No-till farming

No-till farming (also known as zero tillage or direct

drilling) is an agricultural technique for growing crops or No-till farming
pasture without disturbing the soil through tillage. No-till
farming decreases the amount of soil erosion tillage causes
in certain soils, especially in sandy and dry soils on sloping
terrain. Other possible benefits include an increase in the
amount of water that infiltrates into the soil, soil retention of
organic matter, and nutrient cycling. These methods may
increase the amount and variety of life in and on the soil.
Typically, no-tillage systems require the use of very large
amounts of herbicides to control weeds.

Tillage is dominant in agriculture today, but no-till methods

may have success in some contexts. In some cases minimum
tillage or "low-till" methods combine till and no-till
methods. For example, some approaches may use shallow
cultivation (i.e. using a disc harrow) but no plowing or use
strip tillage.
Young soybean plants thrive in and are
protected by the residue of a wheat crop.
This form of no-till farming provides good
protection for the soil from erosion and helps
retain moisture for the new crop.

Contents
Background
Origin
Adoption in the United States
Issues
Profit, economics, yield
Costs and management
Equipment
Drainage
Increased herbicide use
Fertilizer
Environmental
Greenhouse gases
Soil
Water
Biota and wildlife
Albedo
See also
References
Further reading
External links
Background
Tillage is the agricultural preparation of soil by mechanical agitation, typically removing weeds established in
the previous season. Tilling can create a flat seed bed or one that has formed areas, such as rows or raised
beds, to enhance the growth of desired plants. It is an ancient technique with clear evidence of its use since at
least 3000 B.C.[1]

No-till farming is not equivalent to conservation tillage or strip tillage. 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. No-till is the practice of never tilling a field. Tilling every other year is called rotational tillage.

The effects of tillage can include soil compaction; loss of organic matter; degradation of soil aggregates; death
or disruption of soil microbes and other organisms including mycorrhizae, arthropods, and earthworms;[2] and
soil erosion where topsoil is washed or blown away.

Origin
The idea of modern no-till farming started in the 1940s with Edward H. Faulkner, author of Plowman's
Folly,[3] but it wasn't until the development after WWII of powerful herbicides such as paraquat 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.[4]

Adoption in the United States

No-till farming is widely used in the United States and the number of acres managed in this way continues to
grow. This growth is supported by a decrease in costs. No-till management results in fewer passes with
equipment, and the crop residue prevents evaporation of rainfall and increases water infiltration into the soil.[5]

Issues

Profit, economics, yield

Some studies have found that no-till farming can be more profitable in some cases.[6][7]

In some cases it may reduce labour, fuel,[8] irrigation[9] and machinery costs.[7] No-till can increase yield
because of higher water infiltration and storage capacity, and less erosion.[10] Another possible benefit is that
because of the higher water content, instead of leaving a field fallow it can make economic sense to plant
another crop instead.[11]

A problem of no-till farming is that in spring, the soil both warms and dries more slowly, which may delay
planting. Harvest can thus occur later than in a conventionally tilled field. The slower warming is due to crop
residue being a lighter color than the soil which would be exposed in conventional tillage, which then absorbs
less solar energy. This can be managed by using row cleaners on a planter.[12]

Costs and management

No-till farming requires some different skills than conventional farming. A combination of technique,
equipment, pesticides, crop rotation, fertilization, and irrigation have to be used for local conditions.

Equipment

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. No-till farming requires specialized seeding
equipment, such as heavier seed drills to penetrate through the residue.[13] Ploughing requires more powerful
tractors, so tractors can be smaller with no-tillage.[14] Costs can be offset by selling ploughs and tractors, but
farmers often keep their old equipment while trying out no-till farming. This results in a higher investment into
equipment.

Drainage

If a soil has poor drainage, it may need expensive drainage tiles or other devices to remove excess water under
no-till. Water infiltration improves after 5–8 years of no-till farming.

Increased herbicide use

One of the purposes of tilling is to remove weeds. No-till farming changes weed composition: faster growing
weeds may be reduced as increased competition with eventual growth of perennials, shrubs and trees. This
problem is usually solved with a herbicide such as glyphosate in lieu of tillage for seedbed preparation, so no-
tillage often uses more pesticides in comparison to conventional tillage. Some alternatives can be winter cover
crops, soil solarization or burning. However the use of herbicides is not strictly necessary, as demonstrated by
Masanobu Fukuoka.

No-till occasionally uses cover crops to help control weeds and increase organic residue in the soil (or nutrients
by using legumes).[15] Cover crops then need to be killed so that the newly planted crops can get enough light,
water, nutrients, etc.[16][17] This can be done by rollers, crimpers, choppers and other ways.[18][19] The
residue is then planted through, and left as a mulch. Cover crops typically must be crimped when they enter
the flowering stage.[20]

With no-till farming, residue from the previous years crops lie on the surface of the field, which can cause
different, greater, or more frequent disease or weed problems[21] compared to tillage farming.[22]

Fertilizer

One of the most common yield reducers is 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.
Fertilizer needs to be applied at a higher rate.[23] An innovative solution to this problem is to integrate animal
husbandry in various ways to aid in decomposition.[24] After a transition period (4–5 years for Kansas, USA)
the soil may build up in organic matter. Nutrients in the organic matter are eventually released into the soil..

