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Rich Bennett’s cover crops
help control weeds.
Photo by Tom Gettings |
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Rich Bennett
Napoleon, Ohio
Updated in 2005
Summary of Operation
Corn, soybeans, wheat and cover crop seed on 600 acres
Problems Addressed
Variable and troublesome soils.
While his land is relatively flat, Rich Bennett contends with a
range of challenging soils. Yellow sands with less than 2 percent
organic matter are vulnerable to wind erosion and dry out quickly
during drought. At the other extreme, lakebed clays are slow to
drain in spring, making timely planting difficult.
Focus on production instead of profit.
Bennett remembers the mindset with which he approached farming in
the late 1970s. “We were only concerned about producing more
bushels, not more profit,” he admits. “One year, I got
a recommendation from my fertilizer dealer that cost me $25,000
on our 300 acres.”
Labor. “My Dad always
used rye cover crops after row crops and a mix of red clover and
sweetclover after wheat to keep the soil from blowing,” recalls
Bennett. “But I thought they were a big nuisance and got rid
of them as soon as I could.” Two decades ago, conventional
tillage machinery was not adapted to shredding and burying cover
crops, and Bennett did not find it efficient to grow covers. Moreover,
he had to balance time spent on livestock enterprises with off-farm
work as a commissioner for Henry County, Ohio.
Background
Rich Bennett’s father, Orville, purchased
the first 40 acres of what is now Bennett Farm in 1948. Rich left
a teaching job to farm full time with his father in 1972. By then,
the farm had grown to 300 acres. The Bennetts also finished 50 steers
a year and ran a small farrow-to-finish hog operation.
The hog operation helped them pay the bills, but Bennett soon saw
that there was no way the farm could support them unless they started
doing things differently. Change came slowly to Bennett Farm. In
the mid-’80s, Bennett attended a sustainable farming workshop
sponsored by the nonprofit Rodale Institute. He was skeptical.
“I only registered for the first day,” Bennett remembers.
“But I came back for the second day. The workshop helped me
get the confidence to try to cut back on my fertilizer rates.”
He tried reducing his phosphorous and potassium applications on
a few acres at first. He saw no difference in yields, and soon trimmed
applications on his whole farm. “Today I spend about the same
on fertilizer as I did before I cut back,” he says. “But
now that fertilizer covers 600 acres instead of 300.”
Focal Point of Operation
— Cropping systems
Bennett is a cautious innovator. New practices have
to prove their value in on-farm research plots or on small acreages
before he adopts them. But those that work soon spread to his whole
farm. Bennett’s three-year corn-soybean-wheat rotation marries
the conservation benefits of cover crops and no-till. Nearly all
his acreage is protected by covers each winter.
After the Rodale Institute workshop, Bennett became a cooperator
in the institute’s on-farm research network. He learned how
to execute carefully designed on-farm research plots and used what
he learned to reintroduce cover crops to his farm. “I learned
a lot from my experiments,” he says. “They helped me
see that cover crops are not only cost-effective, but they also
help improve the soil.”
Once his experiments convinced him that he could reduce phosphorous
and potassium fertilizer applications with no loss in yields, he’s
slashed his phosphorous and potassium rates by half. Today, red
clover disked in before corn cuts his nitrogen rate by 75 percent
or more, and rye covers help him reduce herbicide applications on
no-till soybeans.
“What’s even more important is that, over the years,
the covers have helped improve my soils and reduce weed pressure,”
Bennett says. “They’ve helped me cut down on my inputs
while keeping my yields
high, and allowed me to take back control of my farm.”
After corn harvest, Bennett broadcasts 2 bushels of rye per acre
with a fertilizer spreader. He then disks lightly or chops the stalks
to ensure enough seed-to-soil contact for good germination. In spring,
he drills Roundup Ready soybeans in 7-inch rows into the standing
rye when it’s about 30 inches tall. He uses a Great Plains
drill with double-disc openers and wheel closers.
“It’s easy to penetrate the rye with this drill and
it doesn’t stir up much soil, which would cause new weeds
to germinate,” Bennett says. He applies 1 quart of Roundup
at planting and another quart later in the season. Most growers
add another herbicide on the second spraying, but Bennett feels
the rye helps keep weeds in check enough that he can forgo the additional
herbicide. His beans usually yield from 40 to 60 bushels per acre,
at or above local averages.
Following bean harvest, Bennett drills wheat, which protects the
soil over winter. He frost-seeds red clover at 8 pounds per acre
when he top-dresses his wheat with nitrogen.
