Peter D. Harvey

Simcoe County
Have been farming 40 years- (after graduating from Guelph with a Crop Science degree) with my wife Karen. We farm 650ac. About 1/2 of our ac are farmed in a strip cropping system with alternating 15' corn and soybean strips and the rest is in a corn, soybean, cranberry bean, wheat rotation. We have been no-tilling for 25 years and using a strip crop system for 8 years. Cranberry beans are grown using no-till, strip till or vertical tillage. Cover crops are used after wheat and dry livestock manure is used strategically. ( we had sheep until 2019). We started no-tilling to reduce soil erosion, and to reduce labour and machinery costs. We discovered that edible beans and soybeans are the hardest crops to no-till and corn and wheat are the easiest. Yields have increased with less tillage as soil structure has improved. We were Pioneer Yield Challenge winners in 2010, 2013, 2014 with no-till corn and grew 300 bu no til corn in 2018.