For this edition of Cover Crop Strategies, brought to you by La Crosse Seed, we go inside the aerial application business with Damon Reabe, owner of Dairlyand Aviation and Reabe Spraying Service in Waupun, Wis.
The third-generation pilot identifies key factors that can greatly increase the odds of a uniform stand and what species are best suited for aerial application.
Reabe also shares important advice regarding location, seeding rate, timing and explains why frost seeding is a great option.
The Cover Crop Strategies podcast series is brought to you by La Crosse Seed.
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Full Transcript
Noah Newman:
Hello. And welcome once again to another edition of the cover crop strategies podcast. I'm your host Noah Newman associate editor. Before we get started, let's take our sponsor La Crosse Seed, solving this soil health puzzle. La Crosse Seed has you covered, cover crops are an important piece to future profit, but it takes work. It is puzzling at times. La Crosse Seed delivers quality soil first cover crop products, plus training and tools to help you succeed. Whether you're looking to grow your cover crop seed business, get product tips, or find a local soil first dealer La Crosse seed is ready to help. Learn more at soilfirst.com that's soil1st.com or call 800 356 seed. Special treat this week we're going inside the aerial application business with Damon Reabe who's the owner of Dairyland Aviation and Reabe Spraying Service in Waupun, Wisconsin. The third-generation pilot identifies key factors that can greatly increase the odds of a uniform stand. And what species are best suited for aerial application? Reabe also shares important advice regarding location, seeding rate, timing, and he explains why frost seating is a great option. So without further ado, here's Damon.
Damon Reabe:
So my name's Damon Reabe and I'm the owner of two aerial application companies here in Wisconsin, Dairyland Aviation and Reabe Spraying Service. Dairyland Aviation is based out of Waupun, Wisconsin and we run four air tractors here in Waupun and then Reabe Spraying Service is based at Plover in Plainfield, Wisconsin and there we run four air tractors and one Bell JetRanger helicopter. Our business was started by my grandfather, Roy Reabe in 1946, right after world war II. He was a world war II pilot started out in the civil pilot training program, giving flight instruction to cadets that were serving in world war II. And then he moved into a part of the Army Air Corps that was moving aircraft from the factories where they were produced here in the US to the coastlines and also to Alaska, where they were being delivered to the theater that they were going to serve in.
Damon Reabe:
And then he wrapped up the war world war II in India, flying The Hump in C-46s and C-47s transporting cargo and troops over the Himalayan mountains. When he returned from the war, he decided to start a flight school and he hitchhiked in uniform from the Waupun area out to Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, and bought himself a brand new Piper J-3 Cub, and opened a flight school here in Waupun. He picked Waupun because it was largest population in Southern Wisconsin that was not already served by a flight school. And so in 1946, he put a shingle out with this flight school and was completely puzzled as to why the flight school was doing very poorly. There just weren't any students. And with the G.I. Bill, he thought that there would just be a lot of people, a lot of veterans that would have access to that money and an interest in flying and come to find out what he didn't account for in his research was that the population of Waupun included all of the prisoners incarcerated here in town.
Damon Reabe:
And so that explained why things were a little slow. And so it was either 47 or 48. He noticed that the [inaudible 00:04:12] companies here locally were using out-of-state crop dusters to dust the peas for aphids. And he thought that might be another form of revenue. So he went to a couple of these local canners. He convinced them that he could do that work and they offered it to him. And so he bought himself a second J-3 outfit. It was a wooden hopper and taught himself to dust. And that was the beginning of the family's aerial application business. He expanded into vegetable production on muck farms and then continued to expand serving the vegetable processors here in Wisconsin, throughout the state. And then in the late 1960s. He and actually my dad as his loader moved up into the central sand plains of Wisconsin, kind of that area from the Dells up to Steven's point and convinced eight potato growers to each give him 40 acres to protect those potatoes from late blight.
