No-Till Is Here, It Works

Yet, it sometimes is difficult for no-tillers to listen to educators bad-mouth the reduced-tillage system that works so well for them. And it’s easy to understand why no-tillers get up in arms when they hear an educator suggest that occasionally using a plow or disc won’t harm their no-tilled soils.

Looking back over the past 38 years, it’s interesting to review a few no-till impressions I remember from around the Midwest.

• Early on, it seemed like the real boosters of no-till on numerous college campuses were ag engineers rather than agronomists.
• Many plant pathologists in the ’70s and ’80s often were against no-tilling because their answer to dealing with any disease was to plow under the crop residue.
• At some universities, there’s still disagreement between members within the agronomy department as to the value of no-till. One scientist told us recently that they have staffers who try to prove the value of no-till, while others down the hall spend their time figuring out why it will never work.
• There’s one Midwestern state where there was an Extension agronomist who constantly tore down the value of no-till in the late ‘60s and early ’70s. When he became ag dean, he changed his tune when he found a way to cash in on researching no-till.
• Another state carried out the Midwest’s most extensive and practical no-till weed-control research program. When the weed scientist retired, the ag dean stopped the project and funneled the dollars toward evaluating more…