Joe Hamilton was a mechanical engineer for 12 years before returning to the farm in 2015. He farms about 2,500 acres, growing corn and soybeans with his family in East Central Indiana.
For this edition of Cover Crop Strategies, brought to you by Verdesian Life Sciences, Joe gives us the rundown on all the species that cover nearly 75% of his farm, including annual ryegrass, barley, cereal rye, oats, rapeseed and crimson clover.
We’ll also learn about his game plan for planting green, aerial application methods, equipment modifications that have helped with pest control, how his engineering background influences his farming and more!
The Cover Crop Strategies podcast series is brought to you by Verdesian Life Sciences.
At Verdesian Life Sciences, we believe that supplying healthy water and soil for the next generation is just as important as supplying efficient nutrients for every crop farmers grow. For us, sustainability and profitability go hand in hand. That’s why we call ourselves The Nutrient Use Efficiency People. We have dedicated ourselves to providing prescriptive nutrient use efficiency solutions that improve plant uptake and reduce fertilizer losses, helping preserve the environment and make the most of your investment. Learn more at vlsci.com or talk to your ag retailer today about Verdesian products.
Full Transcript
Noah Newman:
Welcome to the Cover Crop Strategies podcast brought to you by Verdesian Life Sciences. Great to have you with us, I'm your host Noah Newman. This week, we're catching up with Joe Hamilton from east central Indiana for an in depth look at how the usage of cover crops and planning green are paying off big time in his no-till system. Let's waste no time jumping right in. Here's Joe.
Joe Hamilton:
My name is Joe Hamilton. I live in east central Indiana. I farm about 2500 acres of corn and soybeans with my family. I was an engineer for 12 years and returned to the farming operation in 2015, a hundred percent of my acres are no-till, continuous no-till, and about 75% are in cover crops every year.
Noah Newman:
So mechanical engineer, that's a pretty unique background to come from, to go into farming. How did your experience as a mechanical engineer ... how does that influence what you do today?
Joe Hamilton:
I think that engineers make good farmers. They pay attention to details and they like to change variables and see results. I feel like that I run the farm as a continuous experiment, trying to make things better and optimize the outcome.
Noah Newman:
And then, so what was your biggest motivation for getting back into farming?
Joe Hamilton:
I enjoyed my job and enjoyed my projects and colleagues, but I was tired of sitting inside in a cubicle, staring at a computer all day. I felt like I had an opportunity to return to the farm. And if I passed on that, I wasn't sure that I would have that opportunity again later in life.
Noah Newman:
Yeah. It sounds like a great move. Now, have you guys always been no-till, or what's your history in that regard?
Joe Hamilton:
No, my father, when he ran the operation, would no-till some years. And when he had time, he would do tillage in the fall and in the spring. When I returned to the operation, we were limited on labor and resources, and I felt like that there was a path to get to continuous no-till and it would be better and more sustainable, and use less fuel and resources. And it's worked out so far.
Noah Newman:
And we see so many no-tillers using cover crops, just like you do. Tell us about that, how you got started with cover crops. And do you remember your first experience planting them?
Joe Hamilton:
In 2017 I planted about a hundred acres of cereal rye into cornstalks before soybeans and I had read about cover crops and talked to people about them and that was, I felt, a good gateway to give it a shot. It went well, so in 2019, I enrolled half of our acres into the USDA NRCS equip program and started doing cover crops on 50% of the acres. And then eventually I enrolled more acres into cost share programs, and I've had as many as 90% of our acres in cover crops in one year. I can't say that it's all been easy or all gone perfect, but overall, I felt like it was the part of no-till that we were missing to improve soil health and regain profitability.
Noah Newman:
Yeah. You talk about it being the missing piece of the puzzle. Just going along those lines, what are some of the benefits you've seen and what kind of impact have cover crops had in your operation?
