Gorrell farms uses conservation and no-till practices when producing their soybeans and corn to prevent soil erosion.
Soil testing and Fertilizer application
We practice grid soil sampling on our acreage in conjunction with variable rate application of Phosphorus, Potash, and lime fertilizer. This maximizes yield in areas throughout the field all while minimizing costs by not putting too much fertilizer in areas that don’t need it. We have the capability of putting on nitrogen fertilizer with anhydrous ammonia in the fall or spring seasons. We use a Dalton anhydrous bar and a Challenger 765D tractor equipped with an Ag Leader Paradyme GPS system. This system uses auto shutoffs in order to not apply too much nitrogen in some areas and not enough in others. 
Corn and Soybean Planting:
We apply residual chemical in the fall prior to the corn crop being planted in order to minimize weed pressure throughout the growing season. This also helps us to only work the ground a few inches deep using a Phillips harrow or field cultivator in order to prepare the seedbed. A few weeks prior to soybean planting, we apply a Roundup/24d mixture of chemicals as well as a residual in order to kill weeds that are already there and prevent more from coming up after planting. We then no-till soybeans directly in the corn stalks from the year before. This helps keep organic matter into the soil as well as prevent erosion. We run 2 Kinze 3660 split row planters behind John Deere tractors to plant corn and soybeans. Corn is planted in 30″ rows, soybeans in 15″ rows. These planters are equipped with Ag Leader row clutches that shutoff automatically row by row to prevent overlaps and skips. This not only saves money on seed but also helps create higher yield. 
Harvest
For corn harvesting, we use a Lexion 740tt combine with a 12 row corn header. When soybean harvest starts we deploy our second combine, a Lexion 575r. Both of these combines are equipped with 35 ft. soybean headers. We have some on-farm storage capabilities, but most of our grain is hauled to either Central Missouri Agri-Service or Ray-Carroll elevator. We also haul a large amount of corn to Mid-Missouri Energy where it is used for ethanol production.
Gorrell Farms 