12.5.4: Summary

We have learned that tillage can be very damaging to soil health. Reducing the intensity of tillage can help improve it in many ways. It is especially critical to building organic matter and soil health on fields that don’t receive regular manure or compost additions. Maintaining more residue on the surface reduces runoff and erosion, while the reduction in soil disturbance allows for earthworm holes and old root channels to rapidly conduct water from intense rainstorms into the soil. Also, reduced tillage in the long run increases soil organic matter levels and helps sequester carbon. There are many choices of reduced tillage systems, and a lot of innovative equipment is available to help farmers succeed. Using cover crops along with no-till or reduced tillage has been found to be a winning combination, as it provides surface cover rapidly and helps to control weeds.

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