No-till farming
Encyclopedia
No-till farming is a way of growing crops from year to year without disturbing the soil
through tillage
. No-till is an agricultural technique which increases the amount of water and organic matter (nutrients) in the soil
and decreases erosion
. It increases the amount and variety of life in and on the soil but may require herbicide
usage.
. This leads to unfavorable effects, like soil compaction
; loss of organic matter
; degradation of soil aggregates
; death or disruption of soil microbes and other organisms including mycorrhiza
, arthropod
s, and earthworm
s; and soil erosion where topsoil
is blown or washed away. No-till farming avoids these effects by excluding the use of tillage
. With this way of farming, crop residues or other organic amenities are retained on the soil surface and sowing/fertilizing is done with minimal soil disturbance. Continuous no-till needs to be managed very differently in order to keep or increase yield on the field. Residue, weeds, equipment, crop rotations, water, disease, pests, and fertilizer management are just some of the many details of farming that change when switching to no-till.
The idea of modern no-till started in the 1940s with Edward Faulkner, but it wasn't until the development of several chemicals after WWII that various researchers and farmers started to try out the idea. The first adopters of no-till include Klingman(North Carolina), Edward Faulkner, L.A. Porter(New Zealand), Harry and Lawrence Young (Herndon, Kentucky), the Instituto de Pesquisas Agropecuarias Meridional (1971 in Brazil) with Herbert Bartz.
able if performed correctly.
Less tillage of the soil reduces labour, fuel, irrigation
and machinery costs. No-till can increase yield because of higher water infiltration and storage capacity, and less erosion. Another benefit of no-till is that because of the higher water content, instead of leaving a field fallow it can make economic sense to plant another crop instead.
As sustainable agriculture
becomes more popular, monetary grants and awards are becoming readily available to farmers who practice conservation tillage. Some large energy corporations which are among the greatest generators of fossil-fuel-related pollution are willing to purchase carbon credits to encourage farmers to engage in conservation tillage. The farmers' land essentially becomes a carbon sink for the power generators' emissions. This helps the farmer in several ways, and it helps the energy companies meet demands for reduction of pollution
.
No-till farming can increase organic(carbon based) matter in the soil as a form of carbon sequestration.
in the soil of crop fields. Tilled by machinery, the soil layers invert, air mixes in, and soil microbial activity dramatically increases over baseline levels. The result is that soil organic matter is broken down much more rapidly, and carbon is lost from the soil into the atmosphere. This, in addition to the emissions from the farm equipment itself, increases carbon dioxide
levels in the atmosphere.
Cropland soils are ideal for use as a carbon sink, since it has been depleted of carbon in most areas. It is estimated that 78 billion metric tones of carbon that was trapped in the soil has been released because of tillage. Conventional farming practices that rely on tillage have removed carbon from the soil ecosystem
by removing crop residues such as left over corn
stalks, and through the addition of chemical fertilizers which have the above mentioned effects on soil microbes.
By eliminating tillage, crop residues decompose where they lie, and by growing winter cover crop
s, carbon loss can be slowed and eventually reversed.
In addition to keeping carbon in the soil, no-till farming reduces nitrous oxide
(N2O) emissions by 40-70%, depending on rotation. Nitrous oxide is a potent greenhouse gas that stays in the atmosphere for 120 years.
, evaporation of water, and structural breakdown. A reduction in tillage passes helps prevent the compaction of soil.
Recently, researchers at the Agricultural Research Service
found that no-till farming makes soil much more stable than plowed soil. Their conclusions draw from over 19 years of collaborated tillage studies. No-till stores more carbon in the soil
and carbon in the form of organic matter is a key factor in holding soil particles together. The first inch of no-till soil is two to seven times less vulnerable than that of plowed soil. The practice of no-till farming is especially beneficial to Great Plain farmers because of its resistance to erosion. http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2010/100511.htm
Crop residues left intact help both natural precipitation
and irrigation water infiltrate the soil where it can be used. The crop residue left on the soil surface also limits evaporation
, conserving water for plant growth. Soil compaction and no tillage-pan
, soil absorbs more water and plants are able to grow their roots deeper into the soil and suck up more water.