Damon Reabe:
And at the time there was thought that wouldn't be possible to be done with an airplane. It felt like they didn't put out enough water and wouldn't get enough coverage in order to protect those potatoes. So those eight growers were very impressed with the outcome from the 40 acres that they had under the airplane and so much so that by 1971, all of the potato pesticide applications were done by the family business and all of the ground sprayers were parked. So he ran that business that had expanded from one J-3 to up, it was approximately 24 aircraft amidst of airplane and helicopters. And in 1979, he retired and he leased all of his facilities and equipment to my dad and uncles, Tom, Jr, Jeff, and Bob Reabe and they formed Reabe Spraying Service in 1979. And then continued the aerial application business until, and really did a lot of advancements with GPS technology, mapping technology, work order processing technology that they actually wrote software for our industry specifically for themselves.
Damon Reabe:
They didn't commercialize that software, but it was certainly kind of state of the art and throughout the 80s and 90s and many modifications to aircraft just really stepped up the game and in safety and precision, and at 09 my dad retired. I had been flying corporate aircraft throughout North America, Central America, South America, and Europe for about 15 years and had been flying for my dad part-time and he was ready to retire and approached me and said, listen I'm retiring one way or the other. And I understand if you don't want to do this, but if you do, now's the time. And so I talked to my wife and we came to the conclusion, I was giving up my summers to help on all my days off anyway. So why not make this make the change? So I resigned from a position at the company I was working at as a flight standards pilot, as well as a line pilot, and came in full-time as president of Reabe Spraying Service.
Damon Reabe:
And we haven't looked back since. In 2016, my uncles Jr and Jeff had an interest in retiring. So during that succession, we formed Dairyland Aviation as kind of its own entity here in Waupun, and my cousin Tyler and a longtime employee and pilot for us, Kurt Meister bought out my uncle's shares of Reabe Spraying Service. And so together with Kurt and Tyler, we run Reabe Spraying Service. And my uncle Bob and I, and Andy Hopkins own Dairyland Aviation here in Waupun. And Andy's another gentleman that I trained to spray and been a real key individual in the expansion of our business. So, that's the long version of beginning to end.
Noah Newman:
Yeah. That a tremendous origin story. I want to ask you this in a recent survey, 23% of row crop farmers say aerial seeding is their primary seeding method only behind drilling. So why is aerial seeding such a popular choice? And why do you think so many people are going with it right now?
Damon Reabe:
Yeah. I think it's primarily the speed at which we can perform that planting. And so imagine if you are planting a species and you know that you're running out of time, when we get involved in aerial seeding cover crops, the reason why we're there is we're simply running out of growing season. And so timing becomes extraordinarily critical and our egg aircraft are built and designed specifically to cover large land masses in an extraordinarily short period of time. And so I think that's what's appealing to growers.
Noah Newman:
I spoke with one farmer who he tried an aerial application of, I think perennial ryegrass. It was several years ago and he said it just didn't work for him. So how does a no-tiller determine the right pilot for the job?
Damon Reabe:
Oh, I think a no-tiller probably for starters, it there, I think most aerial applicators are, have either experience at this point in time. And if they don't have experience, they have access to the experience to do a good job of aerial seeding. So the no-tiller doesn't need to think as much about the pilot per se, as the process that they're undertaking. So, and I couldn't speak to this perennial ryegrass situation, but I can speak to failures that we've had with aerial seeding cover crops. And probably the biggest enemy to this is shade.
Damon Reabe:
So we go out there and we plant the seed and that crop is several weeks from any kind of simmering. And it's obviously going to be in its mature growth stage. We lay that seed out there and it rains, it germinates and starts to grow. If it's in the shade long enough, it dies like all other weeds would die in the canopy of a crop. So timing is critical. The grower has to realize that if this is put out too early, and that cover crop is competing for sunlight in the canopy of soybeans or corn, that there's a high likelihood that it's going to die.
Noah Newman:
Take a quick time out, back to the podcast in just a second. But once again, let's thank our sponsor La Crosse Seed solving the soil health puzzle. La Crosse Seed has you covered. Cover crops are an important piece to future profit, but it takes work. And as puzzling at times, La Crosse Seed delivers quality soil first cover crop products, plus training and tools to help you succeed. Whether you're looking to grow your cover crop seed business, get product tips, or find a local soil first dealer. La Crosse Seed is ready to help learn more @soilfirst.com that's soil1st.com or call 800 356 seed. Now back to the podcast.
