No-Till Alliance hosts field day in Butler County
CENTER TWP — Ryan Graham, a Butler County farmer, said he knows agriculture is an ever-changing field, which is part of the reason he joined the Pennsylvania No-Till Alliance Board of Directors.
His Center Township farm was host to the No-Till Alliance’s summer field day for the second time on Tuesday, July 22. The event included numerous demonstrations pertaining to no-till farming and cover cropping, and featured an expo of agricultural vendors.
The Graham Farm off Unionville Road previously hosted the No-Till Alliance in 2020, the organization’s first field day in Western Pennsylvania. Since then, Graham has said he’s seen more and more of his fellow farmers begin to switch to no-till farming.
“For 15 years, the alliance really only operated on the eastern side of the state,” Graham said. “Then, when I joined the board and hosted, it gave them a place over here.”
Graham, a recent recipient of the mid-Atlantic Master Farmer Award, said he hopes to serve as a model for his peers, as he was able to make the switch to no-till and continue to be successful. Since 2020, he said he’s seen farmers begin to make the switch and that the tide is slowly shifting.
“It’s sometimes a generational thing,” Graham said. “People can get stuck in the ways they know how to do something and then it’s up to the next generation to make that change.”
Jim Hershey, president of the alliance, said he believes that the alliance has been successful in finding support from both farmers and sponsors across the state thanks to the board’s firsthand experience.
“We are all producers ourselves, so we all have experience with the equipment,” Hershey said.
Hershey said he’s proud the organization has seen enough success by its 20th anniversary to be recognized by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and to bring out dozens of vendors to their field days.
Attendees of the field day spent the morning with Blake Vince, a no-till farmer from Ontario, Canada, who served as guest speaker for the event. He delivered a keynote on his journey to becoming a no-till farmer.
In the late morning, attendees watched demonstrations, such as Lisa Blazure’s presentation on soil health and David Hunsberger’s presentation on cover cropping seed choices.
Blazure, an associate director at the alliance and coordinator for the Pennsylvania Soil Health Coalition, explained some of the properties of soil and highlighted the ones that farmers can impact.
“Soils have inherent properties that you guys have no control over,” Blazure explained to the attendees. “That’s going to be how that parent rock material forms your soils, what the clay content is, the sand … You don’t have any control over that.”
She instead focused on the importance of no-till farming: keeping a living plant in the soil as much as possible and using cover crops as ways that farmers can improve their soil.
Blazure also mentioned how leaving a residue layer on top of the soil helps with erosion.
“When we talk about soil erosion, sometimes we throw out numbers like 5 tons to the acre,” she said. “That sounds like a lot of soil that’s being lost. Five tons spread over an acre of soil is about the thickness of a dime. You can’t even notice it with your bare eyes.”
Hunsberger, an alliance board director and salesman for King’s AgriSeeds, gave a presentation on different cover crop seed mixes that are available for purchase.
Cover cropping is a practice where farmers plant noncash crops to protect the soil and keep a living plant in it as frequently as possible.
“The energy derived from receiving sunlight, producing carbohydrates ... about 70% of it can be exuded through the fibrous roots into the soil,” he explained. “That’s to feed the microbiome inside the soil.”
Vince returned to deliver a second keynote speech in the evening on “Cows, Covers & Community.”
Tuesday’s event is the first of two summer field days hosted by the alliance. The other is set to be hosted on Thursday at Hershey Farms in Elizabethtown.
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Haleigh Salkeld, “Lil Dairy Miss 2025,” helps out at The Graham Farm on Unionville Road in Center Township where this year's Field Day for the Pennsylvania No-Till Alliance was held on Tuesday, July 22. Holly Mead/Special to the Eagle
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Ryan Graham looks over one of his crops at his farm on Unionville Road in Center Township. He received the Master Farmer Award in July and hosted this year's Field Day for the Pennsylvania No-Till Alliance on Tuesday, July 22. Holly Mead/Special to the Eagle
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Ryan Graham holds the Master Farmer award he received at his on Unionville Road in Center Township. He hosted this year's Field Day for the Pennsylvania No-Till Alliance on Tuesday, July 22. Holly Mead/Special to the Eagle
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The Graham Farm on Unionville Road in Center Township hosted this year's Field Day for the Pennsylvania No-Till Alliance on Tuesday, July 22. Holly Mead/Special to the Eagle
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The Graham Farm on Unionville Road in Center Township hosted this year's Field Day for the Pennsylvania No-Till Alliance on Tuesday, July 22. Holly Mead/Special to the Eagle
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The Graham Farm on Unionville Road in Center Township hosted this year's Field Day for the Pennsylvania No-Till Alliance on Tuesday, July 22. Holly Mead/Special to the Eagle
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The Graham Farm on Unionville Road in Center Township hosted this year's Field Day for the Pennsylvania No-Till Alliance on Tuesday, July 22. Holly Mead/Special to the Eagle
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The Graham Farm on Unionville Road in Center Township hosted this year's Field Day for the Pennsylvania No-Till Alliance on Tuesday, July 22. Holly Mead/Special to the Eagle
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The Graham Farm on Unionville Road in Center Township hosted this year's Field Day for the Pennsylvania No-Till Alliance on Tuesday, July 22. Holly Mead/Special to the Eagle