Tilling a field reduces the amount of water, via evaporation
, around 1/3 to 3/4 inches (0.85 to 1.9 cm ) per pass. By no-tilling, this water stays in the soil, available to the plants.
s and annelid
s, a higher microbial content, and a greater amount of soil organic material. Since there is no ploughing there is less airborne dust.
No-till increases the amount and variety of wildlife. This is the result of improved cover, reduced traffic and the reduced chance of destroying ground nesting birds and animals (plowing a field destroys 100% of them).
and almost all the burial mounds in Essex
have been damaged. According to English Heritage
modern tillage techniques have done as much damage in the last 6 decades as traditional tilling did in previous 6 centuries. By using no-till methods these structures can be preserved and can be properly investigated instead of being destroyed.
Prior to no-till farming's rise in popularity, the annual tilling of the soil often exposed arrowheads and other artifacts. Other artifacts include bullet
s, medal
s, and button
s, coin
s and other metal items from destroyed houses and barn
s.
s for example) is expensive and while the cost could be offset by selling off plows, etc. doing so is not usually done until the farmer decides to switch completely over (after trying it out for a few years). This results in more money being invested into equipment in the short term (until old equipment is sold off).
s. No-till farming does change weed composition drastically. Faster growing weeds may no longer be a problem in the face of increased competition
, but shrubs and trees may begin to grow eventually.
Some farmers attack this problem with a “burn-down” herbicide
such as glyphosate in lieu of tillage for seedbed preparation and because of this, no-till is often associated with increased chemical use in comparison to traditional tillage based methods of crop production. However, there are many agroecological alternatives to increased chemical use, such as winter cover crops and the mulch cover they provide, solarization or flaming.
, fertilization, and irrigation have to be used for local conditions.
s are used occasionally in no-till to help control weeds and increase nutrients in the soil (by using legumes) or by using plants with long roots to pull mobile nutrients back up to the surface from lower layers of the soil. Farmers experimenting with organic no-till use cover crops instead of tillage for controlling weeds, and are developing various methods to kill the cover crops (rollers, crimper, choppers, etc.) so that the newly planted crops can get enough light, water, nutrients, etc.
from the previous years crops lie on the surface of the field, cooling it and increasing the moisture. This can cause increased or decreased or variations of diseases that occur, but not necessarily at a higher or lower rate than conventional tillage. In order to help eliminate weed, pest and disease problems, Crop rotation
s are used. By rotating the crops on a multi-year cycle, pests and diseases will decrease since the pests will no longer have a food supply to support their numbers.
A problem that occurs in some fields is water saturation in soils. Switching to no-till will help the drainage issue because of the qualities of soil under continuous no-till include a higher water infiltration rate,. So, you might want to see how a field with saturated soil behaves under no-till before deciding whether or not to purchase tilling for the area.
than if he/she was tilling. Using a smaller, lighter tractor has the added benefit of reducing compaction.
. The nutrients in the organic matter will be eventually released back into the soil, so this is only a concern during the transition time frame (4–5 years for Kansas, USA). This can be fixed by adding extra fertilizer during this time period.
. Conservation tillage is a group of practices that reduce the amount of tillage needed. No-till and strip tillage are both forms of conservation tillage. Remember, no-till is the practice of never tilling a field. Tilling every other year is called rotational tillage.
Soil
Soil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics...
through tillage
Tillage
Tillage is the agricultural preparation of the soil by mechanical agitation of various types, such as digging, stirring, and overturning. Examples of human-powered tilling methods using hand tools include shovelling, picking, mattock work, hoeing, and raking...
. No-till is an agricultural technique which increases the amount of water and organic matter (nutrients) in the soil
Soil
Soil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics...
and decreases erosion
Erosion
Erosion is when materials are removed from the surface and changed into something else. It only works by hydraulic actions and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere...
. It increases the amount and variety of life in and on the soil but may require herbicide
Herbicide
Herbicides, also commonly known as weedkillers, are pesticides used to kill unwanted plants. Selective herbicides kill specific targets while leaving the desired crop relatively unharmed. Some of these act by interfering with the growth of the weed and are often synthetic "imitations" of plant...
usage.
Background
Tilling is used to remove weeds, shape the soil into rows for crop plants and furrows for irrigationIrrigation
Irrigation may be defined as the science of artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...
