In the expansive fields of eastern Colorado, no-tiller Scott Ravenkamp is fighting a silent war against fallow.

Field by field, Scott and his uncle Lyle are doing their best to debunk myths and “rules” that have become entrenched with many farmers in the semi-arid western U.S.

While winter wheat-summer fallow systems tend to dominate the region, the Ravenkamps have eliminated fallow seasons on their 6,500-acre farm near Hugo, Colo., and introduced a “full-flex rotation” that includes cover crops and small grains other than winter wheat.

They’re also beginning to wean their farm ground off commercial fertilizers by replacing it with compost, as well as seeding cover crops and native grasses, and dabbling in mob grazing. They’re determined never to go back to chemical fallow.

“We lose more moisture than we actually use with fallow. I’m absolutely convinced of it,” Scott says. “Digging through the research, I think we conserve 50% of moisture with fallow, if we’re lucky, and maybe only 25%. And some farmers wonder why their fields turn to baked bricks. It’s horrible for the soil to not have anything growing on it.”

Goodbye To Fallow

Ravenkamp Farms spans parts of two counties in eastern Colorado and sits at an elevation of 5,400 to 5,800 feet. Annual rainfall is only 12 to 14 inches and they mostly farm sandy loam and silt loam soils.

The Ravenkamps began to reduce tillage operations on their farm in the late 1990s, around the same time they decided to phase out chemical fallow…