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30 Years of No-Till on Heavy Clay with Nick Stokman | Crop Chats

• Ian Virtue • Season 2 • Episode 3

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In this episode of Crop Chats, we visit Nick Stokman’s farm near Strathroy, Ontario, where he’s been fine-tuning his no-till system on heavy clay soils for over 30 years. With a practical mindset and deep curiosity, Nick shares lessons learned across decades of experimentation—from managing residue and customizing drills for bio strip-till to making cover crops work in narrow windows.

This conversation explores the real tradeoffs of no-till on challenging soils, how to prioritize long-term soil biology, and the role of patience, drainage, and observation in building a resilient system. If you’re considering a shift to reduced tillage—or want to learn from someone who’s been in the trenches for decades—this episode offers grounded, candid insight from one of Ontario’s long-time soil stewards.

Topics covered:

  • No-till on heavy clay: managing moisture, compaction, and emergence
  • The evolution of Nick’s cover crop system
  • Custom equipment hacks for bio strip-till
  • Learning from failure and trusting slow progress
  • What he’d never go back to—and why
  • Advice for new no-tillers

🎧 New episodes dropping weekly throughout the planting season.

Crop Chats is a collaborative video and podcast series between the Ontario Soil Network and Ian McDonald (OMAFA). Watch the full video on YouTube or listen on your favourite podcast platform.

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Let’s keep growing—together. See you next time!

1:

I know exactly why I don't want to do any more village. Because that ground just took longer to dry. Exactly, it doesn't matter what the stuff looks like. Yeah.

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makes you feel better or makes you feel worse. What puts dollars in your pocket is what comes off with the Hello and welcome to this session of CropChats where we're looking at winning with no-till across a number of different soil types and throughout the province of Ontario. And today we're at Nick Stockwind's farm near Strathroyd where we're going to talk to Nick about why and how and and what he does in terms of no-till that's successful here on his farm. So to start, Nick, I think we'll just have you talk about the farm, who's currently involved in the farm and the history and journey to Nortel at this point.

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Just me, myself and I on the farm here. History, Journey into No-Tip. We go back to the mid-eighth. and The late Doug. from Middlesex Island.

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Don Agar, who was the ag rep for OMAF at the time for Middlesex, and John Sluss.

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Work together. with the county of Harajuku. to set up the Strathmere Lodge demonstration. I had expressed interest to John. that you know I was kind of interested in that. And before I knew it, I became operator manager. It actually worked out really well. Cause it's only a block of snow. and... That farm is...

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so I could get each out of my system.

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and before my grant for a few years. asked to make presentations to.

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farmer groups about what Middle Strait Sorrelant crop was doing at the Stratholme.

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primarily no till at the time, doing some comparison. until there's 2,000 flops and a number of... So, thank you. discussed what was going on in the world of the world of the universe. And after one of those presentations, a farmer got... Yeah, you know, that no-till's fine. But what about your well I guess that's kind of was the put up or shut up Um, you know, do I do as I say, or? So I started doing no-till.

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He's a genius.

1:

90.

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Michigan picked up some ross and golders and come back.

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Yeah. Spam out. journey. years had years that kind of. - Yeah, yeah.

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I wouldn't go back. - Okay, thanks for that, Nick. So can we talk about, you sort of mentioned a little bit, but talk about even here on your farm, how much difference you have in soil type and the slopes that you've been in. with? We're in a glacial area. So there's features on my firearms that are.

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We're dealing with complex slopes, some relatively short, some fairly long.

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this farm here, got 15 feet of fall over 7 100 feet. With tram lines, yeah, heavy rains in the spring, we do have some issues there, with water movement.

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with it. The picture you're seeing there is a field that I acquired about 12 years right next door, it had tile every 40 feet going east west. see there but they were trying to push water uphill so they don't work function real well so we... retiling that at 25 on an angle. But it's really interesting. still see. still fun. reasonably well.

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every 40 feet. In terms of other things around managing the soils, you also have grass waterways in the farm, maybe talk to that a little bit. A lot of people have taken them out as they've gone to no till because the amount of flow is been reduced, but you're still got a significant amount of water.

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I tell the neighbor quite often, thanks very kindly for the soil you're depositing in my grass waterway. Actually, talking about that, in 2013 I ended up getting a contractor to actually clean out the grass waterway simply because it was no longer in the grass waterway.

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water was going around it. And to this day, I can

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see where we pushed up the good dirt. all the, in those heavier rainfall events. First thing in the spring! If there wasn't a grass waterway there, I'd be...

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Okay, the fire.

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next door to me.

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Watch the other videos.

