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Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot | Are in a rotation with a root crop. Potatoes, onions, in our area. There is no other way yet invented to get the soil loose enough to plant and harvest those crops other than tillage, and at times lots of it. Ground coming out of alfalfa here is so packed it can take ripping several passes, maybe plowing, and then rototilling at least once, often several times. The end result is to have 'fluff'. Lots cheaper than having any clods or residue which will end up getting dug with the crop and hauled out of the field. As expensive as tillage is, hauling your soil out of the field is even worse.
Then, after those crops are dug (with the neccesary truck traffic involved) you more or less have roads packed into the fields. Take the plow out again. Yes, in that case you could be plowing bare soil, but it is neccessary to remove tracks and get the ground loose enough to plant into.
Any irrigated ground can add its own set of challenges as well, with leveling ground etc. When your spending over a $100 acre on water alone it can make sense to do a little tillage to get water to go in the ground, get water off the ground etc.
As an alfalfa grower as well, I can assure you that any rough fields will get any tillage we feel needed to get them smooth as well. Before you plant a stand is the only chance you have to get them smooth, they only get rougher from there. Just gopher mounds alone can make a field so rough it needs plowed and landplaned. I've seen hay fields get packed hard enough the irrigation water will not penetrate. You could no till a grain crop into them, but it sure wouldn't grow much without water. Different soils I'm sure are different, but here here a pass with a plow sure can pay once in a while. | |
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Recreational tillage ... feel better already
