it is that there are no universal truths in ag. None. Zippo, nada, nuthin'.

What works on my farm (one section with no fewer than six different soil types, as classified by the USGS) doesn't and won't work all that well on farms only 10 miles away from here, in the same valley. They'll have completely different soil types, and fewer soil types. The climate isn't even the same. Here at the south end of Diamond Valley, in the late winter, we'll often have much colder temps than you'll see further up the valley. This is the result of cold air slumping out of Kobeh Valley, which is 500' higher than Diamond Valley, and dropping through a cleft in the mountains we call "Devil's Gate." Only farmers on the south end of Diamond Valley will see this wickedly cold slump -- up in the town of Eureka, they won't see it. Further up the valley, they won't see it. This changes my management practice because during late winter and early fall (April and September), we in the Devil's Gate area will have a frost so cold (20F) it kills alfalfa dead while the guys up the valley 10 miles squeek by for another week with only a slight frost (28F).

There are other reasons to till in hay ground than just crop issues in this area. Pest issues come into play here as well. After 5 to 7 years, you'll often have quite a number of Belding squirrel burrows that are set up in your ground unless you've been able to keep them out, which is rare, really rare. The best way to get the most uniform results out of your irrigation is to break those burrows down by tillage in the top one/two feet of ground and get all the ground uniformly distributed. Otherwise, in heavier clay soils, water runs down the seemingly bottomless drain of the squirrel holes and not into the rest of the soil, instead of puddling and sinking in over time as the pivot goes by.

Here is about the only broad generalization I will make about ag in the US: guys who farm east of the Rockies -- much of what you do successfully in the midwest will not work in the intermountain west without lots of changes and adaptations. Most all the old timers here are farmers who came into Diamond Valley from Texas, Oklahoma and Nebraska. They opened virgin ground up on Desert Land Entry claims. Before about 1958, this area was nothing but cattle ranches and some sheep operations. Many of the pioneering farmers are still alive around here and they will tell you with great detail how the guys from the midwest who clung to their midwestern practices when they moved into this area in the 60's were broke and gone in five years or less. Only the people who tried what they knew, saw it didn't work in one season and started making adaptations fast lasted here. I am utterly and completely the beneficiary of the experience and help of these old-timers who have been willing (and happy) to teach me what they knew. The guys who have been able to farm around here for 40 years almost always couch their advice with caveats and footnotes. There are no successful guys here who make absolute statements about what does or doesn't work, much less farm that way. None. There have been newcomers that have come in and made such statements -- they typically last three years, then the "Diamond Valley Twitch" sets in and they're gone. The old timers were watching me for "The Twitch" and when I made it to five years, then they reckoned I might amount to something.

There are lots of guys here constantly trying new practices, equipment and inputs, who readily discuss what worked and didn't work with the rest of the farmers here. When something really works here, lots of guys jump on it with both feet in three years or less. One example is no-till drills: there is some ground here where guys are successfully taking out timothy or alfalfa with Roundup and going into the opposite crop; spray it out in the fall, plant with a no-till drill into the stubble/aftermath. On the ground where it works, guys hopped on that practice within three years after the very first no-till drill was rented into this valley. Now there are about six no-till drills around this valley (JD and Great Plains, for those who might wonder) and they're used/rented for most all seed drilling, even on tilled soil. There is a lot more no-till crop establishment happening as we speak, but there are issues that will cause guys to till a field down: Mites, squirrels, gophers, voles, some weed situations, etc. At the cost of diesel here, which is almost always higher than in the midwest (because it costs plenty to haul fuel in here), we don't engage in recreational tillage. Even if we do till, a no-till drill reduces the amount of tillage necessary to put in a hay stand here, often substantially.

Even the ranchers will tell you what works elsewhere won't work here. When you drive through Nevada, you'll see lots of what are called "Black Baldie" crossbreeds -- a black angus crossed with a Hereford -- what you see is a black angus with a white blaze or throat. Want to set yourself up for a wreck in Nevada ranching? Buy a ranch. Any ranch with grazing leases on high ground will do. Buy a couple truckloads of purebred cattle from California, Idaho, whereever outside Nevada. Especially big continental breeds. Turn them loose. Then get ready to start burying carcasses. Most adult cattle brought into this country have a really difficult time for the first season. Cattle from outside aren't used to walking miles (up to 10!) for water, nor covering 50 to 150 acres for one month's feed. Third generation ranchers here readily tell of many newcomers that have wrecked in one season here, trying to emulate ranching practices from elsewhere here. Yet there are dozens of ranches owned by the third and now fourth generation here, so it is possible to ranch successfully here.

Altitude changes climate, the soil is different (much different!), the weather patterns are different, the pests, weeds, economics are all much different than the midwest. Likewise, y'all in the midwest would laugh your posteriors off if I tried to farm midwest ground the way I've farmed this particular chunk of Nevada. Jay's soil looks plenty different than ours here, but I do know a little about his crop and market and if it works for him, more power to him. There ain't no safety net in timothy hay production. It is truly and completely a high-wire act. They guys who are doing something that doesn't work won't be doing it for long if they don't figure out what does work.