One way of handling the planting bottleneck is to have the cover crops custom planted. In fact, the planting rig described above with the Valmar seeder and the Phillips Harrow is used by Scout Seed Company to custom plant for customers. This venture into custom planting was well-received and it stays busy.

Our friends in North Carolina gave us a bunch to think about. Maybe the biggest revelation was that although our hosts participated in the NRCS cover crop programs, they both planted cover crops on all their acres, so a great number of acres were out of their pockets. We asked,” How in the world can you afford that?” They responded, “How can we afford not to?” Don’t you hate it when what you learn only creates more questions?

Several years later we needed help in getting the cover crop planted and again we opted to have the seed flown on, part in soybeans and the other part in cotton. The mix had black oat, Austrian winter pea, crimson clover, and tillage radish. We flew the seed on in mid-September, the leaves dropped, it didn’t rain, it didn’t rain, and then it didn’t rain.

It is common for farms in our community to have a large number of cash crops. It is not unusual for a farm to grow wheat, double crop soybeans, full season soybeans, corn, cotton, and peanuts plus maybe a chicken, turkey, or hog operation thrown in just to make absolutely sure there are no idle hands which I hear is the devil’s workshop. On our first cover crop year the thought of chuckin’ this madness in the creek did cross my mind. Time was running out to get the cover crop in and we saw no light at the end of the tunnel for finding time to do it.

As cotton planting season approached, I asked my buddy to give me a heads up when that black oat field was to be planted because I wanted to be there to see it for myself. When I got the call, I stopped what I was doing and headed over to see the planting and in rolls the tractor with a planter hooked to it, but with no strip-till rig in sight.

One of the important issues to be resolved was how are we were going to control weeds in this no-till plot without plowing. In our conventional tillage, farming the weeds between the rows of the crop are destroyed by plowing. How would we keep the weeds at bay without cultivating?

All progress depends on apparently lazy people, people that question the status quo and find a better and “easier” way. Industrious people put the nose to the grindstone and let it rip. I remember my Daddy would not entertain an idea that could be easier and still accomplish the task at hand. In Mr. Angus’ world if you were not sweating, you were not working. I never minded sweating, but sweating just for the fun of it, no thank you.