There's nothing wrong with no-till but, if they are using herbicides to knock down weeds before they plant, I'm not in favor of that. I get too much damage from other people's herbicides as it is already, so the last thing I'd want nearby (within drift distance) is one more person spraying herbicides.

I notice that they failed to mention about how they control the weeds and grass that was growing in the field they are standing in. All these No-Till farmers spray chemicals to kill the weeds. Now the chemical companies are scrambling to come up with new chemicals for chemical resistant weeds. It is strange that they always fail to mention that they couldn't farm with out chemicals. There is no farmer in this country that plants seed in weeds & grass without a back up plan.

Weeds are often beneficial at the root zones as much as they can be hindering. Over time, a crop that is planted regularly begins to crowd out the weeds. It takes time, but the soil benefits from the presence of weeds especially when there is no crop. Ergo, cover crops studies.

For me, the biggest draw-back is a dirty garden where crop residues harbor insects and disease. I've yet to study how to manage this. But I'm more in favor of no-till than not.

I guess what bothers me is that those who DO till have gotten away from the conservation methods used after the dust bowl. At least with no till the soil won't blow away.

When you hover over the picture, it says they are growing a cover crop.

We farm and raise cattle for a living. If you do not farm to conserve soil and water you need to get out. Farmers are closer to Mother Nature than anyone because our lively hood depends on it. Yes we spray and we use every precaution we can. We are very aware of the people around us and what they are growing. The no till concept began up north in the corn belt. It was introduced to cut cost on working ground. As they soon discovered weeds became resistant. Many have wised up and practice no till and till as required. We are very aware of the dust bowl disaster and practice soil conservation on a daily bases.

as in every occupation you have your idiots but as a whole farmers and ranchers are the best land stewards you could hope for. Remember to thank your local farm/rancher for all he does. I never pass a military or first responder without saying thank you, even bought a meal or two.

Thank you, Stokergal! ;) Didn't mean to touch a nerve. I had just read that those consevation practices were being forgotten. I fear dust storms added to tornados and earthquakes would end Oklahoma. I worked for a ranch, I know how hard you work. I couldn't do it.

Carol, Apparently I didn't hover. The folks near us who grow cover crops still use some method to incorporate them into the soil. I don't know why they don't just cut them and let them decompose in place.

I noticed this year that a farm that has had crops every year since we moved here is bare this year. There's not even a cover crop to hold their sandy soil in place. There aren't many farmers left here. I know some of them got out of farmer rather than convert to the use of glyphosate-ready crops and regular use of glyphosate. They didn't want to farm that way, and couldn't find a way to make it pay financiall otherwise.

Most places here have converted to cattle, and I'm wondering if this now-fallow farm near us will go down that path. There used to be little farmstands near the road on some of the farms and you could stop and buy melons or corn or PEPHs or whatever. I haven't seen anything like that in several years now, and it is kind of sad. It seems like nowadays you have to get big or get out, and lots of farmers use chemicals to get big.

Stockergal, The ranchers I know are very close to the land and very conservation minded and are great stewards of the land. I think that in order to succeed here, a rancher must be that way. They also are pillars of the community, supporting every good cause and every group that needs them.

When I think of commercial farming of the type that I don't like, I think of the big farms out in west TX where they raise Round-Up Ready Crops, for example, and have a heavy reliance on herbicides. Their herbicide drift is a huge issue for any gardener trying to have a garden there. Look at what happened to Kim just in the last few weeks---her market garden and income from it wiped out by one careless herbicide applicator. That is far too common nowadays. There's got to be a better way.

I come from farming and ranching folks, all now deceased, who always worked their land with as few chemicals as possible, largely because the chemicals were just one more expense they couldn't afford. I don't think they'd get involved in the Round-Up Ready crops that are so widespread in some sectors of commercial agriculture nowadays because that sort of chemical reliance never appealed to them. I have a great appreciation for farmers and ranchers, but some are more conscientious than others (and you have that same thing in every group of people involved in anything). Paul Harvey said it best:

Paul Harvey: So God Made A Farmer

As we drive the 100 miles across northern Oklahoma from our house to our son's house, we pass a lot of farms. Some are large commercial operations, a few Amish, and just small family farms also. What I have noticed in the last few years is that the number of farmers planting into the stubble of the last crop has increased. I have also done a lot of reading about the success of farmers just crimping their cover crops and planting into them, but I haven't seen that up here.

Al is from northeastern Arkansas which is all farm country. I have watched over the years as the small farms have been bought out by the big guys. Lots of times there is a nice 3 bedroom brick house just sitting empty and the fields come almost to the doorstep. When we made a trip there this month, we passed many fallow fields and we couldn't understand why because we had never seen that before. They are normally filled with rice or soybeans. We learned that until just a couple of weeks before, they had been underwater. They were looking pretty good so they are probably planted by now.

In Grove we are kind of in the hills and going east there are a number of chicken houses and cattle ranches, but I don't know of any large farm operations except for several tree farms, and a few ranchers who raise corn and hay for their own use. You don't have to get far out of town going north or west until you begin to see farms though. I always enjoy seeing the crops.

