Environmental Benefits of GMO Crops

I have probably written too much about my frustration due to misinformation about GMO crops. Rather than continue to argue about the false misconceptions of the harm I think it is time that maybe we shift gears and discuss the hard and fast benefits of GMO crops, specifically as their benefits pertain to the environment-which seems to be the main argument for trying to ban them.

1. Decreased use of insecticides - Before GMO crops used to spray a lot of nasty insecticides to deal with insects in our crop. I have been farming 7 years, basically since the time when stacked corn traits took off. In those 7 years I have never sprayed a single ounce of insecticide. We still have to use a granular insecticide on 20% of our corn that is required by regulation to not use BT corn-to control corn rootworms-this is called “refuge” corn. Should they allow refuge to be replaced with corn using another mode of action we would not even need to do that.

2. Making no-till feasible – No till has allowed me to GREATLY reduce soil erosion on our farm. Along with the reduced erosion we have reduced runoff of nitrogen and other fertilizer. We also use significantly less fuel and require less equipment and horsepower because we are often making only 4 trips across the field (spray, plant, spray, harvest) a year instead of 7 (2 spring tillage, spray, plant, spray, harvest, fall tillage) or more. Before GMO crops the chemicals really weren’t there to be able to maintain yields, and those that were much more potent and much much less environmentally friendly that glyphosate that we use now.

3. Increased yield – Taking away GMO technology would dramatically reduce yields. If you doubt this compare yields on the refuge corn to conventional. Every year we lose more and more farmground in this country to urban sprawl. Yet overall yields keep getting larger and larger, in my short career we have set national yield records in 4 of the last 7 years. Should we fail to do that prices will rise, and rise dramatically as we saw in 2008. When that happens more of the marginal land becomes profitable to farm and comes out of wildlife areas and returns to production.

4. Less fertilizer – Like oil, fertilizer is a non-renewable resource. We have a responsibility to use it as wisely as possible. We are growing about 30% more grain per pound of fertilizer than we were 15 years ago-the majority of this increase is directly attributable to GMO improvements.

I could list the other benefits of GMO crops but will save those for another slow week post. This next week will be busy with grain bin construction and a return to second round of spraying. Will get some more pics of soon, also past due to post some crop progress pictures.

Starting Grain Bin Construction

Construction has finally started on our first grain bin. Concrete is poured-roof and sidewall construction will probably start in about two weeks.

Get the true story out about farming

Those reading this blog in the past know how frustrated I get with the misinformation about farming that is so prevalent today. Finally I am seeing more and more ag related sites trying to get the truth out. Found a couple good ones this week:

FoodLink

Illinois Farm Bureau Blog

Spray spray spray your fields, watch out for that stream

Let me describe last week in bullet points:

-Haul Water
-Spray
-Stop Spraying
-Fix Rear Flat Tire
-Haul Water
-Spray
-Stop Spraying
-Wait to see if popup showers pass
-Start spraying
-Stop Spraying
-Replace flow control valve
-Haul Water
-Spray
-Stop Spraying
-Wait for rain again
-Start Spraying
-Stop Spraying
-Replace lift pump gasket on tractor
-Start Spraying
-Stop Spraying
-Replace complete GPS system
-Spray
-Spray
-Spray
-Mow
-Mow

Worked my butt off last week, but too much of it was diagnosing problems, running for parts, repairing flats, etc. etc. I guess that is the hazzard of farming with old equipment. Between all the breakdowns, popup showers, road time moving equipment, etc. I felt like I jammed 20 hours of work into 60 hours. I figure by doing my own spraying I am saving about $3,200-$4,000 this year. Problem is so far I am at $2,000 in repairs and 2 days of frustration, starting to question that decision to do all my own.

Seriously when it is going well I have enjoyed it, finished last Fri and it is cool to see all the green invaders turning brown and the crops really looking green and nice. I got done early enough to get the 4 wheeler out and hit the extra thick areas and touch up around the waterways and even spray a couple yards for friends and neighbors. On Sat got the roads mowed, so I am saying with crops all up, 1st spray pass done, and roads mowed that draws an official end to spring and summer has begun!

Spouse is not too happy about a couple spots in the yard. Being in a hurry I didn't think that walking across some spilled roundup on the trailer and then treking across the yard into the shed would leave some nice little indisputable evidence in the shape of my foot in the grass. I have promised to load the sprayer in the field next year instead of the drive.

Hard to find time to blog

Rain has been plentiful, so no excuse there-but I have had a hard time getting in front of computer. Looks like we are going to get a good spraying window this weekend and early next week so I figure I should blog something before that starts.

The waterway and roadside grass has really taken off the last two weeks-the neverending mowing saga will start this weekend.

All the corn has has first pass of spray, 2nd shot we will probably wait another week or two-to get closer to canopy.

My no-till bean fields are flat out embarrasing-Wife is beginning to wonder if I am raising wild yellow mustard this year instead of beans. The dry days have been so cold and cloudy I didn't want to spray, and every other day it has been wet.

One lesson I learned this year is fall spraying 100% works-you can see to the foot where I did a little roundup last fall just before first frost-with Roundup being so cheap will be hitting every acre this fall if possible.

Finished Planting-2010-I hope.

Farming is a lot of things but it sure isn’t repetitive. We really caught some good breaks this spring and finished up planting beans on Mothers day. Last year I am pretty sure we were into the first week of June, and were still trying to plant corn on Mothers day. We have had a lot of cold rain since then-which won't help the stand much-but at least it is in the ground.

Julie didn't get the best Mothers day dinner (Jimmy Johns sandwiches on the seed trailer in the field)-but I really appreciated the visit, breaks up a long day. I owe her one to make up for it.


I know there is a benefit to spreading out your planting dates, but I was so gun-shy after the last two years that when a decent window opened up I just could not stop. Started planting on Thursday morning and finished Sunday afternoon. One day I planted about 130-140 acres, I really felt like the old marathon days at the end of that 18 hour day. Thank goodness for GPS, first time I ever planted after dark.

Something else new was Mothers day was the first time I ever planted beans with the heat on in the tractor all day.

I thought I had enough beans to finish and ran out with about 15 acres left, thinking a shot in the dark I called my seed dealer at 9:00am on Sunday morning-sure enough they were there! Talk about good service, they were able to come through and get me the seed so I could finish!!! When I went down to pick it up there was a line of other doing the same thing.



I talked to a couple seed dealers and they said during that 4 day window they had about 70% of the beans go out of the warehouse….so I guess I wasn’t experiencing anything that wasn’t being dealt with by many others.

There were some really cool moments too-I saw a hawk grab a sparrow out the air and fly off with him, and saw two coyotes chase a really large deer over ½ mile. I didn’t think coyotes would go after a full grown deer but I can now say definitively they will.

What makes farming fun

Every year I say "I have never seen anything like this before." Now I have only been farming about 6 years so that isn't much of a statement. But it is interesting to talk with my neighbors-some who have been farming 40 or 50 years and they are saying the same thing.

We went from too wet to too dry overnight this year. I planted corn a week ago last Sunday that was really too wet, had to clean mud off the planter. We finished the following Thursday-and a week later that seed is still laying in the ground in dry dirt not even sprouted.

I guess this will be a good test of wether it is more important to plant early or wait for good conditions.

No use worrying about it since whats done is done, time to move on, corn is in gods hands now. So yesterday we switched the planter over to prepare to plant beans. There has been a fair amount of rain in the last 36 hours so I would say we are looking at late next week at best.

The opportunity to never stop learning is really cool. Some people think it would be boring driving the tractor back and forth across the field all day, but with so much to plan and think about boredom and farming just don't go together for me.