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Indiana farmers convinced that if you're not digging, you're missing out on tons of information.

Tom Bechman 1, Editor, Indiana Prairie Farm

January 18, 2016

3 Min Read

What’s the best and least expensive way to learn tons of information about your cropping system on your farm in the coming year? If you believe farmers who have done it, it’s as simple as digging pits in your fields! Dig pits and observe. Look for roots. Look for earthworms. Just look, observe and think!

“I can’t emphasize it enough,” says Cameron Mills, Walton. He no-tills and in his ninth year of growing cover crops.

“Until I dug a pit and saw the roots, I didn’t fully appreciate what cover crops were doing for me,” he emphasizes. “Just do a root dig- you will be glad you did.”

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Here are five solid reasons why you should take a backhoe to the field this spring or fall and dig a pit. Your neighbors may think you’re fixing tile holes, or they may think you’re crazy. Mills would assure you that you won’t think you’re crazy after you do it.

1. Look for the roots!

“You may only have four or five inches of top growth of annual ryegrass this spring, and you may not think you’re getting your money’s worth out of it,” he says. “Don’t decide until you dig and look. We’ve done it on our farm, and we almost always find ryegrass roots down 36 to 40 inches.”

2. Verify that what you’re doing is working

Mike Starkey also no-tills and uses cover crops. The Brownsburg, Ind. Farmer planted soybeans no-till into tall, green cereal rye a couple years ago. Near the end of the summer, he dug two pits, one in each of two fields, invited over Barry Fisher, and a 150 of his closest farmer friends to check it out. He added some roast pork and it became a farmer field day!

Fisher is now a soil health regional manager for USDA- NRCS. “We found roots down several feet in the pits on Starkey’s farm,” he recalls.

3. Soil types matter

Fisher also recalls that roots were deeper in one soil pit than the other. Soils were lower in organic matter and had more drainage issues in one field. He observed to the crowd that gathered around him that cover crops were helping, but that the process was going slower than in the other field in soils with more organic matter.

4. Compaction layers stand out

If you aren’t in no-till yet or if you’ve converted recently, a soil dig might make it easier to see compacted layers. At a field day on Clint Arnholt’s farm near Columbus in August, there were plenty of roots, but there was still a ‘plow’ layer of compacted soil some 10 inches from the surface. The field had already been in no-till for several years, and more recently seeded with cover crops each fall too.

5. See and believe

Earthworms galore!- If soil health has improved, possibly due to no-till and cover corps, you will find earthworm and red worm channels, some going down deep. In Arnholt’s pit, Dena Anderson with NRCS found worm channels that were serving as avenues for crop rooting. Crop roots were evident down about four feet, to just above where harder, dense subsoil began.

If you don’t find earthworm or red worm activity, it might be time to ask why not, experts say. Either way, you learn by digging.

About the Author(s)

Tom Bechman 1

Editor, Indiana Prairie Farm

Tom Bechman is an important cog in the Farm Progress machinery. In addition to serving as editor of Indiana Prairie Farmer, Tom is nationally known for his coverage of Midwest agronomy, conservation, no-till farming, farm management, farm safety, high-tech farming and personal property tax relief. His byline appears monthly in many of the 18 state and regional farm magazines published by Farm Progress.

"I consider it my responsibility and opportunity as a farm magazine editor to supply useful information that will help today's farm families survive and thrive," the veteran editor says.

Tom graduated from Whiteland (Ind.) High School, earned his B.S. in animal science and agricultural education from Purdue University in 1975 and an M.S. in dairy nutrition two years later. He first joined the magazine as a field editor in 1981 after four years as a vocational agriculture teacher.

Tom enjoys interacting with farm families, university specialists and industry leaders, gathering and sifting through loads of information available in agriculture today. "Whenever I find a new idea or a new thought that could either improve someone's life or their income, I consider it a personal challenge to discover how to present it in the most useful form, " he says.

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