Damon Reabe:
The other issue we found to be a serious problem here in Wisconsin. And I would imagine it's problem throughout the country. I suspect we have predation on the seed and the primary predator that we've been dealing with are slugs. The growers need to scout these fields for the presence of slugs and understand that if the slugs are there, they are ferocious feeders in the fall. They're preparing for winter. By that time, a lot of the residue is being consumed by earthworms and other biological processes. And so the amount of food on the surface is dwindling. And for whatever reason, slugs really enjoy the germ end of most cereal grain seeds. So that's an important part of this process is scouting for that presence of those slugs. And if you wait long enough so that the cover crop will have access to sunlight and you don't have slug pressure, success rate is really high.
Noah Newman:
Do you have experience with frost seeding and is that potentially a good option?
Damon Reabe:
We've done a lot of frost seeding and it's a method that I really wish would take hold here more in Wisconsin because it has tremendous advantages. And we just talked about the two reasons why we have scan failures from a broadcast application, whether it's from an airplane or a high-boy or whatever platform you're laying seed on the surface. We have to, we have a problem with sunlight. We have a problem with predators when we frost seed. Obviously, we don't have a sunlight issue because the crop isn't there. And when we frost seed, we are putting the seed out there prior to those predators becoming active.
Damon Reabe:
I have yet to have a stand failure from a frost-seeded cover crop.
Noah Newman:
Wow.
Damon Reabe:
We have had really slow-developing cover crops when they're frost seeded, that resulted in very small amount of growth, which of course is disappointing, but we've never had an actual stand failure. So up here in Wisconsin, our harvest happens typically in November on corn. We don't have a lot of soil loss from November through March, and we get that seed out there in real late March or early April, we usually can get something growing. We have a cover crop that's growing. That's very manageable.
Damon Reabe:
Unlike a fall-planted cover crop, a frost-seeded cover crop is not going to get away from you if you have untimely rains relative to when you want to terminate. So there's a lot of advantages and you're accomplishing a lot. It doesn't take a very tall cover crop to hold soil in place. It doesn't take a very large cover crop to begin feeding those microbes and improving soil health. You just don't need a mountain of rich. You just need something growing. And so I'm hoping that over time, university research, NRCS officials, county conservationists begin to just take a closer look at that frosting seeding. And hopefully, we can move to a practice that involves more frost seeding than fall seeding.
Noah Newman:
Yeah. It'll be interesting to see if that becomes a more popular option moving forward. Now, as far as species go, have you found that certain species work better with aerial application? And are there any ones where you would recommend not using in an aerial application?
Damon Reabe:
Yeah. So in we're broadcasting seed. And so there are a group of seeds that work really poorly when you broadcast them. And the simplest way to think about it is if the literature that comes with your drill, let's suggest what the planting depths should be of a given feed species. And if you're reading that and it tells you need to set your grill more than an inch deep, or, and especially if it starts talking about putting something in the ground, two inches deep. It will not work when it's broadcast and the group of seeds that for sure don't work broadcast in almost all situations are large seed-size legumes. So peas do very poorly broadcast. Soybeans do very poorly broadcast. Harry [inaudible 00:17:14] is right on the edge of two large a seed to work. We've had a little bit of success with it, but large-seeded legumes work poorly.
Damon Reabe:
That seed needs to be completely covered by soil typically to be vigorous. So all the rest of the seed species, any of your small grains, any of your brassica species, and your small size legumes, particularly clovers do really well broadcast. You talk about seed selection. When we talk about aerial seeding, specifically, if we're aerial seeding in the fall, we're running on a time. And we work here in Wisconsin and we're in a part of the country where we are doing this when there isn't a lot of growing degree days left.
Damon Reabe:
So we kind of shy away from the clovers and brassicas simply because we're running out of time and we focus really heavily on cereal rye. Cereal rye is the most winter hearty species, and we've got something that's going to come out of dormancy in the spring, the earliest. So this is why we're selecting these, the cereal rye seed is simply due to our geography and we're shying farmers away from mixes. Not because we don't think mixes are great. We know mixes are great, but if we're out here in September 5th, planting a seed, we have to kind of be realistic about what are the odds of it getting killed by frost before it's done anything meaningful.
