Our Farming Philosophy

The owners of Fresh Ayr Farm take pride in producing crops in a manner that protects and improves our farm resources.  We are environmental activists, working to protect our neighbors and the open space around us.

We practice:

  1. Zone-tillage on our heavier soils, tilling only a narrow row for the seed, to preserve soil structure and leave residue from previous crops on the surface between the row to protect our soils from erosion and build organic matter

  2. No-till planting on the rest of our fields, doing no tillage and leaving all residue from previous crops and from cover crops on the surface to protect soils and preserve organic matter.

  3. Cover cropping after harvest to capture left-over nutrients from harvested crops and to increase soil organic matter for future crops.

  4. Integrated Pest Management  to use only the amount of fertilizer and pesticides needed for healthy crops.  Crops are scouted, and if pests aren’t there, we don’t spray. 

 

Principles of Zone Tillage

1. Till a narrow row (seedbed) to plant your crop.  Don't till the row middles to create a weedbed.  In new fields, or in fields with compacted layers beneath the soil surface from previous plowing and tillage, form the seedbed with a narrow-shank vertical tillage tool that creates a narrow slot through the compacted layers for plant roots to follow.  Don't use a machine that lifts and turns the soil, it will destroy soil health and make a weedbed.  Use rolling coulters behind the shank to hill up a narrow row for planting.  Then plant in the tilled strip using spiked row cleaners on the front of the planter. Don't do any other tillage, or you will put in another compaction layer and the row middles will become weedbeds.

2. Fertilize the crop in a band along one or both sides of the row using either liquid or dry fertilizer.  Don't broadcast fertilizer to the weeds in the row middles.  The fertilizer bands should be 3 inches to the side and level with the seed or slightly below.  For most crops, all the fertilizer for the season can be applied at planting by banding it on both sides of the row.  For crops, like corn, that need larger amounts of nitrogen, put the sidedress nitrogen 8 inches below the seed with the vertical tillage shank before planting.  Use a nitrogen stabilizer and it will be there waiting for the plant roots when they need it without you having to make another trip over the field.

3. Don't burn up all the organic matter from the crop you  produced by tilling it under.  Leave it on the soil surface to protect your soil from erosion and feed earthworms and other soil organisms that release nutrients and build organic matter. 

4. When your crop is harvested, plant a cover crop to protect the soil, capture left over nutrients, and build additional organic matter. Leave the cover crop residue on the soil surface after winterkill or spraying or rolling it.  The captured nutrients will then be available in the organic matter for the next crop.

5. No-till planting is just narrow row zone tillage.  So when you are confident that all compacted layers are no longer hindering root growth, and that you can successfully plant a crop in the tilled strip year after year, try planting with just row cleaners on your planter without doing the vertical tillage trip. Your soil should be healthy and mellow by then and the planter should work well without any row preparation ahead of it.  Then you are no-tilling and building soil health in a truly sustainable way.