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Park Your Plow: 5 Tips for the No-Till-Curious
Park Your Plow: 5 Tips for the No-Till-Courious
Posted by Elizabeth Creech, Natural Resources Conservation Service in Farming Conservation Nov 05, 2018
Reduced erosion. Saved time and fuel. Improved nutrient cycling, soil moisture, and resiliency in the face of drought. You likely already know the potential benefits of no-till.No-till farmers grow crops with minimal disturbance to their fields and the organisms that call them home. This builds healthier soils while reducing money spent on fuel and labor – a win-win.With harvest season winding down, you’re no doubt making an important decision for your working land. Will you hook up the plow, or is this the year you’ll park it for good? If you’d like to try no-till, we wrote this for you.
No-till minimizes soil disturbance while leaving valuable cover and reducing erosion. Photo Credit: Jason Johnson, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service
Use these 5 tips to go from no-till-curious to no-till farmer.
- Spread your residue during fall harvest.
Plowing isn’t the only way to prepare a field for next spring’s planting.Evenly distribute residue that will be left in the field while harvesting your cash crop to manage against erosion and allow for a uniform breakdown of nutrients and organic matter. Residue can provide a valuable base of cover for your ground over winter.
Prepare for a successful spring planting with an even distribution of residue left over from your fall harvest. Photo Credit: Jason Johnson, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service
- Don’t forget about cover crops.
Farmers traditionally till to break up soil and prepare seedbeds. Over time, tillage can degrade structure and create highly compacted soils that seemingly “need” to be tilled before spring planting.Plant cool-season cover crops to reduce compaction, build organic matter, and hold your soil in place. Make sure to pick a cover crop species or mix that compliments your cash crop.If you’re starting with a highly-compacted field, use cover crop species that are meant to break up compaction. Daikon radish is often one great option.
Daikon radish – commonly called tillage radish – can break up plow pans while adding organic matter. Photo Credit: USDA
- Choose equipment with your end-goal in mind.
Simple but critical: Plan before you buy.Will you plant next year’s cash crop into green cover, terminated cover, or fall residue? Will you drill or broadcast your seeds? Your operation may change over time, but establishing working goals now will keep you from buying equipment you don’t ultimately want.Some USDA service centers have no-till drills and other equipment you can rent for minimal fees to get started. All offices are staffed with experts who’d be happy to talk through your specific management goals.
Think about how you’ll terminate your cover and plant your cash crop next spring. Using a roller crimper with a no-till drill is just one option. Photo Credit: Jason Johnson, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service
- Treat no-till adoption as a marathon, not a sprint. Track results along the way.
Building healthy, resilient soil takes time. Some farmers report yield increases after their first year of no-till, but that shouldn’t be your main goal. You can quantify several economic benefits of switching to no-till: fuel savings, time savings, eventual fertilizer reductions. By tracking these measures along with changes in yield, you’ll gain a truer sense of the impact of no-till across your operation.Have your soil tested at least once every four years and conduct your own informal assessments regularly.
Take note of the life inside of your soil, and how it changes over time. Healthy soils are generally full of earthworms and other organisms. Photo Credit: Colette Kessler, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service
- Give us a visit. We’re here to help.
Stop by your local service center to learn more about integrating no-till and other conservation practices into your management plan. We’re here to help you reach conservation goals that support your farm’s production needs.
Visit your local USDA service center today to get started with a conservation plan for your working land. Photo Credit: Jason Johnson, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service
Farmers across the country have reduced erosion, held valuable nutrients in-field, saved money on fuel, and increased their soil’s resiliency by minimizing tillage.
Is this the year you’ll try no-till? If so, having a strong plan in place will help you leave your plow parked for good.
Elizabeth Creech is a public affairs specialist serving USDA's Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Risk Management Agency. She can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
I’m Not Going to Turn Another Clod
Plunging his shovel into a wheat field covered in soybean residue, Gary Hula hefts up a mound of crumbly soil with a grin. The county is under moderate drought and it’s just above freezing outside, but the soil in his shovel is full of moisture and riddled with worm holes—sure signs of healthy soil.
It’s been more than twelve years since Pond Creek was listed as an impaired waterbody, and it’s not just the soils that are unrecognizable. Working with their local NRCS Conservation Planner and the Grant County Conservation District, farmers like Hula—throughout the Pond Creek watershed—are adopting conservation practices that improve water quality. Over 10,000 acres are under nutrient management plans that save farmers money and reduce excess fertilizer getting into streams. Prescribed grazing, grade stabilization structures, range planting and waterway rehabilitation measures have also been adopted on thousands of acres across the county.
Healthier Soil and Cleaner Water
Gary Hula is a wheat, soybean and milo farmer in northern Oklahoma who’s been driving a tractor since before he could drive a car. “When I was growing up, we plowed every acre,” he recalls. “Before we went to no-till, we worked the ground too much. It was so dusty, you couldn’t see to plant a row of wheat,” said Hula. “The soil was like flour, it would just pile up in front of the tractor tires.”
It’s a familiar story in Grant County, where water makes its way to the Mississippi River by way of the Arkansas. It’s also a story that’s been changing since Pond Creek’s water quality issues were discovered.
In 2004, data collected by the Oklahoma Conservation Commission revealed Pond Creek was impaired for elevated turbidity, high concentrations of E. coli and low dissolved oxygen as a result of tilled field runoff and animal waste. By voluntarily implementing conservation practices, farmers and ranchers like Hula are learning that the techniques that make their operations more resilient are the same techniques that revitalize the ecosystems they work in.
Conservation That Works
After four years of planting without a plow, Hula’s soils are unrecognizable—armored by crop residue and full of life. Applying extra nitrogen fertilizer on a single strip at planting allows Hula to more precisely measure fertilizer needs in the growing season, reducing nitrogen runoff. Protecting permanent vegetation along streams on his land means any runoff Hula does produce is filtered on its way to the creek.
Before adopting these conservation practices, Hula watched his neighbors’ success for years. He remembers seeing muddy water roll off his tilled fields while clear water ran off neighboring no-till fields. In the winter, snow accumulated in the residue of no-till fields, hydrating winter wheat, while winds sapped precious moisture from his own tilled fields.
Finally, Hula committed to change: “You’re either part of the problem or part of the solution…I’m not going to turn another clod,” he said.
Four years of no-till and two years of cover crops later, Hula hasn’t looked back. By not disturbing the soil and by keeping living plants in the ground year-round, residue, organic matter and microbes are creating soil structure that stops erosion despite wind and rain and absorbs water and keeps it there longer than tilled soil.
Today, new water quality data shows Pond Creek is clearer, has less bacteriaand a booming fish population despite recent drought. Which is why in 2014, Pond Creek was added to Oklahoma's growing list of delisted streams restored in working agricultural land.Thousands of acres of no-till, prescribed grazing, cover crops and other high-impact conservation practices have drastically improved the water quality in Pond Creek—benefiting neighbors from Tulsa all the way down to New Orleans.
Top five practices to reduce runoff and erosion in Pond Creek:
1.Grass planting
2.No-till
3.Grade stabilization
4.Waterway rehabilitation
5.Prescribed grazing
For Gary Hula’s part, he’s eager to continue experimenting with cover crops and reintroducing natural systems on his operation. Unlike many farmers who sell their old plow when they switch to no-till, Hula kept his. It sits rusting next to his new no-till drill. "My father made his living breaking horses to pull a plow,” he said. “I keep the old disc around to remind me of what I used to do.” New water quality data shows Pond Creek is clearer, has less bacteria and a booming fish population despite recent drought.