Noah Newman:
And as far as seeding rate goes, how would that differ from say a recommended rate for drilling?
Damon Reabe:
I can't speak to exactly what recommended rates are for drilling. What I can speak to is what seems to work really well here for us in Wisconsin. And we've pretty much got it set that if we're going to have success, if we do not, if we're not planting too early in the shade, then we're going to get that timely rain. And we don't have predators eating the seed. We are getting exceptional cover with one bushel of cereal rye. I'm sure you could probably find yourself in the same situation where maybe three-quarters of a bushel if you drilled it, we are going to lose some of that seed just to being the fact that it's a broadcast versus being placed in the soil. If the predators are going to eat the seed, I've literally taken the rate all the way up to four bushels and the predators will eat four bushels as happily as they'll eat one. So we can't really overcome predation with seeding rate.
Damon Reabe:
So, we've found that we just need to know if they're there and then we know not to broadcast. So if we plant too early, four bushels of seeds will die in the shade, just like one will. So you can imagine the objective here is to pull soil in place, improve soil health and do this at the most affordable price point that we can. And so by reducing that seeding rate down to an effective plants per square foot at that one bushel, we have a lot of success with that. And it makes it an affordable option for producers.
Noah Newman:
And what soils usually have the greatest success rate with aerial seeding would you say in your experience?
Damon Reabe:
Yeah. It's the ones without the predators.
Noah Newman:
Ah. Yeah. That makes sense.
Damon Reabe:
So, slugs they really like higher organic matter soils. So we get into that really rich prairie soil and the populations of slugs are higher typically in a no-till setting. And we're not, obviously we're in no way suggesting that you get involved in a tillage in order to take care of the slugs. That's not even remotely what we're getting at here. It's just a fact there tends to be higher slug densities where there is little or no-tillage. Having said that when we get into sandy soils, the slugs don't, that's just terrible habitat for them. So we're having really good luck on sand. When we get on clay soils, they don't seem to be as the populations don't seem to be as intense. So we tend to have better luck.
Noah Newman:
I'm sure you have a lot of great stories over the years, just recently. Can you think of a story or experience where you've learned something new or that you think our audience would be interested in?
Damon Reabe:
I can really, the slug situation was really an epiphany. And I remember being at a long-term no-till growers farm back in 2013. And he was actually one of the first customers that got us involved in aerial seeding cover crops in Southeastern Wisconsin. We were on his farm, just scratching our heads, trying to figure out why none of what we did grew. And we eventually observe the slugs actually present and actively eating seed and newly germinated seed.
Damon Reabe:
And so I remember thinking to myself how this individual is farming is so different from the rest of our customers in how aggressive he was with multi-species cover crops and how long he had been no-tilling and using cover crops. He's a very progressive, really good farmer. And I just frankly, blew it off that this was unique to his farm. And as the fall continued to chug along, I came to realize that the problem he had, there was no different than many of the other places we had been throughout the state. And so it was really eye-opening and very humbling. And, and it was quite a learning experience.
Noah Newman:
Well, I know you're pretty busy this time of year, so I won't keep you any longer, but before you go, anything else you want to add or share with our audience?
Damon Reabe:
No. Just want to thank you for your time and for all the work that your media group does in promoting conservation and thank all the notable farmers out there for their conservation efforts.
Noah Newman:
Great stuff there from Damon Reabe. We want to thank him for joining us on this week's podcast. And before we go, we also want to thank our sponsor La Crosse Seed solving the soil health puzzle. La Crosse Seed has you covered. Cover crops are an important piece to future profit, but it takes work in its puzzling sometimes. La Crosse Seed delivers quality soil, first cover crop products, plus training and tools to help you succeed. So whether you're looking to grow your cover crop seed business, get product tips, or find a local soil first dealer. La Crosse Seed is ready to help learn more@soilfirst.com, that's soil1st.com or call 800 356 seed. Thanks again for listening. Hope you enjoyed it. And until next time, remember for all things cover crops, head to cover crop strategies.com.
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