The Root of it All
The farming roots in David Eyster’s family run deep, both in his fields and his family tree.
His great-grandfather, James R. Eyster, came to Custer County, Oklahoma in 1892. He homesteaded his family on what he felt was some prime farmland just a mile outside the community of Thomas. They broke ground on their land the next spring, planting crops of wheat and cotton, relying on rainfall for crop production.
Following family tradition, David is the fourth generation of Eysters to plant the same crops in those same fields, over 115 years later. However, David has adopted a dryland farming technique that isn’t so traditional.
In 2003, David decided to test one of his fields using a no-till farming method. In this type of farming, crops are planted without tilling the soil, but rather planting the seed in the residue of the previous crop. The seeds are placed in the soil by making a small slice in the earth’s surface, leaving the ground relatively undisturbed. The crop residue on the surface helps hold the in moisture and acts as compost. Below the surface, the root system helps make tunnels through the soil which help aerate it, increase organic matter and absorb more moisture. Over time, the greater soil health leads to increased crop yields.
Although it isn’t a farming method as widely used in Oklahoma as it is in other states, David had read about it, and attended some no-till workshops hosted by county soil and water conservation districts and the Great Plains Resource Conservation and Development Council.
Pleased with how his crops performed and soil health improved in his test patches, David switched from conventional tilling to no-tilling on his entire farm in 2004.
“It sure made my dad nervous when I put my plow and all my other conventional tilling equipment in a farm sale in 2004,” David says. “He didn’t think that was a good idea to jump in with both feet.”
“But when my first crop came in, people would stop by to ask me about it, and if Dad was there, I couldn’t get a word in because he did all the talking, telling them how great this no-till farming was working,” laughs David, who is a member of the Kiwash Rural Electric Cooperative.
According to the USDA, conservation practices such as no-till can save farmers 217 million gallons of fuel and up to $480 million per year. That breaks down to about 3.5 gallons of fuel per acre. In addition to energy savings, these practices provide obvious conservation benefits to the environment that affect all of us, such as cleaner air and water.
Now, instead of plowing his fields over and over all summer to get it ready for fall planting, David has free time to spend with his family and doing things he enjoys.
“When I was doing conventional tilling, I had two hired men plowing with me all summer long,” David says. “Now it’s just me. The only time I need help now is at harvest time, which is a good thing.”
One of the challenges of managing crop residue in no-till fields is keeping the weeds in check. In conventional farming, plowing can help do this. However, as David points out, it is a lot cheaper to apply a herbicide than it is to drag a plow back and forth over the field.
While fuel and labor cost savings were two of the major benefits that caused David to look into no-till, the switch from conventional tilling had one other major unseen benefit. David and his wife, Hilda’s, 24-year-old son, Eric, recently came back to join the family’s farming operation.
Growing up on a tractor inspired Eric to seek an education and gain employment elsewhere. He was tired of the long, hot, dusty days spent in the field, and wanted the comfort and security of a desk job. Upon high school graduation, he attended Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford, majoring in business.
However, when he saw the time savings and gentle methods of no-till farming, he changed his mind, and his major. He even changed universities so he could purse an agriculture degree and learn as much as he could about plant and soil science. He graduated from Oklahoma State University in 2006 with a degree in Agriculture Services and Leadership.
“When he saw that with no-till farming he didn’t have to spend his life on a tractor, his attitude about farming changed completely,” David says.
“When he went off to college we just assumed he’d get a job in a big city somewhere and move a couple states away,” he continues. “Now he and his wife live just a few miles away on the old home place.
Eric farms his own land he purchased from Eyster family members, and has a custom farming and spraying business.
“Having my son come back to the farm has definitely been the biggest reward of switching to no-till farming,” David says, with an appreciative smile.
A farming occupation is notoriously hard on families because it is so labor intensive, with the weather and crops dictating how many hours are spent working each day. David’s father, John, almost lost David for the same reasons Eric wasn’t interested. David earned an accounting degree in college and was fully intent on becoming an accountant when his brother got drafted in the Vietnam War.
“I knew my dad needed help when my brother left, so I told him I would come home and help until he got back,” David remembers. “But then, I just stayed.”
John was a conservation-conscious farmer from the beginning. He worked with the Deer Creek Conservation District since the 1950s to implement conservation practices such as terraces and grade stabilization structures to prevent erosion. According to David, he was one of the original “trash farmers” in the area when he began stubble mulch plowing. With this process, he left some residue on top of his fields to conserve moisture and nutrients, and prevent soil loss.
David explains that a lot of conventional farmers call no-till farmers “trash farmers” because it looks like they left trash in their field.
“I agree that those neatly plowed wheat fields sure are pretty to look at,” he says. “But I think the fields with the residue in them are pretty too, because I know what the soil looks like beneath the surface.”
Without the tilling to activate the soil, one might wonder how no-till crop yields compare to conventional methods.
“I plant less seed and my fields yield just as much as they did before I switched to no-till,” he says.
He explains that it takes about four years for the organic matter to break down enough to the point the soil is so healthy that farmers actually see an increase in crop yields with no-till farming year after year.
Currently in his fourth year of going completely no-till, David is hopeful that his neighbors will start seeing the benefits.
“They can already see that I don’t have water running off my fields or standing in big puddles like they do,” he says. “My soil is like a porous sponge – soaking it all up. And the water that does run off is clear.”
Even though the benefits seem obvious, David acknowledges that switching from conventional to no-till farming is a bigger change than many farmers want to undergo. It is a very different approach and even involves buying new equipment. But whether they are buying into it right now or not, he knows that they can tell a difference in his fields.
He remembers a time during planting season in September 2006 when all the local farmers had their fields worked smooth for drilling wheat.
“It was one of those windy days we typically have, and I was eating lunch at the Putnam Café,” he remembers. “The sky was brown with soil being blown from the fields. A couple of old-timers were visiting in the café and commenting on the wind erosion when one of them stated, ‘Everybody's got a place blowing except David Eyster.’”
He knows he is making a difference, in his fields, his family and his pocketbook. He hopes more Oklahoma farmers will start to understand the benefits of no-till farming and start adapting their operations toward this conservation practice.
The key to success in no-till farming is for the previous crop residue to stay in the field season after season. That seems to be the key to success for the Eyster family as well, as generation after generation stays in the field. In the field or in the family, it’s the roots that hold it all together.
Note: For more information on no-till farming, contact your local USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) office, listed under “USDA” in the government section of the phone book or visit the Oklahoma NRCS website at www.ok.nrcs.usda.gov.