One of the news stories on Tulsa's TV6 tonight was about how Oklahoma's don't eat as many vegetables and fruits as other states. I think we came in 48th on veggies and 50th on fruits. That made me wonder if they just based that on commercial sales, because so many of us raise our own food. Maybe not, but I sure know a lot of people who eat vegetables. LOL

TV6

Everyone I know eats lots of vegetables and fruits. Maybe we country people and gardeners are the exception?

I don't know if it is the weather we've had the last couple of years or what, but just based on the houses we drive by as we go from here to there, I'd say that I am seeing only about half as many home gardens as usual. That makes me sad. Part of it is that the very elderly gardeners (many of them retired ranchers or farmers) are passing away, and then whoever buys their place doesn't garden, farm or ranch. I have seen one new garden this year just up the road from us a bit, so maybe there's a little hope after all. For us, there is no greater joy than a summer time meal made entirely of food from the garden. Who needs a main dish that involves meat or pasta or something? Give us a meal with 3 or 4 kinds of veggies, some cornbread and then a dessert made from peaches, plums or berries, and we're perfectly content.

There's a photo of a beautiful vegetable dinner plate on the Jul/Aug 2016 issue of the magazine "Taste of the South" that I am going to recreate one day soil (just as soon as our lima beans cooperate). If I remember it correctly, the plate has sliced tomatoes, creamed corn, lima beans cooked with bacon (guess I could do this meal now by substituting PEPH for the lima beans), fried okra (fried whole with a spicy breading, which is something I want to try), buttermilk cornbread and squash casserole. I'd rather have a meal like this than a pizza or hamburger any day of the week, but a lot of the members of Chris' generation might feel differently about that. I think a lot of people put convenience ahead of eating healthy nowadays, and we do have days when we just want to eat something that's quick and easy to make, but I try to cook from our garden as much as possible when it is filled with fresh fruits and veggies. Otherwise, what's the point of growing them? And all this talk of food is making me hungry.

We have seen so much of the agricultural sector vanish from our county since moving here and we haven't even been here 2 decades yet. Lots of peanuts were grown here once upon a time, but when the government price supports were eliminated, most folks gave up growing peanuts because they couldn't make a living with them without the price supports. The pecan orchards are still here but you don't see much activity or hear much about a pecan crop any more. I used to see the shaker trees come down our road all the time, but I haven't seen one in years and years now. Most of the melon farmers are gone, the PEPH farmers aren't farming, and there's no one that is growing and selling veggies off the farm like there used to be, or melons from the back of a truck parked along a roadside. I miss all that. Families we know here locally who've always farmed or ranched have had to take off the farm/ranch jobs to survive, or start their own non-farming businesses. The small guys can't make it in farming now because the big guys benefit from the economy of scale. We still have a couple of beekeepers who sell their own honey, but I don't even see anyone local selling eggs. (We love our home-grown eggs!) The big crops here now are hay and cattle, and high-dollar quarter horses and such. It takes a lot of resources to run a big horse ranch. I don't know how they do it, but there's tons of them here now, big ones and small ones, with fields filled with horses. Who's buying all those horses?

When we drive from southern OK to Frisco TX to go to IKEA or someplace close to it, we head east on Hwy 82 from Gainesville and take a country route instead of a state highway or interstate highway once we've turned south towards the metroplex. Once we are headed south towards Frisco, we drive through little towns and through tons of corn fields. That allows me to feel, for a few minutes, like farming is alive and well near us. The closer we get to Frisco, though, the bigger the little towns are becoming and there are no corn fields there because they've all been replaced with housing developments with houses so close together that looking at them makes me shake my head. The houses are big, and I am sure they are beautiful, but there's almost no yard and if someone who lives in them wants to have a backyard garden, it would have to be a postage stamp garden. I couldn't live that way, but plenty of folks do. I might not have been born in the country, but I got here as soon as I could!

Dawn

I love seeing the farm fields in my area while we are on a drive. To my delight, most of them are snuggled amongst trees, like they should be. You wouldn't know they were farm fields without careful observation.

Not to be disagreeable but could someone tell me what Oklahoma is not 48th in ?

We are the second most dangerous state (counting the District of Columbia as if it were a state) to live in and the most dangerous climate wise, so there you go, 50th and 51st. Dangerous state

In the same article Amy it said we were 48th in workplace safety. Made me laugh out loud. Couldn't it have been anything but 48th? Like 47th? 49th? I just ignore these stupid lists. I know what matters---we have very, very many wonderful, salt-of-the-earth people here in this state who are loving, kind, giving, and thoughtful, and who will do anything to help somebody who needs help. Our people make up for a lot of the ills that exist in society. When a tornado or flooding hits, people rush to help one another. They can rank us poorly on a lot of stuff, but I'll put our people up against anyone else's citizenry any time.

It is true, we have great people. That asaide, these things compare apples to oranges. Workplace safety? Oil jobs, ranch jobs, construction, welding...I think we have more of those kind of jobs here and they are inherently more dangerous than office jobs. The cost of living in some of those other states is WAY more than here. Oh, well.