The Rural Voice, 1991-08, Page 21agreements for five, ten of 15 years.
Because the two programs are run
by area farmers under guidance from
the Soil and Crop Improvement
Association, Kennedy says the com-
mittee has the ability to be flexible to
meet the local needs.
Bruce Shillinglaw of Londesboro,
one of the original group of eight who
now successfully practices no -till on
his 950 acre operation, says that farm-
ers thinking about getting into reduced
tillage on their farms should first think
of soil conservation as a "systems
approach." "You can't just change a
tillage practice without looking at all
the parts of the crop equation such as
fertility, rotation, varieties, weeds,
residues, cover crops. Tillage is only
one part of it."
For instance, Shillinglaw — whose
yields, cost of production and net
returns are tops in soil and crop com-
petitions — says that there are differ-
ent fertility needs, and some varieties
of corn emerge better from the cooler
ground of no -till than others.
Lobb agrees, saying that the factors
are so interconnected, (see illustration)
that many farmers new to the system
who only change tillage practices may
be disappointed in yields and give up
early because they didn't consider, for
instance, the impact of different
species of weeds that thrive under the
new conditions.
Traut, whose duties have been
expanded from just a soil conservation
advisor to looking at the overall envir-
onmental preservation, agrees on the
systems approach. He says farmers
shtuld feel comfortable with a con-
servation system that fits their farm
and personality. It might not embrace
a changed tillage practice, but could
include erosion control with grassed
waterways, berms to slow down water
movement, terraces, strip cropping,
and tree planting.
Although there was little infor-
mation on soil and water conservation
a decade ago, Lobb says there is now
plenty of data available thanks to a
major push by the University of
Guelph. "We've made tremendous
strides since professors such as
(Guelph's) Clarence Swanton, Gary
Katchenoski and Murray Miller, to
name just a few, have put some practi-
cal data into the books."
There is still much more research
needed says Lobb, whose Goderich
township farm is one of the longest
running conservation farms in Ontario,
It continues to be the site of dozens of
experiments conducted by the Univer-
sity of Guelph. One research experi-
ment is being conducted on a nearby
farm this summer by Lobb's son
David, who is working on his master's
degree at Guelph. Preliminary results
have shown that five "to seven times as
much soil moves down slopes from
tillage practices than from erosion, a
new revelation that could change
tillage practices in the future.
Both Shillinglaw and Lobb agree
that some of the rush to more environ-
mentally sound farming practices is
partially due to government financial
incentives, but say continuing poor
crop prices have also sent many
farmers scrambling to reduce input
costs, and conservation farming has
put up enough numbers to impress
many farmers. Lobb says the
University of Guelph has been down
this road before, assembling farm
conservation plans in the 1950s that
"were abandoned in the years of good
crop prices in the 60s and 70s."
Lobb — whose rolling farm has
evolved into a sustainable farm with
windbreaks, reforested hillsides,
wildlife runways, and berms — thinks
it will take more than a clear
conscience to bring all farmers into
doing better conservation practices on
their farms. He says there should be
cross compliance in farm programs,
and "eventually it will take legislation
to get everyone to do it."0
Farmer proves no -till works to increase profits
Soft spoken, articulate, and successful
cash cropper Bruce Shillinglaw is not one
to brag about his success, in fact he
doesn't really want the publicity. But the
numbers speak for themselves.
You see, Shillinglaw, who farms 950
acres in Hullett Township near Londes-
boro, has proven that you can make no -till
turn a better profit than conventional
farming, and save the environment too. In
fact, his numbers are so impressive, it's a
no wonder other farmers are running to
copy them.
He and his wife Harriett and two teen-
aged sons Kevin and Kent work all those
acres with little outside help. This year,
the family has 289 acres of com, 319 acres
of soys, 80 acres of white beans, 26 acres
of alfalfa, with the balance in winter wheat
and barley. And not one of the cash crop
acres has seen a plow or cultivator. All the
corn acres were planted, fertilized and
planted in one pass using a J.D. eight -row
planter custom fitted with two Rawson
two-inch fluted coulters on each furrow.
For the grain and soybean acres, he has a
coulter cart hitched up in front of his
seeder.
And that's it. A mid-July tour of his
farm revealed clean, vigorous crops in all
fields, and the tractor was sitting unused in
the shed. "We're not taking any yield
loss," he says, "and any that there are, are
because of management mistakes."
Shillinglaw, who got into conser-
vation tillage not only because of concems
for degradation of the soil, but also for the
major savings in input he thought he could
realize, has been practicing crop rotation
since 1977. A University of Guelph grad-
uate, Shillinglaw carne to Londesboro in
1973 when he bought his fust 200 acres.
Over the years, the farm grew to a 1,400
acre operation, which included 600 rented
Bruce Shilinglaw with no -till soys.
AUGUST 1991 17