Environmental

Greenhouse gases
According to one 2003 study agriculture has released an estimated 78 billion metric tons of carbon in the last
few centuries.[25] No-till farming has been claimed to increase soil organic matter, and thus increase carbon
sequestration.[10][26] While many studies report soil organic carbon increases in no-till systems, others
conclude that these effects may not be observed in all systems, depending on factors, such as climate and
topsoil carbon content.[27] However, there is debate over whether the increased sequestration sometimes
detected is actually occurring, or is due to flawed testing methods or other factors.[28] There is evidence that
no-till systems sequester less carbon than conventional tillage. A 2014 study concluded that this occurs
because the “no-till subsurface layer is often losing more soil organic carbon stock over time than is gained in
the surface layer.” Also, there has not been a uniform definition of soil organic carbon sequestration among
researchers.[29] The study concludes, "Additional investments in soil organic carbon (SOC) research is needed
to better understand the agricultural management practices that are most likely to sequester SOC or at least
retain more net SOC stocks."[30]

No-till farming reduces nitrous oxide (N2 O) emissions by 40-70%, depending on rotation.[31][32] Nitrous
oxide is a potent greenhouse gas, 300 times stronger than CO2, and stays in the atmosphere for 120 years.[33]

Soil

No-till farming improves aggregates[34] and reduces erosion.[35] Soil erosion might be reduced almost to soil
production rates.[36]

Research from over 19 years of tillage studies at the United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural
Research Service found that no-till farming makes soil less erodible than ploughed soil in areas of the Great
Plains. The first inch of no-till soil contains more aggregates and is two to seven times less vulnerable than that
of ploughed soil. More organic matter in this layer is thought to help hold soil particles together.[37]

No ploughing also means less airborne dust.

Water

No-till farming improves water retention: crop residues helps water from natural precipitation and irrigation to
infiltrate the soil. Residue limits evaporation, conserving water. Evaporation from tilling reduces the amount of
water by around 1/3 to 3/4 inches (0.85 to 1.9 cm) per pass.[38]

Gully formation can cause soil erosion in some crops such as soybeans with no-tillage, although models of
other crops under no-tillage show less erosion than conventional tillage. Grass waterways can be a
solution.[39] Any gullies that form in fields not being tilled get deeper each year instead of being smoothed out
by regular plowing.

A problem in some fields is water saturation in soils. Switching to no-till farming may increase drainage
because soil under continuous no-till include a higher water infiltration rate.[40]

Biota and wildlife

No-tilled fields often have more annelids,[41] invertebrates and wildlife such as deer mice.[42]

Albedo

Tillage lowers the albedo of croplands. The potential for global cooling as a result of increased albedo in no-till
croplands is similar in magnitude to other biogeochemical carbon sequestration processes.[43]
See also
Conventional tillage
Carbon farming
Broadfork, a tool to aerate the soil without overturning
Masanobu Fukuoka, one of the pioneers of no-till grain cultivation
Natural farming
Conservation agriculture
No-dig gardening
Permaculture
Strip-till

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on.htm). Retrieved April 17, 2009. Missing or empty |title= (help)
39. Elton Robinson (Aug 1, 2008). "Tilling ephemeral gullies can cost you soil" (https://web.archive.
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40. Kindig, Wendy. "No till/Cover Crops Articles" (http://www.yorkccd.org/agricultural-programs/no-t
illcover-crops-articles/). York County Conservation District. Retrieved 2 April 2011.
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act). 39 (5). Journal of Soil and Water Conservation. Retrieved 2010-05-09.
43. D. B. Lobell, G. Bala and P. B. Duffy; D. B. Lobell; G. Bala; P. B. Duffy (2006-03-23).
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Further reading
Wright, Sylvia (Winter 2006). "Pay Dirt" (https://web.archive.org/web/20110718052053/http://uc
davismagazine.ucdavis.edu/issues/win06/feature_3.html). UC Davis Magazine. pp. 24–27.
Archived from the original (http://ucdavismagazine.ucdavis.edu/issues/win06/feature_3.html)
on 2011-07-18. Retrieved 2011-02-26.
Philpott, Tom (2013-09-09). "One Weird Trick to Fix Farms Forever" (https://www.motherjones.c
om/environment/2013/09/cover-crops-no-till-david-brandt-farms). Mother Jones. Retrieved
2014-03-14.
Montgomery, David R. (2007). Dirt: the erosion of civilizations (https://archive.org/details/dirtero
sionofciv0000mont). Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520248700.

External links
Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Lubbock; along with New Mexico
University Extension Service (http://lubbock.tamu.edu/cover-crops). No-till and Cover Crops for
Texas and New Mexico.
No-Till Farmer Website (http://www.no-tillfarmer.com)

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