How One Ohio Farmer Is Leveraging Technology to Enhance Nutrient Management
Thousands of people travel North on Route 23 and West across U.S. Route 6 on their way to Lake Erie, the islands, and Cedar Point every summer, driving right past the farm of Lowell and David Myerholtz, writes Dusty Sonnenberg at Ohio Country Journal. That means thousands of people observing the Myerholtz’s farming practices that have a direct impact on the lake the travelers are headed to visit.
“As we see the boats and campers go by, we know they are headed to Lake Erie, and it keeps it in the front of our mind where our water goes, and it doesn’t take very long to get there,” said Lowell Myerholtz. “If the rain is carrying our nitrogen or phosphorus away into the river and lake, we are hurting ourselves and the lake.”
Lowell and David Myerholtz have been utilizing strip-till for several years as a best management practice on their farm.
“It started off as a tillage tool, but now I call it my nutrient management tool,” said David Myerholtz. “We have multiple soil types in our fields, and the strip makes the conditions very uniform across the field. We prepare the soil in the fall and lay the fertilizer down in a band subsurface. It is amazing what fall strip-till will do to bring consistency and uniformity of those soil types together at planting time in that strip. Our Orthman strip-till machine is a versatile part of our equipment line because we are doing multiple things at the same time with that machine. With the variable soil types we have, and the nature of the machine, I have one chance in the fall to get my strips made, and we variable rate our subsurface fertilizer products in that application.”
Strip-tillage was a learning process for the Myerholtzs.
Read more at Ohio Country Journal.
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