Joe Hamilton:
Definitely less weed pressure. I think that's the first thing that I saw. And even if you do cereal rye on cornstalks before, soybeans you see the reduction in weed pressure your first year. At least I did. I've also seen improved water infiltration with less surface runoff breaking through compaction layers. In 2019, I had a USDA soil scientist come out and we dug some soil pits and looked at layers of tillage and compaction layers, and years of degraded soil structure. And after doing cover crops in those fields for two or three years, you can see those layers break up and get better aggregated soil and improve structure.
Noah Newman:
Wow. Well, coming from an engineer background, you touched on this. I mean, you're always looking to experiment with things. So what species have you experimented with?
Joe Hamilton:
I've tried several different species, but the formula that I have narrowed down on and I'm doing this year, I use annual rye grass, spring oats, rape seed, and crimson clover before soybeans. And I will seed those with an airplane before September 15th. And before soybeans, I will do cereal rye, barley, spring oats, rape seed, and crimson clover, same thing, by September 15th with an airplane.
Noah Newman:
So have you always done it via aerial application or is that something you've just recently tried?
Joe Hamilton:
I used a highboy seeder. I hired it custom application for several years and I liked the highboy approach. I felt like I got a little bit better seed spread and distribution. And the guy that I hired had 90 foot booms and it lined up with my sprayer booms. This year, he got rid of his applicator, so I switched to an airplane and hopefully by next year, I'll build my own high boy seeder and go back to that.
Noah Newman:
So you'll go back to the highboy, but what's the experience been like with aerial seeding? You like what you see so far?
Joe Hamilton:
I do. I'm not crazy about someone driving through my corn a month before harvest. So, especially in corn, I would suggest, at least for me, it's worked better with an airplane. I think no matter what you do, if you broadcast into standing crop, you're very dependent on rainfall, right after your cover crop seeding. My successful years I've had favorable weather and the years that I didn't have a good stand, it seemed like it was dry for a week or two after seeding, and it really hurt germination.
Noah Newman:
Gotcha. Well, going back to your rotation, your species that you're using, just specifically with each one off the top of your head, what do you like about them? And are there any certain challenges you have to deal with, with any of them?
Joe Hamilton:
I like annual rye grass before corn. You get less plant growth above the ground, but you get more root growth below the ground. I feel like that it's better for breaking up compaction and improving soil structure. Termination's probably the biggest challenge with annual rye grass. You have to be patient in the spring. If you spray your annual rye grass the same time that you would've sprayed your cereal rye, a lot of times you don't kill it all. I like cereal rye because you get so much growth over the winter. I've planted green into that with soybeans and had very good luck. I like to throw a little bit of barley in with the cereal rye, because there are places in the field that the barley will do well when the cereal rye doesn't, and other places where the cereal rye will do well when the barley doesn't do well. Oats, you get good growth in the fall from oats is why I put those in. And rape seed and crimson clover, I include those to have a little more diversity.
Noah Newman:
Let's talk about planting green. When did you start doing that? And what are some of the benefits you've seen from it?
Joe Hamilton:
I started planting green the first year after I planted a lot of cover crops, so 2019. And I jumped into that probably a little bit more than I should have right off the bat. I planted a lot of corn into cereal rye that was green. And before that I understood the nitrogen tie up and some of the mechanical limitations of running your planters through heavy biomass. I think that the benefits are obvious in that you get more growth in the spring. You get more time for your cover crop to grow better wheat suppression and all of your benefits that are there are just a little more amplified by letting it grow that extra two or three weeks.
Noah Newman:
Yeah. I spoke with someone recently who told me that when he first started planting green, the soybeans did great off the bat, but corn was always kind of a challenge. And he mentioned just what you did with the nitrogen uptake. So what have you done to maybe improve on that when it comes to planting green with corn?
Joe Hamilton:
I put more nitrogen on. I put 60 pounds of nitrogen on at planting and that's made a big difference. The other thing is, I think that you get most of the benefit from your cover crop before corn, even if you terminate a week or two before planting. For me, in my operation, I try to terminate the cover crop seven to 14 days before I get in the field with the planter.
Noah Newman:
Gotcha. Then going into more detail about your termination methods, just take us through that process, how you do it, and are you using glyphosate or how do you do it?