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11 and 12. had been conventional.

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- Yes.

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the headland along.

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this grass waterway and... dead furrow. Understood. So maybe talk about the crops that you grow and the rotation that... to no-till system here on the farm. rotation if you don't come to cover crop.

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you should count the cover crop then score crop. basically corn, IP soy sauce,

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hard red winter wheat. Used to do try to get a little bit of a better harvest. Bye.

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with the amount of soil...

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in a no-till system.

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it gets really difficult.

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to... Red Clover.

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Number 1.

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before the bug was getting. and uh...

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So, it was having difficulties with the red plover. So, that's why. I've looked at other cover crops, and I think we'll touch on later on.

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the bioscripts and that.

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but the reason I've got--

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on to the IPv6.

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and the hard red winter wheat. I have custom operator do my comb binding.

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Corn can get done anytime. The IP soy, I tend to go fairly short season. So hopefully they come off the first things that he does. And then the hard red winter wheat. That can be done the last kind of thing. trying to work with the neighbors. doing plot work. I feel if I...

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the field of some kind.

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it's a lost opportunity to learn. - And usually it sells several plots in that farm. - More than likely. And that carries over. from the Strathmore experience. - Understood. What I'm interested in is why are you a no-tailer? What in general is what took you there? experiences Drath role we've been provided us Why are you a no-tiller, and, and, you know... in terms of the mindset to buy into this, 'cause a lot of-- struggle to think that they can do this. I guess, you know, maybe this kind of sounds a little bit funny. It's a little bit to do with my heritage. Being a Dutchman or you know, from Dutch ancestry, we're known to be a little bit of a little bit of a fiend. now and then. So if you have

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in mind that you're going to make it work.

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the things. to try to make it work. issues that pop up.

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or things that aren't quite well, then you'll...

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Whether you talk to other people that are doing it whether you use, you know, the various sources

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agronomy. whatever to try to tweak. and it's no use re-influencing. radio, they're working. But, uh, sure.

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to take a--

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It might just involve a grinder.

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we don't have to take a cutting torch to it. So this was from a tour that we did a couple years ago, Nick, and you sort of dug in and looked at your soil and everybody was impressed with it, especially when you told them that you were on heavy clay soil. So I'm going to let you go. What sort of how has this come to be? Okay, so this is was a bio strip tour in the spring and This was actually cereal rye plants that overwent

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and in the wheel track mix, kind of following the work that has been done.

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and Steve Howard are doing up around the Lucknow area. And yeah maybe I wasn't quite truthful that farm that field is actually fairly nice dirt. people commented, well, if that was clay, then... But no, basically what we were showing there is, you know, the root structure, the... good structure, the amount of soil life there, the stuff that we can use for the soil.

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See as far as the worm.

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holes and the whole thing and like that is my name.

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feel that you know I can do a lot of things there.

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Let's turn the discussion to cover crops in the context of when did you start cover crops relative to when you started no-tilling. become part of the system or did they start as part of the system?

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coming in later on in the system.

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Yeah, we've always tried to have red clover, but... you know, establishment issues have not been the greatest. So then you start looking, "Okay, what else can we do?" Well, go in with oats. Okay, well we start... out with well. as good while more is better. Well, not really. And you

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don't want to let it get too tall on you because if you get snow and... - But then you kind of, oh shit.

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What do I do but no as of right now? I'm working on... Working with

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Please.

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one mix in the corn rows for next year and then another mix in next year's wheel track and I think we'll get to that. Actually when you take the look at the next picture. You'll see there's different species there. There's sunflowers and fadula. peas in next year's corn roll, and then there's overwintering species such as cereal rye, winter triticale, winter barley, and so on. in next year's Wheel Track.

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the no-till system.

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That is, we're trying to... more soil biological activity. So if we've got living roots and listening to,

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people that have been in this longer. The living roots is kind of the...

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that whole puzzle. Sure, no-till is part of it. maintaining residue cover, maintaining living roots, integrating livestock that's the hardest part with as far as being

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We've got all kinds of little life.

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away but not the big livestock. Where in the system are you adding cover crops? Only after wheat or is that looking at it in soybeans and well you got wheat in soybeans? The wheat, the wheat, the wheat, the wheat, the wheat. - The heat is the cover crop. the crop that we harvest the following summer. Yes. the first spot. is after wheat harvest and that's where the bio strips come in. doing a little bit of work with...

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corn harvest.

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with cereal rice. expanding corn with cereal rye. And depends upon the year, when does the corn come off? What's the season? ground condition life. get cereal rye in, in respectable condition. Yeah. I tried oats earlier on in the season. with the high boy before a tassel. But oats I guess doesn't work. When there's not a whole lot of sunshine getting down there. But I did not.