. This leads to unfavorable effects, like soil compaction
Soil compaction
In Geotechnical engineering, soil compaction is the process in which a stress applied to a soil causes densification as air is displaced from the pores between the soil grains. When stress is applied that causes densification due to water being displaced from between the soil grains then...
; loss of organic matter
Organic matter
Organic matter is matter that has come from a once-living organism; is capable of decay, or the product of decay; or is composed of organic compounds...
; degradation of soil aggregates
Soil structure
Soil structure is determined by how individual soil granules clump or bind together and aggregate, and therefore, the arrangement of soil pores between them...
; death or disruption of soil microbes and other organisms including mycorrhiza
Mycorrhiza
A mycorrhiza is a symbiotic association between a fungus and the roots of a vascular plant....
, arthropod
Arthropod
An arthropod is an invertebrate animal having an exoskeleton , a segmented body, and jointed appendages. Arthropods are members of the phylum Arthropoda , and include the insects, arachnids, crustaceans, and others...
s, and earthworm
Earthworm
Earthworm is the common name for the largest members of Oligochaeta in the phylum Annelida. In classical systems they were placed in the order Opisthopora, on the basis of the male pores opening posterior to the female pores, even though the internal male segments are anterior to the female...
s; and soil erosion where topsoil
Topsoil
Topsoil is the upper, outermost layer of soil, usually the top to . It has the highest concentration of organic matter and microorganisms and is where most of the Earth's biological soil activity occurs.-Importance:...
is blown or washed away. No-till farming avoids these effects by excluding the use of tillage
Tillage
Tillage is the agricultural preparation of the soil by mechanical agitation of various types, such as digging, stirring, and overturning. Examples of human-powered tilling methods using hand tools include shovelling, picking, mattock work, hoeing, and raking...
. With this way of farming, crop residues or other organic amenities are retained on the soil surface and sowing/fertilizing is done with minimal soil disturbance. Continuous no-till needs to be managed very differently in order to keep or increase yield on the field. Residue, weeds, equipment, crop rotations, water, disease, pests, and fertilizer management are just some of the many details of farming that change when switching to no-till.
The idea of modern no-till started in the 1940s with Edward Faulkner, but it wasn't until the development of several chemicals after WWII that various researchers and farmers started to try out the idea. The first adopters of no-till include Klingman(North Carolina), Edward Faulkner, L.A. Porter(New Zealand), Harry and Lawrence Young (Herndon, Kentucky), the Instituto de Pesquisas Agropecuarias Meridional (1971 in Brazil) with Herbert Bartz.
Profit, economics, yield
Studies have found that no-till farming can be more profitProfit (accounting)
In accounting, profit can be considered to be the difference between the purchase price and the costs of bringing to market whatever it is that is accounted as an enterprise in terms of the component costs of delivered goods and/or services and any operating or other expenses.-Definition:There are...
able if performed correctly.
Less tillage of the soil reduces labour, fuel, irrigation
Irrigation
Irrigation may be defined as the science of artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...
and machinery costs. No-till can increase yield because of higher water infiltration and storage capacity, and less erosion. Another benefit of no-till is that because of the higher water content, instead of leaving a field fallow it can make economic sense to plant another crop instead.
As sustainable agriculture
Sustainable agriculture
Sustainable agriculture is the practice of farming using principles of ecology, the study of relationships between organisms and their environment...
becomes more popular, monetary grants and awards are becoming readily available to farmers who practice conservation tillage. Some large energy corporations which are among the greatest generators of fossil-fuel-related pollution are willing to purchase carbon credits to encourage farmers to engage in conservation tillage. The farmers' land essentially becomes a carbon sink for the power generators' emissions. This helps the farmer in several ways, and it helps the energy companies meet demands for reduction of pollution
Pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...
.
No-till farming can increase organic(carbon based) matter in the soil as a form of carbon sequestration.
Carbon (air and soil) and other Greenhouse Gases
No-till has carbon sequestration potential through storage of soil organic matterSoil organic matter
Organic matter is matter that has come from a once-living organism; is capable of decay, or the product of decay; or is composed of organic compounds...
in the soil of crop fields. Tilled by machinery, the soil layers invert, air mixes in, and soil microbial activity dramatically increases over baseline levels. The result is that soil organic matter is broken down much more rapidly, and carbon is lost from the soil into the atmosphere. This, in addition to the emissions from the farm equipment itself, increases carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
levels in the atmosphere.