Joe Hamilton:
Before corn, I'll use metallicore, dicamba and glyphosate and come in 14 to seven days before I plant. Then after the corn is ... before it hits V5, or it's less than 12 inches tall, I'll use caprino atrazine. And if I have heavy wheat pressure, I'll put some status in with it.
Noah Newman:
All right. Let's burn a time out. Back to the podcast in just a second, but time now to share a message from our sponsor for Verdesian Life Sciences. At Verdesian Life Sciences, we believe that supplying healthy water and soil for the next generation is just as important as supplying efficient nutrients for every crop farmers grow. For us, sustainability and profitability go hand in hand. That's why we call ourselves the nutrient use efficiency people. We have dedicated ourselves to providing prescriptive nutrient use efficiency solutions that improve plant uptake and reduce fertilizer losses, helping preserve the environment and make the most of your investment. Learn more at vlsci.com. Now, back to the podcast.
Noah Newman:
With soybeans, someone I talked to the other day, he mentioned how he's had some problems with slugs and voles with soybeans. He's in a different region than you are. He's not in Indiana. But have you had any kind of pest issues with soybeans when it comes to planting green?
Joe Hamilton:
I have. That was a big problem with planting corn, was open seed slots. And I went to a serrated disc opener on my planter that helps cut through some of the residue and open up the seed trench. And then I went to plastic spike closing wheels, and that made a big difference in getting the seed trench closed and keeping the pests out of the seed trench.
Noah Newman:
And you just touched on it with your equipment. It sounds like your planter is pretty heavily modified, or just kind of give us the rundown of all the equipment you use on your farm.
Joe Hamilton:
For my planters, I have two John Deere planters. I have a 15 inch planter for soybeans and a 30 inch planter for corn. I use serrated disc openers on both. I also use plastic spike closing wheels. Hydraulic down force on the corn planter helped improve my consistency and seeding depth in changing conditions. I think that anytime that you do cover crops, you're going to see, you're going to need different down force as you go through the field even more so than the tillage situation and hydraulic down force helped a lot.
Noah Newman:
So is there anything new you're looking to implement into your system next year, or in the coming months?
Joe Hamilton:
I've been dabbling in 60 inch corn, interceding that at V5 and then grazing cattle in it. The logistics of adding livestock are difficult, but I feel like that is a big thing that is missing in my operation. So I'm hoping to increase the number of acres that I do in that program and bring more livestock into the operation.
Noah Newman:
Oh, how many livestock do you have now?
Joe Hamilton:
Nine, right now. So I have plenty of room to grow.
Noah Newman:
And then why are you looking to go that direction? What kind of impact do you think that could have for you?
Joe Hamilton:
I think the foremost is getting acres to put cattle on in the winter and getting some beef off of it. But the other part is, I think that the animals interact with the soil, both through their manure and eating the plants that does a lot of benefit through the soil that you can't get any other way.
Noah Newman:
So in terms of cover crop species, again, going back to that topic, have there been any that you tried out and you were like, "Oh, this just isn't going to work for me."
Joe Hamilton:
In 2019, we had 400 acres of prevent plant and I seeded daikon radishes and then Austrian winter peas, annual rye grass, rape seed, and some cereal rye and hairy vetch in alternating 15 rows. So it was daikon radishes in one row, and then the mix of everything else in the next row. And I seeded that at the end of July, those daikon radishes grew very deep. They were great for the earth worms and breaking up compaction. Everything did very well, but a lot of those species, I think, would only work in a system where that you have good seed to soil contact. I don't think you're going to make most of those work with broadcast and you need more growing time to make it work. So, no, I don't think there's anything that I've tried that I really had a bad experience with, but you have to be aware of your seed to soil contact and weather limitations, when you pick species.
Noah Newman:
So we do a survey every year where we ask people for their top benefits from cover crops and maybe some of the top challenges that they've seen from cover crops. So you touched on it a little bit already, but just, what would you say are the top three benefits that you've gotten from using cover crops?
Joe Hamilton:
I'd say less weed pressure, improved soil structure and reducing compaction layers would be my top three benefits.