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any success with the Shiro Rai or the... Kaley even though it went on and on. and there was all kinds of moist. And I'm thinking I had too much...

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Soil life there, normally you would... the worms. into the mitten... And then the crop would grow under the midden.

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So, and like it was seated at 50 pounds. I know it worked, I know we seeded it, because the bags were empty and, uh...

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the time. I'm still wanting to either do it in crop at say September. burgers doing that and there's a number of other...

1:

[BLANK_AUDIO] Or if corn harvests...

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and the ground is raked, drill it in afterwards. of the Bios Trips. And this is your 2nd or 3rd year in the Bios Trips? 4th year. 4th year now, ok. So you know if you've had such success... no till. have you looked at the biostrip-till system as a

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When you talk about, you know, really good success, No-Till. No-Till wheat. into serving style.

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Nottel Soy into Corn Stubbles. - Thank you. - You're welcome.

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into wheat stubble cover crop.

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there can be issues okay so what's the...

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crop.

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for our timing of termination and stuff like that. So that's where kind of the bio script stuff where you've got the two different mix of... Thanks for next year's corn roll. Basically, hopefully. disappears. So you've got black dirt to work with. and then the wheel track overwinters. That acts a bit as a... mitigation too. If it's...

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a little bit of moisture out. It's also supporting soil biological activity. You've got a bit of a mat there which kind of makes it a little bit more comfortable. You can use it as a mat.

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supports wheel traffic if you're kind of on a little bit of an iffy situation kind of thing. that undisturbed ground carries the weight. Oh undisturbed realm period. carries the weight a lot better. So let's talk about how BioStripTill comes in and also in light of the NoTill. how important residue management is, and one of the things that I've learned from others is the importance of the combine. stash in terms of both, um, shaft spreading and straw spreading or harvesting the straw. the field. How important is that and how does that work when all of your harvesting is done custom order? Custom operator has been really good. to work with. I've been working with him since, well, the early 80s. So he's a neighbour. And he's kind of transitioning to a younger generation as somebody he's been working with. But that younger generation is very open to listening to, you know, what they're doing. and teach you something.

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harvest, I have always taken the straw off.

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farmer that was taking it is going out of livestock so he told me this spring that he was. anymore but then another neighbor indicated that they were quite happy to to take. And the thing that's interesting about that too, is that oftentimes when no-tillers talk about selling the straw of the field, people go "why are you doing that?" That's no-till friendly. But in my way, it's very no-till friendly. because you've removed that, you've not disturbed the root system. So, you still have a great amount of... residue both underground and above ground that's still part of that system that you haven't messed up with Tillage. Well and...

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And not only that, like, you take a look at how much straw there is in some of our Sure you tried to spread that out.

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or 45 feet or even...

1:

[END] It ends up being a...

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Yeah.

1:

on lighter soil.

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I don't think that's an issue.

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on heavier soil.

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where we have.

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quite that same amount of moisture. When you cover it, the moisture doesn't disappear. in the summertime. You want to hold that moisture, but when it comes to planting in the springtime, that moisture to leave. a little bit.

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into it. end up putting a gravel crop in. try to supplement what you've actually taken off. So here's a picture of your drill and when you're doing straight no until you're still doing cover crops and it says a standard mix over everything we're gonna talk about how you this to make the BioStrip Tilt System work, but you don't... after wheat, you don't broadcast cover crops. You want it, drill the minute. Let's talk about that a little bit. - So yeah, big... the nature of the-- the and as well you know.

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I mentioned before about the... A mound of soil bugs I've got.

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as best I can. for that.

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When it comes to the bio strips,

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That same second cousin of mine, he did some really and so he made the... plywood dividers for the drill and we just tape... And so that way I've got two rows of one mix and two rows of another mix. Need to kind of tweak the mixes a little bit so that when you set the drill, you're kind of going similar amounts of seed going out because you're dealing with different consistencies of seed. And you have no way to adjust it other than for the whole... Exactly. change each individual role. And that becomes, don't even think about going there kind of thing. Yeah. Um, and you talked about having a wheel role. corn row. So maybe just talk about those species again. So which mix is this? So this is the the wheel track mix. And that's a... winter peas. The treated seed is... and winter. cereal rye and winter trudicaley. No legumes in there? in that mix. But I have last year and this year, I did put Crimson Clover, through the grass box because a small seed box on that drill and once again made dividers for the small seed box and put crimson there. So this is the the wheel track or the cornrow mix, sorry, cornrow mix. forage peas, fava beans. And then through the... grass box I'm putting some tillage radish.

