Don McLeod from Plenty Sask. was awarded a three year membership in the Saskatchewan Soil Conservation Association for having the top mark in the term paper in the Soil Conservation and Land Quality Class at the U of S.
McLeod's term paper entitled "Soil Conservation By Reduced Tillage Through Direct Seeding" addresses the issues that many farmers are facing today in making the transition to Direct Seeding. "Environmentalism is rising across Canada and is confronting us all with one simple truth: what we do or fail to do individually and as a society is going to have a profound influence on the environment and our quality of life. Agriculture world wide has a greater impact on the environment and surrounding landscape than any other industry. Tillage has been the single biggest factor causing soil degradation in Western Canada."
Don McLeod is working in a family farm unit that includes his father and two uncles. They currently operate a mixed farming operation where their cropping practice includes a 50-50 crop rotation where half of the land is in summer fallow each year. During the 1980's they started continuous cropping on an intensive tillage basis, but after 1988 they went back to a 50-50 rotation.
Many farmers share the concerns the McLeods have about moving into a zero tillage system. McLeod states, "Today my dad is contemplating getting back into continuous cropping, but in a zero tillage basis instead. There are however a few things holding him back. The first is the fact that we rent quite a bit of land. Many of the landlords are still stuck in the old ways. The second factor is getting all the members of the farming unit to agree. Every time direct seeding is brought up some of them the just say, "remember 1988". The third factor is the initial cost associated with changing our machinery over to zero tillage equipment." To farmers like the McLeods who have some reservations about direct seeding, the SSCA suggests they start with a few acres to get the bugs worked out of the system. This can also be used to show landlords and farming partners that direct seeding will work. Moving to a zero till system requires more management to make it work but the SSCA can help farmers find the answers to their questions while making the switch.
The Saskatchewan Soil Conservation Association would like to congratulate Don McLeod on the top term paper in the class and wish him the best of luck in future classes.
In closing I would like to quote his final paragraph in Don's paper. "A significant amount of research has been conducted in the area of direct seeding, but much more remains to be done. If adopted on the scale anticipated, direct seeding will represent a transformation of prairie agriculture with long reaching benefits for the environment and the farmer. It has already begun to result in a wide range of changes to cropping practices, machinery usage, and the fundamental ways in which farming is carried out. Ultimately, it may be a major factor in the survival of farming on the prairies."