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Erosion vs. herbicides



We recently have moved to a small farm in Western Wisconsin and would like
to do sustainable
agriculture or even lean toward organic if possible. The problem that I am
running into with the 
local farmers who might want to rent the land, is that they are not willing
to take the risk of raising
crops (mainly corn)  without chemicals. I am not currently allowing any
anhydrous applications, but they point
out that they have to use herbicides because the alternative is massive
erosion. And much lower
crop yields, since the weeds that compete in corn rows that cannot be
mechanically cultivated will
reduce yields (some suggest 20 bu/A). But the main concern is the inability
to do no-till without 
chemicals. We do raise primarily alfalfa (will be close to 90 A eventually
with only a small 20 A
of corn to do crop rotation to break the cycle of the alfalfa as its yield
drops after 4 or 5 years (assuming
no winter kill). How can you keep the erosion manageable without the no-till
herbicides? 

Rick





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