"You Can't Farm Without Soil"
20 Years of Conservation in South Georgia 
by Keith Richards
(Original story is from Southern Sustainable Farming, issue no. 12, September 1996, published by Southern SAWG.) 

DOUGLAS, Georgia--In the early 1970s, the soil on Max Carter's farm was on the move. It blew away on windy days and washed away during rainstorms.

Like most farmers around him, Carter cultivated each of his double-cropped fields nearly year-round, turning over the soil and breaking up its structure to eliminate weeds and prepare seed beds. He also burned the crop residues left on top of the soil before each planting so the "trash" wouldn't bind up his disk or harrow. All this turning and burning was considered normal practice, even encouraged by farming experts at the time, but it was causing Carter's loamy sand soil to erode away.

Twenty years ago Max decided he'd had enough. After days of planting when he couldn't even see the front wheels of his tractor from all the smoke and dust, he vowed to find another way. "I looked at all the BTU's going up in smoke, and I knew it wasn't right," he says. "Too much was leaving my land." So he decided to quit burning the residue on his fields and find a way to plant into it. 

Created a New System 

By eliminating burning, and consolidating tillage and planting into one field trip, Carter also hoped to shorten the time between harvesting one crop and planting another. "If I could get the planting dates moved up to within a week of combining, I wouldn't lose so much moisture at a critical time of year, and I'd give the second crop more days to reach maturity before frost," he says. "Ten days can make a big difference."

Since no one in his area had tried planting into crop residue without tilling, Carter had to figure out his own equipment and systems. The first year he modified his roto-till type planter with fluted coulters to create a small bare strip ahead of the seed drill. With this strip-till rig, he planted soybeans into heavy corn stubble and found that it worked to his satisfaction.

Two years later, he bought one of the first no-till planters in the area--a four-row rig that featured serrated coulters to cut the residue, followed by shanks that ripped 14-16 inches into the soil to provide aeration and stability for the roots of the next crop, and an angled pair of tires to firm the soil for the seed drill. Although he has made numerous adjustments since, Max still uses this rig today.

As he fine-tuned his system, cover crops became an important part of his rotation. Even after 20 years, though, he doesn't have a set formula; adjustments are made every season depending upon the markets and weather.

Lately Carter has rotated winter clover with his corn, either sowing the clover right into the corn by air in August, or drilling it into the corn stubble after harvest. In spring, he plants the corn with his no-till rig back into the clover, then "burns" the clover down a week or two later with an herbicidal.

Carter has been rotating his cotton with a crop of winter wheat or rye. He uses an old drill to plant the winter crop directly into the cotton stubble, then a week or two later mows down the stubble with a rotary mower and lets the residue cover the ground. After the winter crop is harvested, he comes back with the no-till rig to plant another crop of cotton. He says, "People can't even tell I've disturbed the ground, yet a few weeks later I've got a beautiful stand."

He's planted peanuts into corn stubble in May or into wheat stubble in June without affecting his yields much. As long as yields are comparable to what he got when he conventionally tilled, he'll do what's best for the soil. "I get about 45-50 bushels of wheat or soybeans per acre, and two tons of peanuts per acre in a good year," he says. Last year he averaged nearly two bales of cotton per acre and feels his crop might be better this year.

Carter tries to keep chemical herbicidal and nutrient applications to one pass, before plant emergence. Although spot spraying replaces cultivation, he claims he doesn't use any more herbicides than conventional systems. In fact, he began using a hooded sprayer this year to increase his accuracy in application and cut down on chemical usage.

It takes patience to make a system like this work right. This past spring Carter's no-till planter couldn't cut through the 4-6 tons per acre of organic matter on his fields when he was trying to plant cotton. Instead of getting frustrated and lighting a match to it, he changed from a fluted coulter to a wavy one. The adjustment worked, and he got his crop in on time. Carter says one of the keys for all farmers is to constantly fine-tune their systems.  

Benefits to the Carter Farm 

Carter didn't realize all the benefits his farm would receive when he first quit tilling his soil. He likes to tell people that he got into conservation tillage because the old way was too much work, although one look around his well-kept farm will tell you that he's not afraid to put in some long days. The truth is, conservation tillage does allow Max to tend to other activities while his neighbors are out cultivating their fields during the winter and spring.

More importantly, his practices have stopped the soil from leaving his farm. At the lower end of a field with only three percent slope, a fence is buried half deep with eroded soil from when Carter used to till and burn. No fences are being covered by soil today. The water in each of his two ponds is free from runoff and the fish are plentiful.

Soil samples analyzed by Jimmy Dean of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service also showed that crop residues had boosted the organic matter in Carter's soils. Since the higher organic matter improved his soil quality and water retention, he has been able to get rid of his irrigation equipment. His higher soil quality also provides more nutrients for soil organisms, and humus and fertility for the next crop.

Without the smoke from burning and dust from tillage, air quality has drastically improved around the neighborhood. And Max speaks with joy about the quail and other birds that have returned to his land, finding cover among the residue on his fields. Of course, diesel fuel and equipment maintenance costs have also decreased. 

Conservation Fever is Spreading

For years Carter was considered a little unusual by his fellow farmers, so he kept a low profile about his farming practices. In fact he did most of his real innovations on the fields away from the road so neighbors wouldn't bother him. All that changed over the past four years. Max, who moved to his farm in 1941 at age six, says, "I was ready to retire, but then this started getting really interesting." Today conservation tillage is sweeping through the county. There are 42 members in the Coffee County Conservation Alliance, and Carter is president. His farm is a showcase for conservation tillage, hosting numerous visitors and field days, and he has been asked to speak at other events.

Part of the change is due to the support of county Cooperative Extension agent Rick Reed and Andy Page of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Reed had been awakened to the need for working with nature instead of against her by his observation of the boll weevil eradication program. Trying to dominate nature by eliminating the boll weevil had just created a "bigger monster" with other pests, he believes.

When Page arrived as the local NRCS agent with a goal of leaving 30 percent residue on the county's fields, Reed and he hit it off. Together they are tireless in providing the support and information that Coffee County farmers request. They both credit a strong core of innovative farmers in the county as the biggest factor driving more sustainable practices, though. Reed says, "The farmers here are as excited about change as anywhere in the state. Besides the conservation tillage program, they are also working on new crops like medicinal herbs and vegetables."

Reed also credits Dr. Sharad Phatak at the University of Georgia's Coastal Plains Experiment Station with influencing the thinking of agents like himself. Phatak stresses building soil fertility and health as the route to sustainability through reduced tillage, as well as cover cropping, rotations and composting. 

Still Work To Be Done 

One criticism of minimum tillage systems is that the dependence on chemicals instead of cultivation to control weeds harms the soil in other ways. Phatak understands this concern, but says, "The first step to sustainability is no-till." He feels that many growers, even organic ones, are just trading one set of inputs for another in an attempt to improve their operations. "They need to change their paradigm," he says.

Phatak praises Carter for creating a system on his own that takes a big step in the right direction. With the help of Joe Lewis at the Coastal Plains Station, Carter has recently begun to reduce his pesticides, too. Phatak believes, based on his research, that most chemical pesticides and herbicides can be greatly reduced in a no-till cotton system in South Georgia. He is working with the conservation tillage farmers of Coffee County to achieve that goal.

Meanwhile, Max Carter sees a brighter future ahead for those who follow him into conservation practices. "A few year's ago I started reading everywhere that erosion is the farmer's number one problem," he says. "I thought I had lots of problems worse every day--a dead battery on the tractor or equipment broke down or something--but they were right. You can't farm without soil. If bad comes to worse, the conservation tillage farmers will last the longest."