Win-win
No-till farming and gardening saves time and fuel and helps the soil



The spring planting season is upon us, but farmers and gardeners have alternatives to traditionally-tilled plots, according to experts at Cornell Cooperative Extension and the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education organization.

Environmentally-friendly farming and gardening methods can actually improve soil health, and increase yields. Reduced-tillage practices, which have been used for 30 years in this country, have improved since they were first introduced, according to Thomas Kilcer, a Cornell Cooperative Extension plant and soils specialist for Rensselaer, Albany, and Schenectady counties.

The methods vary, but each results in less tillage, causing less harm to the soil, and even improving the soil by building up organic matter. An inch of top soil can take up to 100 years to develop. Run-off from plowed fields can wash away nutrients or, worse, remove the precious topsoil altogether.

Some innovative farmers are now practicing no-till, and zone- or strip-till methods.
"No-till planting is coming closer to what nature does. Nature doesn’t turn all of the soil over," Kilcer said. "We can build the organic matter levels in the soil. It helps the ability to not go anaerobic. Keeping soil from washing away is the reason for no-till. The mold-board plow was mainly to kill the weeds."
No-till works "very well," Kilcer said. The farmer opens a little slit in the soil, puts in the seed and fertilizer, and uses a herbicide that breaks down quickly.

Early on, many farmers rejected no-till practices because it was difficult to control weeds.
"Now that we have a range of herbicides that are safer [than 30 years ago], we can control the weeds," said Kilcer.

Steve Groff, owner of Cedar Meadow Farm in Holtwood, Pa., is an educator and speaker with SARE. He has successfully used no-till practices on up to 200 acres of vegetables on his farm for 30 years. His neighbors have slowly followed suit.
"There is a consistent increase of usage of no-till, but that did not happen until I was successful for 10 years," Groff said. "In my immediate neighborhood, no-till acreage has increased to nearly half of all acres planted. In Lancaster County, no-till is over 20 percent now. No-till is increasing around the United States."

Benefits
Besides the savings to the soil health, and a decrease in soil compaction from the many traditional passes over the fields needed with traditional plowing, no-till practices offer "huge fuel savings" to farmers, Kilcer said. Energy costs can be cut to one-tenth those of regular mold-board plowing. Traditional plowing moves two million pounds of soil in every acre.
"That was a lot of energy. With no-till, we don’t have to move that," Kilcer said.

Local farmer Timothy Stanton of Feura Farm in Feura Bush uses strip-till methods, where only the row being planted is disturbed, rather than the whole field. Stanton said that one of the biggest benefits to him is the time savings.
"You go across the field once, and then plant," he said. Traditionally, several passes to plow, furrow, and prepare the soil are needed.
"The biggest benefit of this whole thing is it’s better for the soil," Stanton said. Reduced-tillage stops erosion and does not damage worms in the soil.
"That’s a really important thing for your soil, is earthworms," Stanton said.

Kilcer said that two sample areas from a local farm using both traditional and reduced-tillage methods were compared for earthworm populations. In the plowed 30-square-foot area, two large night crawlers were found. (Smaller worms were not included in the counts.) In the no-till area of the same size, between 50 and 60 large earthworms were found.
"Worms are important," Kilcer said. "They drill holes down through the soil which allow water in and out. They chew up the soil and leave compost for plants to use." Full-scale plowing breaks up the airflow in the soil and smothers the worms, Kilcer said.

Modifications

One deterrent to some farmers is the cost of new equipment for reduced-tillage.
"The biggest problem we had was the machine. It was really expensive," Stanton said. He began using reduced-tillage methods two years ago. The first year, he and his other interested farmers borrowed the necessary equipment from a dealer. Last year, he bought his own for about $12,000.

A shank on the equipment goes down in the soil, then discs disturb a small band of soil where the farmer will plant.
Kilcer said that newer planters need only minor modifications. A Schenectady County farmer, he said, converted a new planter for about $1,500, Kilcer said. "He said he’d pay it back in one week of fuel savings," Kilcer said.
Gardeners with a backyard plot, rather than acres of crops, can still practice no-till or reduced-till methods, Kilcer said. When grabbing a hand-held cultivator, Kilcer said, gardeners should remember "less is always more." Gardeners can use weed barriers to keep weeds from growing through. The newer barriers sold at garden stores let water through but not sunlight, he said. Gardeners cut slits in the barriers and plant through them.
"No-till can work in any scale, as the fundamental principles are the same," Groff said. "You have to adapt to your given situation, though. The reason why some farmers make it work and others can’t is complex. However, it is educating oneself, attention to details, and a higher level of management that is a common denominator of those who succeed."
The type of tillage to use is not one-size-fits-all, Kilcer said. "There’s no perfect system, like there’s no perfect crop." Fields coming out of hay and into corn will do well with no-till, but the soil breaks down after the first crop and strip-tillage should be used then, as should rotation from row crops to grass, Kilcer said.
"Rotation is an old, old practice that still works," he said.

Stanton converted 80 percent of his Feura Bush farm to strip-tilled crops, and he may do more this year. Last year, he put in 40 acres of sweet corn, and 10 acres of pumpkins. Previously, he had grown no-till field corn, but the method had its disadvantages.
"It never worked very well with sweet corn," Stanton said. He moved to strip-tilling afterward, and his yield has only been slightly less than what he would have gotten with traditional plowing. Stanton, however, said that the time savings with only one pass with the equipment more than made up for the insignificant reduction in yield.
"Overall, it’s going to be less expensive," Stanton said. "It’s not as much time, that’s for sure."
Weed control is important in the strips not tilled. "You have to be a little more diligent," Stanton said.
Crops with long growing seasons need warm earth earlier, and traditional plowing accomplishes that. Stanton said that he is still not convinced that he can put in his early crops using reduced-till methods, but he said, "We’re trying it."

No-till methods have been used in the Midwest for soybean and field corn crops for years, Stanton said, but the methods are now being applied here in the Northeast.
"Sloping land [receives] some of the most benefits of no-tilling because it reduces soil erosion," Groff said. "An added advantage is that you don't have to pick up rocks that get plowed up by tillage."
"It’s kind of exciting because it’s a win-win situation," Stanton said. "It’s going to help us with time and help the crop, and it’s really going to help the soil." He said that reduced-till methods are environmentally friendly and farmer friendly.

Year-round methods

Cover crops add to the health of the soil, and they can be planted using no-till methods, also.
"The best thing for soil health is always having something growing on the field," Kilcer said. After a corn crop, he said, a farmer can use a winter rye like triticale. A farmer can also plant a grass crop with a soil-building root system after a vegetable crop.

Groff agrees. On his website www.cedarmeadowfarm.com, he writes extensively about the uses of cover crops, which he grows on his fields.
"Farming isn’t as simple as people think. It can be very complicated," Kilcer said. "Farmers do care very much about their soil. Farmers who don’t take care of it don’t stay in business very long."
He suggested that gardeners or farmers with questions about reduced-tillage methods contact the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Albany County at 765-3500. "They have an excellent Master Gardener program," he said.