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Smart Production Drives Vegetable Farm Profitability

Name: Steve Groff
Location: Holtwood, Pennsylvania
Acres Farmed: 175
No-Till Acres: 175
Years in No-Till: 15
Advice: Start small, and ease into no-till. Don’t necessarily begin with your worst field, either, and don’t let it be in a field that’s your earliest planting. Cold soil is a no-till challenge.

Ask Steve Groff about the advantages of no-till, and you’d better pull up a chair. He’ll talk about better yields, lower input costs, improved soil conditions and other advantages that are impressing onlookers from all across the globe.

Thousands of visitors tour Steve Groff’s Cedar Meadow Farm each year, learning about Steve’s no-till techniques on his grain and vegetable farm in Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna River valley. Several hundred farmers, extension specialists and foreign agriculturists wander around the farm during the Groff family’s annual field day, while the rest pay a visit through the internet’s information highway.

“Our site on the World Wide Web has gotten quite a bit of attention,” Steve says, “and is probably one reason why PBS recently used our farm as part of an upcoming series on world agriculture. I find myself using the internet a great deal for research and correspondence, so we thought we’d offer the world a little taste of what we do here.”

Steve’s operation will be showcased for the nation to see when PBS airs a three-part series later this fall that offers a “snapshot” of the world’s’ agricultural diversity – from the simplest horsedrawn or human-powered implements in Third World countries, to the biggest combines and high-tech farming tools used on farms in developed nations. For the “Land of Plenty, Land of Want” segment, in the "Journey to Planet Earth" series PBS film crews visited farms in France, Zimbabwe, China, Iowa, and, finally, Cedar Meadow.

Steve, who says he worried needlessly that his farm would be portrayed as “too organic,” says his farm may have been chosen for its progressive attitudes toward soil conservation and electronic communication. It wasn’t because of the biggest, fanciest equipment, he says, noting an array of relatively simple yet effective machinery out by the barn. And, it wasn’t because of enormity – Steve’s 175 acres of arable land is small in scope compared to many commercial farms.

Making a mark for no-till

Steve’s increasing notoriety as a seminar speaker and progressive farmer has more to do with his business acumen and stewardship – especially his ability to maximize gross returns per acre. Here, tucked away in a country-lover’s paradise of rural Pennsylvania, the internet is Steve’s classroom, and the land is his laboratory. He’s constantly faced with new marketing and production challenges for his 40 acres of pumpkins, tomatoes, sweet corn and peppers, 50 acres of alfalfa, 60 acres of field corn and 20 acres of soybeans.

And, while he doesn’t shy away from the latest technology in computers and crop inputs, his Cedar Meadow Farm has become a showcase for farming simply, yet successfully.

“Working with the many visitors we get, both physically and on the Web, gives me a useful insight into farming techniques both here and around the world,” Steve says. “I had some Japanese people on the farm not long ago, and while they came bearing gifts and were extremely nice, they seemed critical of my use of genetically engineered crops. I thought they had left somewhat disgusted, but later they invited me to speak in Japan at a symposium on genetic engineering. They simply wanted to hear my side of the debate. I think many cultures of the world are still trying to grasp what American farmers are doing with such things as Bt crops, and how such genetically engineered products can be used to feed the world.” While Steve has great interest in genetic engineering’s benefits on his corn, soybean and vegetable crops, he does not see biotechnology as a panacea for the world’s food problems.

“I love my Roundup Ready soybeans,” Steve says, “and I’ve tried Roundup Ready corn, but I don’t really need it on this farm. I’m sure others do. But it needs a couple of years to prove the yields are going to be there. Same way with Bt corn. Some farmers like it, others don’t. These are all tools, and I try not to get too excited about any of them. I try to educate myself on how such tools can be used on this farm, at this time. The worst thing a farmer can do is get swept up in some new craze that’s really not right for his operation.”

Steve says companies such as Monsanto have been particularly helpful in providing educational material on emerging technologies, and he’s a regular student at no-till conferences held across the country. His own annual field day also proves to be a learning opportunity, as hundreds of farmers exchange information while perusing Cedar Meadow’s crops and farming techniques.

“One thing that makes us a bit unique, particularly among vegetable farms, is a commitment to 100% no-till,” Steve says. “We went all the way two years ago, and probably will never go back to conventional. I think the land will respond better and better as we stick with zero tillage.”

Where it all began

Steve’s interest in no-till was fueled by soil tests taken on Cedar Meadow land that had received little or no tillage for many years. The tests revealed an organic matter content increase from 2.7% to 4.0% in 10 years. One sloping field that hadn’t been tilled for 30 years had produced a noticeable amount of topsoil, with 5.6% organic matter content. Encouraged by such numbers, Steve began recording organic matter buildup as he moved to no-till on other parts of the farm. As similar results were recorded, no-till seemed increasingly beneficial. For Steve, though, no-tilling began for a different reason than building soil tilth.

“When I first started no-tilling,” he says, “I started in fields that had ditching problems on the side of a hill with a 10% slope. I thought no-till would help prevent erosion. It did, but I started noticing my soil was also becoming more mellow, and opening up. The longer I no-tilled, the better the soil conditioned, and you could see a noticeable change. Earthworm holes were no longer disturbed, roots began decomposing in the subsurface, and you could feel nature taking its course to build the soil’s structure.”

