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Sanilac Co. Michigan | Ray Rawson sure made a lot of headlines going on 30 years ago! 100+ bu soys would have been phenomenal any place in Michigan, much less than where he farmed and he made it work.
Yes, it was no till, so that in and of itself in that part of the state was not considered the typical approach to growing soybeans. His "trick", if you could call it that, was more along the lines of strip till with deep placement of plant nutrients. Kind of built a high fertility zone for the plant to grow in, forcing the root to go deep and so kind of building a defense against late summer drought. So very deep vertical tillage, kind of directing the root deeper into the profile than it otherwise might have gone combined with a high fertility environment to grow in created the makings of a very successful crop...at least that was my understanding.
For the next fifteen years or so he promoted the Rawson system, put on demonstrations around the country, did some manufacturing, the whole shebang! Had some guys here in the thumb test it on sugar beets, can't remember their names off hand, but it showed a lot of promise. For whatever reason, it just didn't seem to take hold like you'd expect around here.
I think what he was into was part of the whole evolution of the zone till concept and that's still a thing. | |
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davpal following up on post below , lazy beans .
