Purdue News
Purdue News
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March 23, 2001 No-till farming remains popular choiceWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Improved water quality and reduced soil erosion are two benefits farmers will gain if they use no-till practices this spring. No-till involves planting into last year's crop residue without tilling the soil. And like other tillage systems, herbicides are used for weed control. Conservation tillage includes any system leaving 30 percent or more crop residue cover on the soil surface after planting, says Mark Evans, soil and water conservation specialist with Purdue University Cooperative Extension Services and Clean Water Indiana. "No-till is without question the most effective conservation practice for reducing soil erosion and improving water quality," Evans says. "The crop residue cover and infiltration rates associated with continuous no-till reduce more agricultural runoff of contaminants than other tillage systems." Hoosier farmers began to see the benefits of no-till in 1990, when 9 percent of corn and 8 percent of soybean fields were planted no-till, says Evans. In 1995, Indiana became the first Corn Belt state with more than half of its soybeans planted no-till. Indiana remains a no-till leader in the Corn Belt. Last year in Indiana, 21 percent of corn and 60 percent of soybeans were no-till, Evans says. "I believe there probably will be some increase in the amount of no-till acres this year," says Dan Towery, natural resource specialist at the Conservation Technology Information Center at Purdue. "When no-till is used, there is a $20 to $30 an acre decrease in production costs. Farmers have shown it works and is easy, especially with no-till soybeans." Evans says Indiana's no-till acres are primarily in a corn and soybean rotation. The top five counties in no-till corn acreage last year were Scott, Harrison, Switzerland, Washington and Clark. The leading counties in no-till soybeans were Harrison, Scott, Switzerland, Madison and Randolph. Climate and soil in southern Indiana make for more favorable no-till conditions. Some Hoosier farmers need to modify their no-till system to overcome soil challenges, such as cold or wet conditions at planting. Fall strip-tillage and vertical zone-tillage are examples of a modified no-till system for corn that can overcome these problems, says Towery. For farmers who do not use no-till, there are other conservation tillage options in place such as mulch-till, which is a full-width tillage system that leaves at least 30 percent residue after planting. "Overall, conservation tillage was used on 51 percent of Indiana's annually planted cropland last year," says Evans. "Filter strips and buffers are good practices, but alone they cannot adequately protect fields from soil erosion." Towery says if conservation tillage is not practiced above a filter strip it may only function for a few years before filling with sediment. "No-till combined with filter strips and buffers is the best of both worlds," he says. "No-till prevents most of the soil erosion and the buffers are a second line of defense when intense storms occur." In Indiana, the tolerable amount of soil that can be lost while maintaining soil productivity, or T-value, is three to five tons per acre annually, says Evans. He says because of conservation tillage, 75 percent of Hoosier cropland last year had soil erosion rates at or below the tolerable level. Growers using a continuous no-till system are actually increasing organic matter and improving many other soil properties, says Towery. Conservation tillage information is available in Extension publication AGRY-00-02, titled "Conservation tillage update: Keeping soil covered and water clean in the new millennium." The free publication may be obtained by calling (765) 494-4795. Sources: Mark Evans, (765) 653-9785, mevans@purdue.edu Dan Towery, (765) 494-6952, towery@ctic.purdue.edu Writer: Jennifer Doup, (765) 494-6682, jdoup@aes.purdue.edu Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu Related Web sites:
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