GLOBAL VIEW ▶▶▶
Meyer uses this South African manufactured (Rovic) piket no-till drill to plant winter crops in such a way that it suites the following planned summer crop best.
Technology and biology showing excellent results
BY ARTHUR GRAY R 48
oland Meyer farms at Lüneburg in Kwa- Zulu-Natal (South Africa) on 670 hec- tares. His philosophy is to use less
‘iron’ and more biology through technology. Efforts to improve the soils on the farm are showing excellent results. Summer crops are maize and soybean and winter forage cover crops includes oats, cereal rye under irrigation, peas vetch, tiller radish fodder rape and fodder beet. The forage crops are grazed and tram- pled by cattle shortly before spring planting. Minimal soil disturbance is the primary objec- tive. The current no-till system is migrating to- wards coulter based strip-till, with the inten- tion of eventually placing all P & K fertiliser in the autumn, using a strip freshener to clear the
biomass and planting without fertiliser in the spring. A yield monitor on the combine is used to create yield maps, and Roland thinks that in the future he may use satellite imagery.
Focus on soil fertility In the past eight years yields have been in- creased by 80% on the same lands by improv- ing the soil fertility. The key to this is increasing the organic matter. By planting winter and summer crops, biomass both above and below the surface is increased. And there is an explo- sion in the number of living organisms in the soil. The soil structure is thus buffered against the extremes of African weather: water pene- trates more easily with virtually no run off and less drainage issues. In times of drought water retention throughout the soil profile is main- tained. Also, nutrient availability is unlocked by
▶ FUTURE FARMING | 25 May 2018
the abundance of soil organisms. Fertility is further enhanced by incorporating pig manure from the farm into the strip-till regime. Maize yields under irrigation are currently 15 tons/ha and with changes to the nitrogen application and row spacing this is being pushed towards 20 ton/ha. The winter crops are spaced with the following summer crops in mind, planted with a South African manu- factured Piket no-till drill. For example, oats or cereal rye is not placed on or adjacent to the summer row, but rather in between. This pre- vents too much biomass build-up on the planting row, which could hamper the accura- cy of the seed placement depth but provides a thick mulch layer in between the rows. Winter plant species that decay more quickly, or with soft plant tissue, are placed adjacent to the summer rows.
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