NO-TILL, EVERYONE WINS
            “Harvest is moving along at a pace like I have never seen before. If the weather holds there is a pretty good chance that by mid to late October most of the crops will be harvested,” writes Jim Ritterbusch, NRCS District Conservationist, in his report to the October meeting of the Soil and Water Conservation District Board. “That is the good news; the bad news is that, that leaves plenty of time for fall tillage. You know the story on bean stubble [any tillage at all will leave the field short of the requirements for your conservation plan], but [we need to] get the word out about watching the tillage that is done even on our corn stalks. You can already see fall tillage being done.”
            Ritterbusch urges farmers to talk to each other about the importance of trying to leave as much residue on the soils surface as possible. He explains that today’s planters can handle a lot of residue and says he believes that you cannot leave too much residue.
            We all receive environmental benefits when agricultural producers practice no-till farming. Cleaner water and less dirt in the air resulting from no-till farming benefit urban and rural residents alike. Wildlife habitat is established. No-till reduces greenhouse gases normally emitted when tillage is used since soil disturbance stimulates much of the microbial activity that converts organic matter and nitrogen fertilizer into the green house gases. The minimum soil disturbance of no-till keeps carbon in the soil and carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere.
            For the producer, no-till farming improves soil quality and controls erosion. It lowers production costs by using less fuel with less wear and tear on equipment. Residue keeps the rain where it falls in the fields. Fewer trips over the field mean less compaction. No-till encourages worm activity that results in worms keeping the soil loose and thereby encouraging root growth. Research has also shown that crop yields do not suffer with no-till, in fact, yields even increase. www.ars.usda.gov.
            Staff from the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Illinois is discouraging farmers from fall tillage operations. “With such an early harvest and yields so good, you might be tempted to get back on that equipment and disk things up a bit,” says NRCS State Conservation Agronomist Brett Roberts. “Unless you just like wasting gas or destroying good soil structure, I’d ask you to do something else this fall—do some early Christmas shopping, paint that basement or just read a book—but leave that residue alone and let the soil quality characteristics you’ve built over the last year sit tight. Resist that urge to turn that soil over,” adds Roberts. www.il.nrcs.usda.gov.          
            Fall is the time to determine how healthy your soil will be for the next crop.

Della Moen, Earth Team Volunteer, NRCS/Stephenson Soil and Water Conservation District, an equal opportunity provider and employer, 10/17/07 (for publication on 10/20/07 in the Journal-Standard, Freeport, Illinois). Della can be reached at info@stephensonswcd.org