Have you heard the news?
It’s amazing how no-till has captured the imagination of people far removed from farming. Even farmers whose ploughshares still shine with use are beginning to think they need to get better informed. The news is giving no-till the attention it needs. As can be see by the numerous soil events, people are hungry for information. They couldn’t do better than Direct Driller, which has become a valued source of information. This issue, our #8, provides readers with another tranche of goodies.
Farming of course never stands still, and today’s concerns, such as emissions and greenhouse gas, were unknown just a decade or so ago. The public understands that growing crops and plants eat CO2; that worms create soil; that insects pollinate farm crops. Michael Horsch (see pg 26) is one of this issue’s contributors who embraces change and is steering his company into a post-glyphosate era.
He has been looking closely at the weed control methods used in the organic farming sector, and thinks the future will be a hybrid of methods understood by both conventional and organic growers. Spraying will continue, he believes, but the products and the way they are used is likely to change considerably.
Many ‘stakeholders’ in farming seem unaware that they are in the middle of a transition period greater than at any in our lifetime – I’m thinking government support. It challenges conventional thinking, demands change in farm methods, will hopefully provide opportunities for those invested which are beyond what they thought possible. Finally, please share this issue with others – they may appreciate it.
