Feature Story An Innovator At Heart By David Morris “Innovative” is an adjective that truly fits Barry Newcombe, President of the Innovative Farmers’ Association of Ontario (IFAO). He always seems to be trying something new on his cash crop farm near Alliston. Newcombe grows about 1,300 acres of his own crops (corn, soybeans, winter wheat, white beans and barley) and custom farms roughly 1,000 acres for other farmers in the area, with the help of one full-time hired man. Except for some of the land that he custom plants, all crops are planted no-till. In the first few years after switching to no-till, most changes that Newcombe made were to his planting equipment, as he worked to refine a no-till system that suited his operation and range of soils. Today, most of his innovations relate to information gathering and management. Rather than making more equipment changes for relatively little gain, he prefers to emphasize improving the management of his current system. Newcombe believes the key to success in no-till for most people is not mechanical, but mental. He feels that with the equipment now available producers can succeed with no-till almost anywhere, providing they have the right attitude. As well as taking a “can do” approach, producers must become skilled at collecting and applying the best information available, whether it be about the latest techniques or about their own fields. Newcombe sees precision (or site-specific) farming as the way of the future, but is quick to caution that there is still much to learn. Full Story.
Features in the February 1999 Ontario Corn Producer
OCPA Game Plan for 1999 What's New in 1999 Corn Planting Considerations The Estey Report Site Specific Herbicide Applications Nutrient Stratification in Long-term No-till Field in Ontario OCPA Annual Meeting, London, Ontario - March 2 & 3, 1999

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