What is Conservation Tillage?
Let’s start with tillage, tillage is the preparation of the land to grow crops, this involves digging, stirring, and the overturning of the soil. Conservation tillage comes into play when any method of soil cultivation, that keeps one-third of cultivated soil covered with the previous years residue from the crops. This is usually used with crop rotations, composting, and erosion control practices. This decreases carbon-dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions, the reliance on the farm machinery and equipment usually used, and a reduction in the fuel and labor cost.
Conservation tillage is known as an agricultural management approach that has a goal to minimize the frequency or intensity of tillage operation to promote environmental and economic benefits. It conserves soil by reducing erosion. With soil erosion, the top later, which is the most productive layer, is removed. It is then usually deposited into streams and other bodies of water, including the pesticides used on it. With using a standard tillage form, it just breaks up and loosens the soil particles, which makes erosion easier. Although, using conservational tillage, it protects the soil surface and allows water to seep in rather than it running off. . There is very strong evidence that this method reduces soil erosion and improves the structure and quality of the soil itself, especially in the soil’s top surface layer. The increase in the integrity of the soil increases the penetration of water and reduces run-off due to the soil’s moisture content. The run-off contains excess nutrients, sediment, pesticides, and other pollutants that can contaminate water.
This is the no-till method
This is a photo of a mulch-tiller
This is a more modern tiller.
Within conservation tillage, there are three different kinds; no-till, ridge-till, and mulch-till. The deciding factor of which one a farmer would use would be based on the “severity of the erosion problem, soil type, crop rotation, latitude, available equipment, and management skills.”
No-Till
No-till leaves soil undisturbed from harvest to planting. It can be done well in chemically-killed soil, and emergency weed control. It reduced fuel used, labor, and equipment costs, of course there are other benefits, but these are the biggest benefits from no-tilling. This tilling process also improves the soil structure because tilling disrupts the natural structure of the soil. It also leaves plant residue in the ground which helps the soil stay moist and protects from evaporation caused by the sun.
Ridge-Till
Next we have ridge-tilling, “ridge-till involves planting into a seedbed prepared on ridges with sweeps, disk openers, coulters, or row cleaners.” Other than nutrient injections, the soil stays unbothered from harvest to planting. This method works best on level, poorly drained soils. The idea is that the ridges will speed up the draining and warm the soil up quicker. This also reduces fuel cost, labor and machinery costs. It also helps to start planting earlier than you would on a flat, poor-drained piece of land. “Ridge-till does have higher labor, fuel and equipment costs than no-till. Ridge-till requires a heavy, expensive cultivator to rebuild ridges annually.”
Mulch-Till
Lastly, we have mulch-till. “Mulch-till uses chisel plows, field cultivators, disks, sweeps, or blades to till the soil before planting.” This method leaves the soil rough and cloddy. The effectiveness of mulch-till systems depends on surface roughness, residue percentage, and the direction of the tillage to reduce erosion. This method reduces and manages crop residue on the surface of the soil, year-round. This leaves 30 percent crop residue cover after planting.
Conservation Tillage
“According to the 2012 Census of Agriculture, US farmers used no-till practices on 96.5 million acres, conservation tillage on 76.6 million acres, and conventional tillage on 105.7 million acres.” The American Farmland Trust (AFT) is a national organization that strives to help farmers improve their conservative efforts. These are just a few examples and statistics of the use of conservation tillage. The Conservative Agriculture System Innovation (CASI) is made up of a group of university researchers, local farmers, representatives, and environmental groups. These people of the community work together to exchange information and develop new knowledge about conservation tillage. Their goals are to have farmers adopt this method by 50% by the year 2028, to be able to deliver information to others about the subject, to become engaged with national and international organizations to serve as a source of information, and to increase the funding for conservation tillage.
Learning about how conservation tillage is sustainable and the benefits of it was intriguing. This is a topic that should be more widely known about to be more sustainable economically. The benefits of this method outweigh the cons one hundred percent. I hope you learned something from this too!
Blog post by Ashley Kimey
Sources
Conservation Tillage Practices. June 3, 2015. https://www.countyhealthrankings.org/take-action-to-improve-health/what-works-for-health/strategies/conservation-tillage-practices
UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program. 2017. “Conservation Tillage.” What is Sustainable Agriculture? UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. <http://asi.ucdavis.edu/programs/sarep/what-is-sustainable-agriculture/practices/conservation-tillage>
Watershed Academy Web: Agriculture Management Practices for Water Quality Protection. https://cfpub.epa.gov/watertrain/moduleFrame.cfm?parent_object_id=1363#:~:text=Mulch%2Dtill%20systems%20manage%20crop,cultivators%2C%20or%20similar%20farming%20implements.
C. Janssen and P. Hill. Conservation Tillage Series: What is Conservation Tillage? https://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/ct/ct-1.html
Donald l. Pfost. Ridge-Till Tips. https://extension2.missouri.edu/g1652
Exapta Solutions Inc. Advantages and Disadvantages of No Till Farming. https://notillagriculture.com/no-till-farming/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-no-till-farming/#:~:text=Lower%20Fuel%20Costs%3A%20Fewer%20passes,caused%20by%20sun%20and%20wind.
Richland Micro-Draining: The Pros and Cons of No-Till Farming. https://www.richlandmicrodrainage.com/2019/03/07/the-pros-and-cons-of-no-till-farming/
Photos