Cropland soils are ideal for use as a carbon sink, since it has been depleted of carbon in most areas. It is estimated that 78 billion metric tones of carbon that was trapped in the soil has been released because of tillage. Conventional farming practices that rely on tillage have removed carbon from the soil ecosystem
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....
by removing crop residues such as left over corn
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
stalks, and through the addition of chemical fertilizers which have the above mentioned effects on soil microbes.
By eliminating tillage, crop residues decompose where they lie, and by growing winter cover crop
Cover crop
Cover crops are crops planted primarily to manage soil fertility, soil quality, water, weeds, pests, diseases, biodiversity and wildlife in agroecosystems , ecological systems managed and largely shaped by humans across a range of intensities to produce food, feed, or fiber.Cover crops are of...
s, carbon loss can be slowed and eventually reversed.
In addition to keeping carbon in the soil, no-till farming reduces nitrous oxide
Nitrous oxide
Nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas or sweet air, is a chemical compound with the formula . It is an oxide of nitrogen. At room temperature, it is a colorless non-flammable gas, with a slightly sweet odor and taste. It is used in surgery and dentistry for its anesthetic and analgesic...
(N2O) emissions by 40-70%, depending on rotation. Nitrous oxide is a potent greenhouse gas that stays in the atmosphere for 120 years.
Soil and water
No-till improves soil quality (soil function), carbon, organic matter, aggregates, protecting the soil from erosionErosion
Erosion is when materials are removed from the surface and changed into something else. It only works by hydraulic actions and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere...
, evaporation of water, and structural breakdown. A reduction in tillage passes helps prevent the compaction of soil.
Recently, researchers at the Agricultural Research Service
Agricultural Research Service
The Agricultural Research Service is the principal in-house research agency of the United States Department of Agriculture . ARS is one of four agencies in USDA's Research, Education and Economics mission area...
found that no-till farming makes soil much more stable than plowed soil. Their conclusions draw from over 19 years of collaborated tillage studies. No-till stores more carbon in the soil
Soil carbon
Soil carbon is the generic name for carbon held within the soil, primarily in association with its organic content. Soil carbon is the largest terrestrial pool of carbon. Humans have, and will likely continue to have, significant impacts on the size of this pool...
and carbon in the form of organic matter is a key factor in holding soil particles together. The first inch of no-till soil is two to seven times less vulnerable than that of plowed soil. The practice of no-till farming is especially beneficial to Great Plain farmers because of its resistance to erosion. http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2010/100511.htm
Crop residues left intact help both natural precipitation
Precipitation (meteorology)
In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation (also known as one of the classes of hydrometeors, which are atmospheric water phenomena is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation...
and irrigation water infiltrate the soil where it can be used. The crop residue left on the soil surface also limits evaporation
Evaporation
Evaporation is a type of vaporization of a liquid that occurs only on the surface of a liquid. The other type of vaporization is boiling, which, instead, occurs on the entire mass of the liquid....
, conserving water for plant growth. Soil compaction and no tillage-pan
Hardpan
In soil science, agriculture and gardening, hardpan or ouklip is a general term for a dense layer of soil, usually found below the uppermost topsoil layer. There are different types of hardpan, all sharing the general characteristic of being a distinct soil layer that is largely impervious to water...
, soil absorbs more water and plants are able to grow their roots deeper into the soil and suck up more water.
Tilling a field reduces the amount of water, via evaporation
Evaporation
Evaporation is a type of vaporization of a liquid that occurs only on the surface of a liquid. The other type of vaporization is boiling, which, instead, occurs on the entire mass of the liquid....
, around 1/3 to 3/4 inches (0.85 to 1.9 cm ) per pass. By no-tilling, this water stays in the soil, available to the plants.
Soil biota, wildlife, etc.
In no-till farming the soil is left intact and crop residue is left on the field. Therefore, soil layers, and in turn soil biota, are conserved in their natural state. No-tilled fields often have more beneficial insectInsect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
s and annelid
Annelid
The annelids , formally called Annelida , are a large phylum of segmented worms, with over 17,000 modern species including ragworms, earthworms and leeches...
s, a higher microbial content, and a greater amount of soil organic material. Since there is no ploughing there is less airborne dust.
