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South Dakota | What you're vocalizing is a concern and it's why people get really in the weeds about coulters, openers, closing wheels etc. When the soil conditions are where they should be and there is good soil cover, you can barely tell that a planter went through. When there is just a small slit made in the soil it heals itself quickly. I really like strip till, but there's no mistaking where a strip till machine has gone. I do like the idea of placing the strip in the same spot every year. With all of that being said, I've seen yield comparisons of different tillage implement combinations vs no till and in my area, no till has shown an advantage by both SDSU and Nebraska. I have not seen a comparison of biological activity, but that would be interesting. Let me rephrase that, I haven't seen a comparison of where the line is at for soil disturbance with regards to disk openers or spiked closing wheels, etc, I'm sure that would be difficult to measure. The studies I've seen comparing biological activity with full width tillage and no till is obvious, no till preserves soil organisms. Tillage also selects for lower order soil organisms. You will see way more bacteria and very little fungi in soils that have experienced full width tillage. Along with that, more soil disturbance equals less water holding capacity, less structure, and more runoff. The idea is to reduce disturbance as much as possible. | |
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No-Till
