For some farmers in Minnesota, battling the late fall and early spring weather with traditional farming techniques is becoming a thing of the past. Today, soil experts are busy promoting the idea that little or no plowing of cropland offers many benefits. It reduces production costs, improves soil health, reduces soil erosion and runoff and yet still allows good crop yields.
Welcome to no-till farming.
Rick Olson, who farms corn and soybeans on nearly 1,200 acres in Becker and Big Lake Townships has been no-till farming on his properties for the last 15-20 years. Usually fields in crop production are tilled one or more times each year with cultivators, discs or deep tillers. But farmers like Rick Olson are noticing field areas that haven’t been producing very well in recent years are responding to the no-till method.
Tom Hammer, who he and his crew farm around 4,000 acres around the area, have been no-tilling for about five years for their corn and soybeans. They, however, do till for their potato crop.
Tillage is primarily a form of weed control. When a farmer plows, depending on the crop, as much as a foot deep of soil is overturned, leading to a loss of 90 percent of the crop residue (the decomposing plant from the previous year) from the top soil. The benefit of this high turnover is a disruption of the lifecycle of any pre-existing weeds and pests. Tillage is labor intensive, and often a plot of land needs to be tilled several times before planting commences.
The practice damages soil and leaves it exposed to erosion, particularly by wind and water. The detriments of tillage were on display during the Dust Bowl (from 1930 – 1939), a time in which severe windstorms and droughts combined with eroding topsoil ruined crops and farms. This period of hardship for many midwestern farmers led to some to rethink tillage based farming.
No-till provides many benefits to corn and soybean growers. It helps to release nutrients back into the soil from the crop residue left behind. It also reduces evaporation and helps hold moisture. And that is critical during the end of the growing season.
Olson says the no-till solution also helps save money on fuel and time spent tilling and has many other benefits.
“No-tilling provides a better seed bed that’s undisturbed and doesn’t dry out,” he said. “It’s an ideal growth medium for my crops.
Hammer agrees.
“There’s definitely the fuel savings, but I think the number one advantage is the crop protection,” Hammer said. “The old residue protects the crop from wind and sand storms. It also takes a bite out of our workload in the spring.”
Crop residue has increased many farmer’s soil organic matter to nearly 6%. A 1% increase in soil organic matter can hold an additional 75,000-100,000 gallons of water per acre. This allows it to drain more slowly, which can help even out the erosive flow of water in streams and rivers. And their crop yields can match anyone in the neighboring areas.
This week, Rick has been out feeding fertilizer for his crops to give them the nitrogen they need to grow. His brother Kevin, who works a farm in Big Lake Twp. to the south was busy putting a top dressing on his crops earlier in the week.
“The crops are looking pretty good so far,” Rick said. “with the upcoming hot weather this weekend, things should definitely get better. We need a good heat wave.”
The environmental benefits of conservation tillage (no-till, strip-till, ridge-till and mulch-till) is it reduces soil erosion by as much as 60%-90% depending on the conservation tillage method; pieces of crop residue shield soil particles from rain and wind until new plants produce a protective canopy over the soil; Improves soil and water quality by adding organic matter as crop residue decomposes — this creates an open soil structure that lets water in more easily, reducing runoff; Conserves water by reducing evaporation at the soil surface; Conserves energy due to fewer tractor trips across the field; Reduces potential air pollution from dust and diesel emissions and crop residue provides food and cover for wildlife.
An estimate by Purdue University calculates that a farmer using the no-till method will save 225 hours of labor per year for a 500 acre farm; the equivalent of four 60-hour work weeks. Another study estimated a reduction in labor by as much as 50 percent compared to tillage.
Why haven’t all farmers adopted it? No-till has some drawbacks.
For starters, some crops need to be planted on tilled lands, such as root crops (e.g. potatoes). There are also obstacles to adopting the practice, in particular start up costs which include new no-till equipment (the planters) and chemical herbicides. A steep learning curve is also an obstacle as no-till practices can breed different pests, infections and weeds than those that are found in traditional till based farming.
However, the major argument (often advanced by the organic farm movement) against no-till farming is that it increases the use of chemical herbicides and pesticides. Tilling the land is mechanically biocidal and no till must compensate by using chemicals.