No-till increases the amount and variety of wildlife. This is the result of improved cover, reduced traffic and the reduced chance of destroying ground nesting birds and animals (plowing a field destroys 100% of them).
Historical Artifacts
Tilling regularly damages ancient structures under the soil such as long barrows. In the UK, half of the long barrows in GloucestershireGloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
and almost all the burial mounds in Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
have been damaged. According to English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
modern tillage techniques have done as much damage in the last 6 decades as traditional tilling did in previous 6 centuries. By using no-till methods these structures can be preserved and can be properly investigated instead of being destroyed.
Prior to no-till farming's rise in popularity, the annual tilling of the soil often exposed arrowheads and other artifacts. Other artifacts include bullet
Bullet
A bullet is a projectile propelled by a firearm, sling, or air gun. Bullets do not normally contain explosives, but damage the intended target by impact and penetration...
s, medal
Medal
A medal, or medallion, is generally a circular object that has been sculpted, molded, cast, struck, stamped, or some way rendered with an insignia, portrait, or other artistic rendering. A medal may be awarded to a person or organization as a form of recognition for athletic, military, scientific,...
s, and button
Button
In modern clothing and fashion design, a button is a small fastener, most commonly made of plastic, but also frequently of seashell, which secures two pieces of fabric together. In archaeology, a button can be a significant artifact. In the applied arts and in craft, a button can be an example of...
s, coin
Coin
A coin is a piece of hard material that is standardized in weight, is produced in large quantities in order to facilitate trade, and primarily can be used as a legal tender token for commerce in the designated country, region, or territory....
s and other metal items from destroyed houses and barn
Barn
A barn is an agricultural building used for storage and as a covered workplace. It may sometimes be used to house livestock or to store farming vehicles and equipment...
s.
Equipment
No-till requires specialized seeding equipment designed to plant seeds into undisturbed crop residues and soil. Purchasing new equipment (seed drillSeed drill
A seed drill is a sowing device that precisely positions seeds in the soil and then covers them. Before the introduction of the seed drill, the common practice was to plant seeds by hand. Besides being wasteful, planting was very imprecise and led to a poor distribution of seeds, leading to low...
s for example) is expensive and while the cost could be offset by selling off plows, etc. doing so is not usually done until the farmer decides to switch completely over (after trying it out for a few years). This results in more money being invested into equipment in the short term (until old equipment is sold off).
Drainage
If a soil has poor drainage, it may need drainage tiles or other devices in order to help with the removal of excess water under no-till. Farmers should remember that water infiltration will improve after several years of a field being in no-till, so they may want to wait until 5–8 years have passed to see if the problems persists before deciding to invest in such an expensive system.Gullies
Gullies can be a problem in the long-term. While much less soil is displaced by using no-till, any drainage gulleys that do form will get deeper each year since they aren't being smoothed out by plowing. This may necessitate either sod drainways, waterways, permanent drainways, cover crops, etc.Increased chemical use
One of the purposes of tilling is to remove weedWeed
A weed in a general sense is a plant that is considered by the user of the term to be a nuisance, and normally applied to unwanted plants in human-controlled settings, especially farm fields and gardens, but also lawns, parks, woods, and other areas. More specifically, the term is often used to...
s. No-till farming does change weed composition drastically. Faster growing weeds may no longer be a problem in the face of increased competition
Competition (biology)
Competition is an interaction between organisms or species, in which the fitness of one is lowered by the presence of another. Limited supply of at least one resource used by both is required. Competition both within and between species is an important topic in ecology, especially community ecology...
, but shrubs and trees may begin to grow eventually.
Some farmers attack this problem with a “burn-down” herbicide
Herbicide
Herbicides, also commonly known as weedkillers, are pesticides used to kill unwanted plants. Selective herbicides kill specific targets while leaving the desired crop relatively unharmed. Some of these act by interfering with the growth of the weed and are often synthetic "imitations" of plant...
such as glyphosate in lieu of tillage for seedbed preparation and because of this, no-till is often associated with increased chemical use in comparison to traditional tillage based methods of crop production. However, there are many agroecological alternatives to increased chemical use, such as winter cover crops and the mulch cover they provide, solarization or flaming.
