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Callao, Missouri | The first big rain will look like the no-till washes more. After that big rain, the tilled ground has melted back together, and both now erode, but the worked ground will be at a higher rate because of the lack of protection from the residue. This point has really been driven home here the last few years. I have worked some ground with a phillips harrow, other with a field cultivator. After the big rain, the ground worked with the phillips harrow appeared to have lost the entire hillsides in sheets. The FC ground looked slightly rippled. But at the end of the year, the FC ground had more impressive ditches and sediment areas.
The notill can continue to gully wash worse than the conventional because nothing corrective is normally done. But in looking at our ground vs conventional neighbors, it is evident that the notill ground has a lot more topsoil. Although annoying, it takes a long time to really ruin a farm from gulley erosion. Sheet erosion can finish a hillside off pretty quick.
Notill is only part of the puzzle. Some other important parts are living cover, soil health, and crop rotation. I now try to plant every acre of hill ground to some sort of cover after soybeans. This is normally wheat. Unfortunately, wheat is not a money maker for us. I haven't figured out how to handle this yet.
Most of our upland has been no-tilled for over 20 years. I wouldn't make a claim that it's better than it's ever been, but it seems to be a little more forgiving than other ground. It can also be VERY wet when everyone else is already running, but also more firm at harvest.
Of course, all my ramblings are about my farm in NE Missouri. I wouldn't expect it to be the same where you are. But you might try to find a way to measure how much soil loss you are dealing with throughout the year, rather than immediately after working the ground. Just my observations.
BTW, on the bottom ground...its still 'fire up the iron!' for me. Just not on my hills. | |
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any long term no-tillers?
