By Christopher Carney
Rankin Powell, University of Kentucky alum and retired extension agent from the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, was recently honored with the Shirley H. Phillips No-Till Award.
This annual award is given to individuals whose career has been devoted to promoting no-till practices, commemorating Shirley H. Phillips’ legacy work as a UK extension specialist who helped develop no-till agriculture over 60 years ago in Kentucky.
No-till is a technique for growing crops and plants without disturbing the soil through tillage, increasing the amount of water and nutrients. Widely adopted in the United States and abroad, no-till is also playing a significant role in countering climate change.
Powell retired as a Union County Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR) agent 19 years ago, however, his story began well before that.
Student at UK
Powell graduated from UK in 1964 while serving in the Army Reserves and was one of the first graduate students to plant no-till corn on campus. Today, the Arboretum, State Botanical Garden of Kentucky’s water tower stands where Powell’s graduate research plots once lay.
He and other students built a crude, no-till drill that applied herbicide bands. That design eventually became the John Deere power drill.
Powell started helping many farmers in Western Kentucky try no-till. Powell took a two-row Allis Chalmers no-till planter — one of the first in the country — to farms where producers could borrow to plant corn. Later, he purchased an Allis Chalmers commercial no-till planter and used it on his farm.
Today, this planter has been restored and is displayed at the UK Research and Education Center at Princeton (UKREC).
Livingston County
Powell worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in Livingston County, where he started teaching other farmers about no-tillage. TVA had programs helping farmers displaced by the dams constructed on the Tennessee River and Cumberland River.
TVA bought Powell’s no-till planter, two-row Allis Chalmers. Along with fertilizer, Powell pulled that planter with his truck to all the farmers in the area willing to try no-till. Along with free corn seed, farmers tried no-till and over time, they saw how well it worked. This project started about five years after the first commercial no-till corn field was grown in the city of Herndon.
Powell later worked as the Livingston County extension agricultural agent. While there, Powell bought a farm and started no-till farming that land. Nearby farmers would stop and watch Powell run a planter into a field that had not been tilled.
Powell recently donated that planter to the Grain and Forage Center of Excellence, which survived the tornados in Princeton in 2021 and Hopkins County Future Farmers of America (FFA) students help restore.
Henderson/Union Counties
After 12 years living in Livingston County, Powell made the difficult decision to move and help his dad manage the family farm near Henderson County and Union County line. This farm was also completely no-till and again, farmers watched Powell’s work.
Powell jokes that all his neighbors run no-till today. He used to get sediment on his creek-bottom fields from his neighbors’ erosion. Now that they are all no-till, he no longer gets this sediment.
For about 19 years, Powell remained in this area, which has the largest percentage of the best soils for row crop farming in Kentucky, helping farmers switch to no-till and minimum till practices.
Giving to UK
Over the years, Powell and his wife Dolly have been generous donors to Martin-Gatton CAFE. For their generosity, UKREC in Princeton’s demonstration room will soon bear their name. The conference room in the Cooper House, on UK’s campus, also bears their name.
Powell was proud of his UK experiences and contributions to no-till. He continued to embrace his passion until he officially retired at 78.
“The University of Kentucky is the best place I worked in my life,” Powell said. “I was on a mission to help farmers, help the general population and contribute to society. If you enjoy what you do, then it doesn’t seem like work. My advice is if you are in good health and enjoying what you do, keep working.”
Source : uky.edu