Before corn planting, Bennett kills and incorporates the red clover
with two passes using a disk and roller. He takes a pre-sidedress
soil nitrate test when the corn is 12 inches tall to determine how
much additional nitrogen to apply.
“Now I can pretty much tell what I need just by looking at
the red clover stand,” he says. Most years, he sidedresses
50 pounds of N per acre, 150 pounds less than his usual rate before
using red clover. When stands are particularly lush, he has reduced
his N rate to zero with no yield loss. His harvests average 165
bushels of corn per acre.
To control weeds in corn, Bennett uses a half-rate Lasso-atrazine
mix, or comparable product. “I used to plan to cultivate the
corn, too,” he says. “But, more and more, there isn’t
enough weed pressure to justify it. Having the covers in the rotation
has really helped keep the weeds down.”
Economics and Profitability
Bennett’s system has cut way back on use of
commercial fertilizers — and herbicides, too. He retains more
profit by cutting fertilizer and chemical costs to less than half
of what they were in the 1980s. Using a “typical” year,
1997, Bennett calculated that 19 percent of his gross income returned
as profit.
Bennett grows his own rye cover crop seed on about a dozen acres
each year, mostly in small, odd-shaped and erosion-prone fields
that are difficult to crop.
“Those little fields make a tremendous income when you think
about the amount of fertilizer and herbicide those cover crop seeds
replace,” he says.
In addition to fertilizer and chemical savings, Bennett’s
tillage system cuts fuel costs by about 35 percent compared to conventional
tillage. “I use more fuel than strict no-till, but a lot less
than full tillage,” he says.
Bennett has been able to reduce his hours in the field, making
one pass in the fall (instead of two to disk and chisel plow) to
work in his cover crop. He also consolidates tractor runs in the
spring to one pass.
Environmental Benefits
Bennett credits cover crops and minimum tillage
with controlling erosion on his farm. “You can tell the difference
between our farm and conventional operations just by looking at
the color of the stream after a good rain in the spring,”
he says.
But the covers provide more than erosion control, he adds. “They’ve
steadily improved the health of our soil. We get better water infiltration
and quicker drying on the clays in the spring, and we get better
water retention on the sands.”
Bennett used to have cutworm problems on his sandy soils. But since
he started using covers, they’re practically nonexistent.
Likewise, armyworms were slightly worse the first year he used covers,
but are no problem now. White mold and sudden death syndrome plague
area bean fields. But Bennett believes soil improvements on his
farm have helped his crops resist those diseases.
Community and Quality
of Life Benefits
“When I first started growing covers, the
community benefited because it gave folks a lot to talk about at
the coffee shop,” jokes Bennett. “But they’ve
gotten used to it now.”
While few in the area have caught his enthusiasm for cover-cropping,
Bennett has worked with local extension staff to teach neighbors
how to do on-farm research. As a result, many have significantly
reduced their nitrogen rates.
Bennett even credits cover crops with reducing planting-time stress.
“I know they’ll help dry up the fields that used to
be too wet in the spring so I can plant on time. I know that the
soil conditions will be right so that I get good germination.
“It’s also a pleasure to go out and walk the fields
knowing that most of the time I’ll see things getting better
instead of finding problems.”
Bennett likes how his new system has helped him regain control
of both his farm management and his costs. These days, he feels
that he makes a difference — and that’s one of the reasons
Bennett continues to farm. “It’s a challenge every year,
and I’m certainly not in it for the big bucks, because there
aren’t any,” he says. “But nothing else but farming
gives me the satisfaction of being able to use the skills that I’ve
learned over my lifetime to keep making the farm better.”
Transition Advice
“Cut your teeth on cutting fertilizer costs,”
suggests Bennett. “Don’t jump in whole hog, though.
Test it out on small plots. Focus your soil testing and monitoring
there and then take what you learn and gradually apply it to the
rest of your farm.”
Once you have some confidence in making changes, try out cover
crops, again starting on small acreages. “But make sure you
have at least a three-year plan,” he advises. “Don’t
give up totally just because your test didn’t go well the
first year. With cover crops, you won’t start to see some
of the big benefits to the soil and weed control until after you’ve
used them a few years.”
The Future
No one in Bennett’s family is interested in
farming full time. But he’d like to find someone who will
take over the farm and continue to build on the soil improvements
he’s made.
“I’m going to stay with this kind of farming and keep
promoting it,” says Bennett. “I’m not ready to
retire yet, but I see no need to invest any more in land or machinery.
What I am looking for is new cover crop systems to give me a new
challenge here.”
 Profile
written by Craig Cramer
For more information:
Bennett Farms
7-740 Rd. P-3, Rt. 5
Napoleon, OH 43545
benfarm1@excite.com
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