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Farm Contract Recommendations

Chopping silage removes all of the corn plant and ears and leaves the ground vulnerable to erosion unless cover crops are planted. Does the tenant chop silage?
 
In response to the above post,lime for us is always a landowner cost. I don’t like the termination every year thing but ours do include the new lease with the ones we are going to continue. The principal owner of the business I work for went thru the 80s lots of hard lessons learned.
 
Some more good points to consider. Chopping silage also removes more of the nutrients, specifically P & K that I'm concerned about. The tenant would need to apply more P&K to keep the soil fertility up if chopping silage vs just pulling the grain. Lime has been something that we've mostly paid for, but I have also recently had tenants pay for lime, so, it depends. I feel it is something the tenant is "using" up via fertilization, but when the tenants started farming some of the ground it was low, so I paid to get it in a decent range but going forward I may expect the tenant to contribute more to the cost since it's my understanding that Nitrogen makes the soil more acidic. Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm constantly learning.....
 
Any practice that removes crop residue willremove nutrients, Baling corn stalks is one that comes to mind.I have seen tenants in the last year of a lease bale soybean stubble. Most of the time these are not issues but good to understand that they could exist. I have recently seen some reluctance for tenants to sign leases that were overly complicated and heavily in favor of the landowner. This is probably due to lower projected crop prices the next few years.
 
I’ve been told by a few “smart people” according to them ;) that tilling in stalks etc. does absolutely zero for building organic matter and that only roots in the soil (i.e.cover crops) or something else living/growing actually add true organic matter. Anybody got an opinion on that??
 
booneriverbucks said:
I’ve been told by a few “smart people” according to them ;) that tilling in stalks etc. does absolutely zero for building organic matter and that only roots in the soil (i.e.cover crops) or something else living/growing actually add true organic matter. Anybody got an opinion on that??
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Ask yourself this. Is residue organic? You have your answer.
 
booneriverbucks said:
I’ve been told by a few “smart people” according to them ;) that tilling in stalks etc. does absolutely zero for building organic matter and that only roots in the soil (i.e.cover crops) or something else living/growing actually add true organic matter. Anybody got an opinion on that??
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One of the best things you can do for a garden is till in all the leaves you rake off the yard, add in some old leftover big bale the cows didn't eat and stomped/crapped in, clean out the straw from the stalls, all plant material will improve the tilth of the soil.
 
I totally believe residue is organic!! Without a doubt!!!! Deal a lot with cover crops in my work and have been told by “experts” that residue on the top layer of soil is meaningless and growing roots are the only true thing that builds organic matter. I’m skeptical of that opinion! Obviously the trash tilled in goes somewhere or does something i’d sure think! Glad somebody believes it’s not totally meaningless!
 
booneriverbucks said:
have been told by “experts” that residue on the top layer of soil is meaningless and growing roots are the only true thing that builds organic matter.
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Iowa's topsoil is due mainly to the thatch of prairie building up and decaying on top of the ground.

Now when it comes to alfalfa, the roots have nodules where symbiotic bacteria fix nitrogen. For that to become available, the plant needs to die.
 
Totally agree! I deal with giant farms and the greeniest of the greeny ag land owners all the time. Just interesting to hear all the opinions! Big ag will say one thing others will say another and big ag comes back and says well there’s a reason that guy isn’t to where we are. Always interests me hearing every aspect of the argument. Desperately needing all of their business I tend to shut my mouth and try to read the room and pick my battles on whether I really agree with them or not.
 
I try to learn from both sides the hard core full tillage guys and the regenerative/no till guys. There are successful guys on both sides. That being said the aggressive tillage type guys seem to be able to grow faster and take over more land when it comes available.
 
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