Ohio Success

After Ag Spectrum Technical Director, Cliff Ramsier, contacted Tom and Dan Bauer about a better way to grow corn, Tom scoffed: "I thought I knew how to grow corn, but I wasn't certain Cliff did. The problem was I was trying to do no-till corn but it didn't yield consistently.

"Cliff made some recommendations about improving the air and water exchange in our soils and enhancing nutrient availability with GroZyme.™ He suggested we put in some check strips, so we did, mostly to prove him wrong. The first year the check strip was up 12 bushels per acre and the second year it was up another 8 bushels. That's when we gave up and just did what he told us on all our acres."

The initial cost savings Tom realized by starting with the Nu-Till System were put back into making soil improvements. Because the crop yields became so consistent over so many different soil types, Tom and Dan also started adding more land to their operation. They now farm over 2,100 acres, more than twice the acres before Nu-Till. "Without Nu-Till there's no way that we could farm this many acres. Conventional tillage approaches are just too time-consuming."

What made a believer out of Tom? Substantially improved yield consistency and lower costs. Tom: "We went from a five-year average of about 144 bushels of corn per acre on 950 acres to a new five-year average of over 151 bushels per acre on 2,100 acres. Even though we're still fixing the air and water exchange on some of our new land, we're pleased to see the yield average still climbing."