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I did have Austrian win-

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there but I moved them over to the wheel track mix to get a more bulk and to try to even out the flow rates on the two products. Okay so this is from the

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and this spring was a wet spring. Yeah, yeah, uh, let's put it this way corn never left the bag

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But you really see the rose starting. to define themselves.

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volunteer wheat in the the card row than I would like to see.

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So this year, just before I--

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I planted the bio strips. I ended up spraying with Roundup.

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And I think that we'd see no such as round.

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that's gone over top because it's

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after you finish spraying.

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and the next picture is... and clover. That's wonderful.

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We, you know, we were getting more than a... And on a Sunday morning we got another inch and the ground was getting.

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to maybe think about it. We've got another...

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I come home from church and I said, "No, I'm not."

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corn going in the ground this year. This is...

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Uh, in the fall that same area, um, you can see flowers starting to bloom. We had a relatively early this year so we didn't... Really nice sun. that I could go and take to all the next. >> Take away from that. See there's a fair bit of... of forage peas there. interesting that the fava beans you know there's...

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a frost, we never really got hard frost and I was--

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seeing, you know. on Fabric. Sure, the top was dead, but there were still you know tillers coming from the bottom well on into the winter. And this next picture is what sort of catches people that aren't used to cover. and a biomass that's going into the winter. scenarios.

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Um...

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really big dump of heavy snow and uh yeah it uh And that's how I terminated most of the crops or most of the cover there. That's one problem with the system. If you get that... real early heavy snow, it can lay it over and matte it, correct? And that's where Lawrence is, and Steve with their using different species selection. I'm kind of what I, I guess I would call my-- the Lawrence Hogan light. So they've got some some taller species that haven't maybe got quite as much integrity and then they fall over, and then they've kind of defeated the purpose a little bit of having that bare area. And then one thing that Lawrence and Steve have incorporated is a rollover. into their operation. And you being the Dutchman that you are, you said you wanted to fabricate your own. So talk about that a little bit. So this is

1:

[BLANK_AUDIO]

2:

comp scaled row crop cultivator that was parked in a neighbors, the back corner of a neighbor's shed. And I was able to. or steel, bank, whatever.

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and converted it into a four-row unit.

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cleaner. I had... But when I first went no-till, the concave disc row cleaners on the corn planter. They were parked in the back end of my bought some used spider wheels, took off the concave... and put the spider wheels on and... using a little bit of white.

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101 on these cultivator units. I've used it sometimes.

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and there's other times that I haven't used it. So we played with it two years ago and decided it really wasn't needed in the conditions. Yeah. And you parked it and then planted. Just sort of changing tact a little bit. One thing from my travels around talking to guys about no-till is it really strictly no-till or weather tillage. its way into the system in some places. Can you talk about if there's tillage at all in... operation. I guess it depends what you call tillage. True. Yeah. It's even the planters, it's. call a culture-based in front of a row unit, tilting the wheel. because you do, you are doing it. But if you're talking... 750. dirt over. No, I've got colders on everything.

1:

I've got that. I know a number of long-term no-tellers that have taken that call to... I haven't reached that comfort level yet.

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especially because of the clay soils that I'm working with. But essentially, tillage has-- from the planter does that happen on the farm at all not anymore but it did at one I'm in the... corn into wheat stubble. Neighbor and myself, we do own a turbo, a Case IH Turbo 330. And in the fall I would go over the wheat stubble with that to try to create a little bit of black dirt for the spring. With the bio strips, I've gone away from that. Still, I've got of half ownership in that piece of equipment. Still use it now and then. Tiled a piece of a field a year ago. and needed it. to work that down. Actually I will... come and use that for work.

1:

to turn that ground over in the front.

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I did ask him to do it at night with the lights off.

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Nobody would know, but I know exactly why. I don't want to do any more tillage. Because that ground just took a little bit of a hit.

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drawing up. Interesting. Okay, which goes again.

1:

beautiful. Right. But you take a shovel and you... and the bottom was still shiny.

2:

So.

1:

seen over the course of the years where, you know, the soybeans...

2:

maturing you can still... wheel track of the truck. and the combine, or not the combine, the tractor. Caligator going to the gym.

1:

the nautil thing.

2:

What are the key components of the process? that let you be a no-killer. things that meet your needs.

1:

Probably. that support Convent. but you've got to focus a little bit more on some things than others. I think patience.

2:

is a big thing. what are the implements that you have that...