Noah Newman:
And then on the flip side, challenges, you know, what kind of obstacles have you run into and what kind of challenges you think other people might face when they start using cover crops?
Joe Hamilton:
Cover crop establishment is a big thing. Like I said, if you broadcast and you don't get rainfall, your establishment suffers. Termination, it would be tough for me to do the program that I'm in with over wintering cover crops and planting green, if I didn't have my own sprayer. So keep in mind termination, your plan and your backup plan and your backup to the backup plan, if you're going to try to plant green and do cover crops. The last thing was probably mechanical limitations, figuring out that you have to make modifications to your planter and be willing to adjust as your conditions change.
Noah Newman:
Yeah. And every system's unique, right? I mean, especially where you are in Indiana, how popular is the practice of planting green or using cover crops? Are you one of the few in your area, or do you have other neighbors that do it, or ...
Joe Hamilton:
I'd say probably 5% of the acres in this area do cover crops, and even less with planting green. So I'm probably an outlier and people drive by and wonder what I'm doing, but it seems to work for me.
Noah Newman:
And then when you first start, we always hear people say that, take advantage of all the resources you can, go to conferences, talk to other farmers. Just what was your support system like when you first started getting into cover crops and no-till?
Joe Hamilton:
I learned more from conferences and talking to other farmers than anything else. Going to the national no-till conference is one of my favorites, the Everything Cover Crops group on Facebook has been good for learning and bouncing good ideas off people, learning from other people's mistakes. A lot of books, I enjoy reading, Gay Brown, David Montgomery are some authors that I read that helped shape my early experiences. And reaching out to the USDA NRCS. They have a lot of resources, both financially and for technical support that helped me.
Noah Newman:
Yeah. That Everything Cover Crops group on Facebook, that is becoming really popular. I've seen some pretty interesting things on there. Anything specifically you could think of off the top of your head that you learned from that group?
Joe Hamilton:
I think planter modifications were one thing that I learned. There weren't a lot of other farmers that were trying to do what I was doing in the area. But when I posted about some of my struggles, I got several responses on what had worked for other people. So that, and herbicide, sometimes you get some negative feedback on herbicide approaches from people who may be somewhat extreme, but I feel like that there's enough other farmers on there that have had experience with herbicide and what worked with cover crops that you can get some good information.
Noah Newman:
Yeah. I'm glad that you glad to hear that you attended the national no-till conference. I'll be there next year. You plan on going next year yet, or ...
Joe Hamilton:
I already bought my tickets. I enjoy-
Noah Newman:
Oh, nice.
Joe Hamilton:
... going every year.
Noah Newman:
That's awesome. What's your favorite part? And what's been your favorite presentation in the past? Can you think of a specific speaker or something that you've really taken away from your previous experience going to the conference?
Joe Hamilton:
Talking to farmers is definitely the best part. You meet a lot of guys from all over the country and all over the world that have been doing cover crops and no-till a lot longer than I have, and picking their brain, learning from their mistakes is a lot better than learning from your own mistakes. That's been my favorite part, but there's always good speakers. Dwayne Beck has always been one of my favorites and there're a lot of other people and a lot of topics that I've enjoyed every year.
Noah Newman:
Yeah. Well, January'll be here before you know it. So I'll have to track you down at the conference this year and say hello. Looking forward to meeting you out there.
Joe Hamilton:
I'm looking forward to it.
Noah Newman:
Well, before we let you go, Joe, anything else you want to add to maybe help our listeners out here or any piece of advice you want to share with people or any other topic you'd like to touch on before we let you go?
Joe Hamilton:
I think my most important piece of advice would be to just try it. If you're considering cover crops and you haven't, or you want to try something new, try it, maybe dabble in to five or 10% of your acres the first year. But if you push it off every year and you don't try it, you'll never do it.
Noah Newman:
Thanks to Joe Hamilton for joining us on this week's edition of Cover Crop Strategies brought to you by Verdesian Life Sciences. It was great to have you with us as always. And until next time, remember, for all things cover crops, head to Cover Crop Strategies dot com.
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