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NW TX Panhandle | Following silage, due to windy early fall & spring, we have to follow-up silage with wheat to provide cover. A light vertical tillage is ok if need to take out some light wheel tracks. If there are deep ruts due to moisture conditions at harvest, we're stuck back in the same cycle of tillage. In the current drought its becoming apparent that tillage is not a good practice in our country. The period of time a field is in alfalfa w/o tillage occurring, is just as beneficial as anything else the alfalfa may provide to the next crop. I think this benefit is overlooked & not really credited when taking a field out of hay. We're receiving 4 to 6" of precipitation annually. The lack of moisture is compounding our soils naturally low OM to begin with. Spots with very low OM just don't take in water & therefore production in these spots is low, creating even less residue for soil cover & breakdown. It's a tough cycle to be in. Rain fixes a lot of problems & that's something were trying to deal with. For the past 3 years, strip-till & no-till fields have done a better job of holding their own in yields & condition. Not sure what were doing here would help as much in other areas, but it's the best we can do.
Edited by dwigg 4/19/2014 20:12
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Explain the concept of a crop being "hard on the soil"
