another $20 on spreading and vertical tillage. He’ll also buy glyphosate to terminate the crop.

Still, he says the profitability math works out in his favor.

Rowell’s learning curve has been steep, and he says there are not a lot of folks in his area doing this. He’s been to Conklin Pro Ag Training meetings with Rod Livesay, and he works one-on-one with other advisers.

“We have to go find help and support. And I just decided I was gonna figure this out and learn it and do it,” Rowell says.

Almost like he’s farming like nobody’s watching.

Carbon as a cash crop

Rowell has a pretty straightforward take on carbon programs.

“Farm the way you believe, and if it fits, it fits,” he says.

He’s taking advantage of carbon programs, but he sure won’t change his farming practices to match them.

“My philosophy on the carbon programs is, if they align with your vision, you’ve got to do your best to take advantage of them,” he says. “I would encourage somebody to farm the way you believe — don’t try to align your farm to a carbon program. The strip-till and cover crop process if very rewarding, and it does align with carbon programs.”

But the key? “Believe in what you’re doing; then take advantage of the incentives,” Rowell says.

Rowell uses several incentives for the cover crop and strip-till process. Two years ago, he participated in the Illinois Corn Growers Association carbon credit program with Pepsico, and last year he enrolled in ADM’s cover crop program for carbon credits. Each program netted him a $15- to $25-per-acre return.

“This year, I’m working with Truterra and ADM again on another program,” Rowell says, adding that his local Farm Service Agency office has been a great help. He also enrolled in the crop insurance rate incentive program for cover crops through the Illinois Department of Agriculture.

“The incentives are out there, and if you can get around the right people, they can help you take advantage of it,” Rowell concludes.