Management
No-till requires some different skills in order to do it successfully. As with any production system, if no-till isn't done correctly, yields can drop. A combination of technique, equipment, pesticides, crop rotationCrop rotation
Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of dissimilar types of crops in the same area in sequential seasons.Crop rotation confers various benefits to the soil. A traditional element of crop rotation is the replenishment of nitrogen through the use of green manure in sequence with cereals...
, fertilization, and irrigation have to be used for local conditions.
Cover crops
Cover cropCover crop
Cover crops are crops planted primarily to manage soil fertility, soil quality, water, weeds, pests, diseases, biodiversity and wildlife in agroecosystems , ecological systems managed and largely shaped by humans across a range of intensities to produce food, feed, or fiber.Cover crops are of...
s are used occasionally in no-till to help control weeds and increase nutrients in the soil (by using legumes) or by using plants with long roots to pull mobile nutrients back up to the surface from lower layers of the soil. Farmers experimenting with organic no-till use cover crops instead of tillage for controlling weeds, and are developing various methods to kill the cover crops (rollers, crimper, choppers, etc.) so that the newly planted crops can get enough light, water, nutrients, etc.
Disease, pathogens, insects and the use of crop rotations
With no-till, residueCrop residue
There are two types of agricultural crop residues:Field residues are materials left in an agricultural field or orchard after the crop has been harvested. These residues include stalks and stubble , leaves, and seed pods...
from the previous years crops lie on the surface of the field, cooling it and increasing the moisture. This can cause increased or decreased or variations of diseases that occur, but not necessarily at a higher or lower rate than conventional tillage. In order to help eliminate weed, pest and disease problems, Crop rotation
Crop rotation
Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of dissimilar types of crops in the same area in sequential seasons.Crop rotation confers various benefits to the soil. A traditional element of crop rotation is the replenishment of nitrogen through the use of green manure in sequence with cereals...
s are used. By rotating the crops on a multi-year cycle, pests and diseases will decrease since the pests will no longer have a food supply to support their numbers.
Organic no-till technique: The cardboard method
Some farmers who prefer to pursue a chemical-free management practice often rely on the use of normal, non-dyed corrugated cardboard for use on seed-beds and vegetable areas. Used correctly, cardboard placed on a specific area can A) keep important fungal hyphae and microorganisms in the soil intact B) prevent recurring weeds from popping up C) increase residual nitrogen and plant nutrients by top-composting plant residues and D) create valuable topsoil that is well suited for next years seeds or transplants. The plant residues (left over plant matter originating from cover crops, grass clippings, original plant life etc.) will rot while underneath the cardboard so long as it remains sufficiently moist. This rotting attracts worms and other beneficial microorganisms to the site of decomposition, and over a series of a few seasons (usually Spring-->Fall or Fall-->Spring) and up to a few years, will create a layer of rich topsoil. Plants can then be direct seeded into the soil come spring, or holes can be cut into the cardboard to allow for transplantation. Using this method in conjunction with other sustainable practices such as composting/vermicompost, cover crops and rotations are often considered beneficial to both land and those who take from it.Water Issues
No-till dramatically reduces the amount of erosion in a field. While much less soil is displaced, any gullies that do form will get deeper each year instead of being smoothed out by regular plowing. This may necessitate either sod drainways, waterways, permanent drainways, cover crops, etc.A problem that occurs in some fields is water saturation in soils. Switching to no-till will help the drainage issue because of the qualities of soil under continuous no-till include a higher water infiltration rate,. So, you might want to see how a field with saturated soil behaves under no-till before deciding whether or not to purchase tilling for the area.
Equipment
It is very important to have planting equipment that can properly penetrate through the residue, into the soil and prepare a good seedbed. Switching to no-till reduces the maximum amount of power needed from farm tractors, which means that a farmer can farm under no-till with a smaller tractorTractor
A tractor is a vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery used in agriculture or construction...
than if he/she was tilling. Using a smaller, lighter tractor has the added benefit of reducing compaction.