Not unlike the internet, Steve says, no-tilling offers a relatively new and ever-developing way to farm. American farmers, he says, can claim nearly 150 years of plowing experience, and “we know how to put soil in submission.” “With no-tilling, though, we’re still in the first grade,” Steve figures.

“We’re still learning, still getting better at it. And no one is saying that no-till works on every soil, every place. But I’ve seen no-till applied to just about every condition imaginable. A true no-till farmer, though, is one who’s done it for several years, gotten over that five-year hump, and whose soil is beginning to show no-till benefits after being weaned off tillage.” Steve says adapting no-till to a farm requires a certain amount of art and technique, which should include knowing how quickly to move away from conventional tillage.

“No-till is usually a transitional matter,” Steve cautions, “and if soil is addicted to tillage, it’s best to move purposefully, but slowly. An exception would be in an alfalfa hay crop. Plant it, cut it, then just don’t till it. Don’t disturb the wormholes, and let the alfalfa’s deep, thin roots begin to decompose and build up your sub-structure.”

If haying is not part of an operation, Steve says the easiest entry point to no-till is to simply reduce tillage. “I started by taking half the chisels off my plow,” he offers. “The idea is to keep the residue on the top. Use whatever suits you in tillage equipment, but begin to cut back, and consider using implements that can go over a field and not make a noticeable change in top layer. Implements are available that aerate and condition the soil while leaving the residue layer almost fully intact.”

The root of it all

Steve says the top four inches of the soil “is where the action is.” He doesn’t worry about plow pan, or the fact that roots stay near the surface. Sufficient residue on top retains moisture and feeds roots, he says, plus plants benefit from growing closer to a denser bed of nutrients found in topsoil. After all, he notes, fertilizer is applied to the top, and natural-tilling earthworms feed near the surface. Besides, he adds, long-term no-till can actually lead to deeper root penetration as the soil structure changes to a more porous, mellow condition.

“The more roots you can have growing in your soil,” he says, “the more organic matter you’ll have that will eventually break down. In soil that’s tilled a lot, decomposing material and soil aggregates are beaten apart. When the soil rests, however, and life can thrive in the soil, stronger aggregates are formed. Rain won’t break down aggregates as readily then, and soil run-off is reduced considerably.”

Given all the variables, farmers must think about maximum development of the soil’s top layer, Steve says. Surprising benefits can be experienced over time.

While Steve lets nature run its course, he does supplement natural development through the use of carefully selected machinery and a well-planned pesticide and fertilization program. Each field is prescription farmed for grass and weeds, but usually involves burndown with a pint of Roundup Ultra early, either before or after planting, then a follow-up only where needed.

“I’ll sometimes go in initially with a pint of Prowl and a half-pint of 2,4-D to get grasses, [and emerged broadleaves]” Steve says, “which is economical at about $5 per acre. Then I’ll come back with Roundup Ultra for whatever’s needed, at an average of about a pint per acre. The combination of those three chemicals gives me complete control [in soybeans].”

Steve looks for a “fairly clean” field after burndown, but he adds that too clean a field might prompt him to cut back on application rate the following year. He’s pleased, though, with a recent price cut on Roundup Ultra, and has moved to buying 30-gallon drums to take advantage of the discount. The higher volume works fine for Steve, who runs his own applications with a three-point, tractor-mounted 300 gallon spray rig. He’ll normally run the rig at 5 miles per hour, with 20 pounds of pressure pushing emissions through drift-guard nozzles.

“I’m particular about keeping everything in its place,” Steve says. “I’m also big on variable rate technology, adjusting both volumes and sprays. That’s one of the reasons I like Roundup Ready soybeans so much – they lend themselves well to my kind of application.”

Sold on a chopper

While Steve places high importance on his herbicide application and timing, particularly with preemergent herbicides, he considers a rolling stalk chopper to be one of the most important tools in his arsenal. He uses the implement to prepare for planting by rolling down cover crops.

“I’m a proponent of keeping something growing at all times on all ground,” Steve says. “But rye and vetch cover crops can grow very tall. I got the idea to roll them from Brazilian farmers, then I found a Buffalo implement that fit the bill. I describe it as somewhere between a flail chopper and a disc -- it chops some of the vegetation but not all of it, and wind doesn’t blow the residue away. I put some parallel linkage and bearing protectors on it, and now it’s a dream machine.”

The unit can be pulled at least 10 miles per hour, and can kill up to 75% of a cover crop -- saving money on burndown costs.

“While I still rely on certain chemicals such as Roundup Ultra, no-till farming and machines like the roller have helped me cut my chemical use rate compared to similar farms in the area,” Steve says. “For the last three years, I have figured by chemical costs for weed control in corn and soybeans at around $18 per acre, about $7[$10] less than the area average.

“In vegetables, we’ve reduced it even more. My total pesticide usage has gone from over $200 to less than $75 per acre. We’re using less herbicide because our cover crops help us with weed control. We’ve also cut back on fungicide for tomatoes, because there’s less early blight in a no-till situation -- rain doesn’t splash soil up on the plant, plants remain healthier and they ward off disease. Plus, we no longer have a problem with Colorado potato beetle, once our worst insect pest.

“When you combine less pesticide control with yields anywhere from 10-15% better than with conventional till, you can see the significant economic advantages brought on by a no-till system.”