More in Tillage

Think back 30 years. 1982. Reagan inhabited the White House. The earth was home to 4.6 billion people. Some brilliant forward-thinking scientists had created a space shuttle, the MRI diagnostic machine, and the first artificial heart. And some agricultural visionaries quietly started a conservation revolution....More

Farmers should consider the short- and long-term effects of fall tillage on their fields and not just the effects of the drought on this year's crop, says Tony Vyn, a Purdue Extension agronomist. Tillage loosens and rearranges soil aggregates with the intent of establishing a better foundation for crop seed placement and root growth, but the drought itself has already accomplished deep cracking and loosening of some soils....More

Strip-till saved Ed Hegland so much fuel that his fuel supplier thought he’d switched suppliers, says the Appleton, Minn., grower. “The switch from full-width tillage cut our fuel use roughly in half,” he says....More

The primary costs to examine when comparing no-till farms to farms with reduced or conventional tillage are labor costs, fuel costs, and herbicide. We would expect the labor and fuel costs to decline as tillage is reduced while the herbicide cost is typically expected to increase. Other cost items should be similar....More

Dave Legvold is soil savvy. When he picks up a new piece of ground, he initiates a standard transition process to decrease compaction and improve soil structure to build productivity. The Northfield, MN, farmer’s newest silty clay loam field had been poorly drained and conventionally tilled before this spring....More

Crop yield can be improved by ensuring adequate nutrient availability. But how should you place the fertilizer and what cropping system gives the best yields? Research conducted by University of Illinois Assistant Professor of Crop Sciences Fabián Fernández, Professor of Crop Sciences Emerson Nafziger and graduate student Bhupinder Farmaha looked at how tillage, and phosphorus and potassium placement and rates, affected the distribution of soybean roots and the levels of water and nutrients in the soil....More

Six years ago, brothers Tom and Jim Wagner, Primghar, IA, made a decision that changed their farming lives – and they’ve never looked back. The corn and soybean producers had shared equipment with a neighbor, using his tractor and ripper in exchange for planting his crops. When the neighbor opted for an off-farm job, he rented his land to the Wagners. He auctioned off his big tractors and tillage equipment and, as Tom and Jim weighed the possibility of taking on more land, they took a hard look at their own equipment situation....More

Many corn and soybean growers harvested record crops last fall. However, they may be facing compaction issues because of saturated soils at harvest. Combines and grain carts caused deep ruts and severe compaction issues. So what can farmers do to break up that soil and smooth out rough fields?...More

Emerson Nafziger remembers pulling a three-bottom moldboard plow years ago. “When it takes that long to till each acre, it really is tillage,” says the University of Illinois Extension crop-production specialist....More

The unusually wet conditions surrounding planting and harvest this year made quite an impact on soil conditions, prompting Randall Reeder, a recently retired Ohio State University Extension engineer, to warn farmers against "recreational tillage" between now and planting the 2012 crop....More

Time is money for Collin Jensen, who has better things to do than fall tillage. He appreciates the reduced equipment cost and fuel needs of reduced tillage, but even more he values every ounce of soil that stays on his West Union, IA, hillsides....More