1:

[speaking in a foreign language]

2:

- Ah, nobody said it that way, that's interesting. Well, that goes back to The Mindtap.

1:

no-till drill.

2:

or soybean planter that has the ability to plant into

1:

Firm or Gert? With a Gert?

2:

residue cover. So, once again, depending on What do you need on there? Do you? Trash whippers do you need? Do you need heavier down pressure springs? Um, you know, like, on the drill. planter used to be my soybean and corn planter. I left the tanks on it, because you know it's a Case IH peashooter. How important... no-till situation versus conventional? Are you finding that in no tilling your more intensive. the same.

1:

I'm thinking it's fairly similar.

2:

going to have a transition when you're first starting. There's plant species that thrive much better in a reduced tilcice. Okay, something different for you compared to a lot of us. tillers is access to manure. - Talk about how you have. the maneuver in this no-till system. has been taking a fair bit of limonair when he has wheat in his road. It'll usually go to heaven. That's one of my fields. and nutrient levels are such that it would benefit from having them. But for instance, the field here at home, where Ian has taken these pictures from... It hadn't seen manure for proper. years, simply because my P levels were so high. My have come down because we've been... straw off but

1:

And my layer manner is both,

2:

PNK. So but... the neighbor that would normally take my manure. Didn't have weed in the rotation this year, so that's I think this is an important one. We're trying to talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to no-till. You've been at it longer than most. Are there any hurdles that you had to overcome that would keep people out of it? we talk about people that don't want to do no-till often talking about fertilizer management. of stratification, we talk about delayed planting and stuff, we talk about silk compaction, and those, you know, I that that you would identify it if you would. are things you had to overcome. fertilizer management. It depends where you're levels are when you start.

1:

As far as plant... Slower emergence.

2:

Maybe there's slower emergence, but then it depends upon the year. This year, we didn't get the beans planted until the.

1:

17th and 18th of June, and they were up in five days.

2:

And it's interesting how a lot of people talk about all those things. That's not indicative of what you're doing.

1:

The Green Buggy. Exactly. It does. what the stuff looks like. - Yeah.

2:

it makes you feel better or better. a worse. But what puts dollars in your pocket? is what comes off with the And how concerned are you about silicone patching in-- because you don't really have a way other than-- and cover crops to go after it if you cause it. I try not to cause it but... We had 8.3 inches of rain.

1:

her pre-weet her. And I can take you out into the wheat field. of those lug marks from the Comb Miner.

2:

than I would like to see.

1:

I'm hoping that...

2:

the biostrips. and get all long-term patients.

1:

and as well as the bottom.

2:

the fact that you. I haven't done tillage here for many years. That ground is first. It's able to support that a little bit. When you think about the neighborhood and such... to the neighbors. I don't ask the neighbors what the Oh, no. You know, you... - Observing fellow.

1:

Um, I might have lower yields, I might have better yields.

2:

operator. I'm usually when the ballpark. In your system? Why? no till where you are. I've got three...

1:

of equipment that... all my crops. I don't need...

2:

Have a good one. pieces of equipment that disturb the soil. And more labor to run them. And more time frame. Like You know I can do... my barn work and then I can go and plant. I still need a sprayer. I don't have a combine simply because of the the size of the off. - Yeah. - And yeah. And you are sort of a lifelong learner with this stuff too, right? You like to dabble. Oh, exactly, as I said before, you know, if you don't have a plot in the field, opportunity to learn. I think I'll quit learning. Well, actually, I'm going to say I'll quit. me, but who knows? I just might figure out what soil biology is like then. Is there anything that would make you walk away from your no-till system back to a more conventional system? No. Is there anything, any next steps that you're contemplating? Like, so the interesting next step for you. So you're going to be able to use the tools that you have. or any other things that you've seen in your research. the conversations with people that are a next step for you. And simply because when I'm going through there now, it's a sprayer, I know where those spots are and I've got to hit the controls to move the boom up, just because the sprayer is on more of an angle on that.

1:

And you know,

2:

to watch this series with different people taking different ideas from them. What advice would you have for others that would like to get started on NoTill? Talk to people that

1:

and especially people that have been doing it for a long time. للFCPCIP

2:

As far as your drainage, your fertility, your weight control, your level of sweat. to touch that before it's going to be the same thing as on a If your ground is not.

1:

For a conventional system, it's not going to be, quote-unquote, right for a no-till system.

2:

And don't expect instantaneous results. You know, give yourself, my first initial word would be 10 years, but give yourself at least five years. - Well, Nick, on behalf of those that'll have a chance to watch this series and your session specifically, your permission we'll let people. and thanks so much for being here.