Let’s go way back. We’ve been farming for a long time, and we’ve been tilling for a long time. We need to ask ourselves this question — why are we doing what we’re doing?

Building soil health is a long-term endeavor, but one with lasting impacts. There are many practices that yield great short-term benefits. But if it’s not good for the soil, it won’t be good for the farming enterprise in the long run.

2021 HAS SEEN me — after 5 years of direct drilling — drill malting spring barley into oats for the first time. I had a big volunteer oat crop due to cutting wet oats at harvest, which I left into winter.