Soil temperature
Another problem that growers face is that in the spring the soil will take longer to warm and dry, which may stall planting to a less ideal future date. One reason why the soil is slower to warm is that the field absorbs less solar energy as the residue covering the soil is a much lighter color than the black soil which would be exposed in conventional tillage. This can be managed by using row cleaners on a planter. Since the soil can be cooler, harvest can occur a few days later than a conventionally tilled field. Note: A cooler soil is also a benefit because water doesn't evaporate as fast.Residue
On some crops, like continuous no-till corn, the thickness of the residue on the surface of the field can become a problem without proper preparation and/or equipment.Fertilizer
One of the most common yield reducers is because of fertilizer not being applied in slightly higher quantities during transition period, the time it takes the soil to rebuild its aggregates and organic matter. Yields will decrease temporarily because of nitrogen being immobilized in the crop residue, which can take a few months to several years to decompose, depending on the crop's C to N ratio and the local environment. The nutrients in the organic matter will be eventually released back into the soil, so this is only a concern during the transition time frame (4–5 years for Kansas, USA). This can be fixed by adding extra fertilizer during this time period.
Need to fluff the soil
Although no-till farming often causes a slight increase in soil bulk density, periodic tilling is not needed to “fluff” the soil back up. There are millions of acres of land that have not been tilled for over 20 years, where water infiltration, biologic activity, soil aggregate stability, and productivity have all increased well beyond nearby traditionally tilled land. No-till farming mimics the natural conditions under which most soils formed more closely than any other method of farming, in that the soil is left undisturbed except to place seeds in a position to germinate.Similar terms
No-till farming is not equivalent to conservation tillage or strip tillageStrip-till
Strip-till is a conservation system that uses a minimum tillage. It combines the soil drying and warming benefits of conventional tillage with the soil-protecting advantages of no-till by disturbing only the portion of the soil that is to contain the seed row...
. Conservation tillage is a group of practices that reduce the amount of tillage needed. No-till and strip tillage are both forms of conservation tillage. Remember, no-till is the practice of never tilling a field. Tilling every other year is called rotational tillage.
Potential
Research by both institutions and farmers continues into developing organic no-till farming methods that utilize the rolling/crimping of cover crops and diverse crop rotations to suppress weeds, insects, and diseases. Current organic farming methods often rely on tillage to control these pests at the expense of soil quality. The marriage of no-till and organic has the potential to produce both the healthiest food and the healthiest soil at the same time.See also
- Conventional tillageConventional tillageConventional tillage refers to tillage operations considered standard for a specific location and crop and that tend to bury the crop residues; usually considered as a base for determining the cost effectiveness of erosion control practices....
- Do Nothing Farming
- Masanobu FukuokaMasanobu Fukuokawas a Japanese farmer and philosopher celebrated for his natural farming and re-vegetation of desertified lands. He was a proponent of no-till, no-herbicide grain cultivation farming methods traditional to many indigenous cultures, from which he created a particular method of farming, commonly...
, one of the pioneers of no-till grain cultivation - Natural FarmingNatural FarmingNatural farming is an ecological farming approach established by Masanobu Fukuoka , a Japanese farmer and philosopher who described his agricultural philosophy as in Japanese. It is also referred to as "the Fukuoka Method", "the natural way of farming" or "do-nothing farming"...
- No-dig gardeningNo-dig gardeningNo-dig gardening is a non-cultivation method used by some organic gardeners. The origins of no-dig gardening are unclear, and may be based on pre-industrial or nineteenth-century farming techniques. Two pioneers of the method in the twentieth century included F. C...
- PermaculturePermaculturePermaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems that is modeled on the relationships found in nature. It is based on the ecology of how things interrelate rather than on the strictly biological concerns that form the foundation of modern agriculture...
- Soil erosion
- Strip-tillStrip-tillStrip-till is a conservation system that uses a minimum tillage. It combines the soil drying and warming benefits of conventional tillage with the soil-protecting advantages of no-till by disturbing only the portion of the soil that is to contain the seed row...
Further reading
- Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations, by David R. MontgomeryDavid R. MontgomeryDavid R. Montgomery is a Professor of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he leads the Geomorphological Research Group and is a member of the Quaternary Research Center....
, University of California Press (May 14, 2007). ISBN 978-0-520-24870-0.