Sustainable by Design
Read time: 4 minutes
The Case IH VTFlex 435 vertical tillage tool is equipped with gang angles that are mechanically or hydraulically adjustable.
Case IH’s Agronomic Design team works with farmers to ensure the best possible yield from their harvest, with the most efficient use of resources
Agronomic Design is the science of maximizing the yield potential of every plant, in the most efficient way. The best systems help ensure that farming is financially sustainable because they make the most of every plant.
When it comes to environmental sustainability, the focus is on balance — future agronomic design will enable farmers to grow enough food to feed the world and make a return, while protecting soil quality and curbing carbon emissions.
CASE IH’S AGRONOMIC DESIGN TEAM HAVE LONG YEARS OF EXPERIENCE WORKING WITH FARMERS ON ALL TYPES OF SOIL AND DEALING WITH ALL TYPES OF CLIMATES
Tailored solutions
Tony McClelland, Global Product Manager at Case IH specializing in soil management, gives the example of plowing and tilling, some of the oldest farming practices in existence.
“Traditional methods included conventional tillage systems such as plowing in the fall after harvest and then going back in spring to prepare a very fine seed bed,” he says. “The downsides of plowing are that you expose the soil to wind and water erosion and increase carbon loss. But this was practiced for so long as it was effective, given the limited technology available at the time. It resulted in a sufficient plant stand, and it dealt with weeds and cold, wet soils.”
In sharp contrast, today we ensure both optimum yields and environmental sustainability, and the aim is to find solutions that offer “the best of both worlds,” he adds. Case IH’s agronomic design team have long years of experience working with farmers on all types of soil and dealing with all types of climates. They come up with solutions using a wide variety of machines that will help growers achieve the balance they need.
“We don’t want our dealers to just go out and sell a field cultivator, we want to promote a good seed bed, where the soil warms up uniformly and moisture can spread uniformly so that seeds germinate at the same time, to maximize the yield potential,” says McClelland.
Not plowing at all to keep nutrients and carbon bound in the soil, an approach championed by some environmental campaigners, does not work on heavy, poorly draining soil, says McClelland. Instead, producers in that situation who want a more sustainable and balanced practice can try out options such as strip tillage, in which ten inches is tilled in every thirty inches so eventually around one-third of the field has been turned over, letting oxygen into the soil.
Case IH has established a partnership with AGuru, a strip tillage specialist, to expand the range of such tools it can offer to farmers.
Even within one field, a uniform approach to soil management may not be the most effective, says McClelland. For farmers with fields that slope down a hill to flat land at the bottom, the hillside is likely to be well suited to a light-touch approach that prevents soil erosion, while the soil on the flat land performs better with conventional tilling.
“We have technology systems such as AFS Soil Command, available on many of our tillage tools, that can adjust automatically, so the cut is shallower on the hillside and deeper at the bottom.”
Case IH focuses on seven key agronomic areas in the design of its equipment that are indicated in the wheel above.
Responsive tools
Agronomy is based on seven pillars: crop protection, harvest quality, crop residue management, soil tilth, seedbed conditions, seed placement accuracy and plant food availability. All Case IH products used for tilling, planting, spraying and harvesting are designed from the outset with these elements in mind, says McClelland, as well as an awareness of the huge diversity of terrains they will be used on.
In North America, Case IH divides the market into four geographic areas with very different soil management and crop protection needs. The first is the dark, productive tall grass prairie, the second has more clay in the soil and is harder to work, the third covers the east and south-east coastal plains and also includes the western states, and the fourth is the “wheat belt,” or short grass prairie.
All the regions are now being affected by “more volatility and higher extremes” in their climates, says McClelland, including intense rainstorms, drought and extreme temperatures.
This makes it even more important for farmers to have tools that enable them to respond in a timely way to protect their crop and maximize yield. Sustainable crop management and soil protection also enables growers to respond to what consumers want, whether that is costlier organic produce, which requires far more work on the part of the farmer to keep down pests without the use of chemicals, or fruit and vegetables grown as cost-effectively as possible for shoppers on tight budgets. Continuing the life cycle of the farm, which in some cases has lasted for generations, is the goal of most Case IH customers, and agronomic design is a key part of helping them to do so, says McClelland. “We all do our best to be good corporate stewards, to help people hand down the farm to their kids, to make money, to feed our population, and to do it sustainably,” he adds.
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