Hal, out of the 1300 acres of row crops (we are growing this year corn, cotton and peanuts) my son and I farm we bottom plowed 300 acres (peanut land), disced and bedded another 500, and minumum-tilled the rest into cover crops of wheat or oats. Doves and quail nest in the cover crops, ON THE GROUND! Saw it for myself this spring, eggs in the nests. It is a proven FACT that no-till and minimum till farming practices increase the organic matter in the soil and sequester higher levels of carbon than with crops that are grown with conventional tillage. That nice aroma you smell when a plow goes through the soil and tears it up is carbon being broken down and going into the atmosphere. There are stupid and ignorant people who refuse to understand that, however. Crop residue and cover crops also foster high numbers of insects which do not necessarily harm the crops planted into it, but feed songbirds and quail. Insects are the main source of protein for quail, and cover crop and no-till practices harbor huge numbers of grasshoppers in this area, perhaps other regions as well. The insecticides we spray to control CERTAIN SPECIES of insects are 99% pyrethroids, and have been for nearly 20 years. Same family of chemicals used in our homes to control roaches, silverfish, earwigs, etc. Totally harmless to mammals and birds, with no secondary kill to birds from eating the insects killed by them. These insecticides are made from chrysanthemums, grown by the thousands of acres in Africa for harvest and processing into pyrethroids.
You may understand much of this already, but there are obviously some who do not, and don't really care to IMO. For them ignorance is bliss.
