Bring Tillage and the Plow Back From Exile
By Warren Affeldt, President; Minnesota Association of Wheat Growers
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Prairie Grains is the
official publication of
the Minnesota
Association of
Wheat Growers,
North Dakota Grain
Growers Association,
South Dakota Wheat,
Inc., and the
Minnesota Barley
Growers Association.
No-till and minimum till are deemed as politically correct terms of cropland management today. The dirty words? Tillage. Moldboard plow.
I don't mean to be contentious with those who advocate and practice no-till and minimum till. Indeed, there are benefits to the practices, foremost being better soil and water protection, which indeed is a worthy and necessary goal.
However, it seems that in the ambition to promote alternative practices, their negative ramifications, as well as the beneficial effects of tillage, have been downplayed.
Getting crops off to an early start is important in our northern climates. In my experiences, fall moldboard-plowed fields warm up faster in the spring, five to seven days earlier than chisel plowing.
I have one field as a good example. One half of it we plowed and the other we chiseled, because it is considered highly erodible under conservation compliance. You could see the difference. The plowed half yielded better.
For all the research and documentation on how reduced tillage methods outyield crops grown on conventionally-tilled ground, there are just as many or more farmers who will testify that the reverse is true.
Plowing is a one-time over operation compared to two or more with chiseling or stubble-mulch. And weed competition seems less on plowed ground, perhaps due to the crop getting off to an earlier start. Less weed competition means a reduced need for chemical weed control and less price dockage at harvest.
The soggy growing seasons of late bring us to another related effect -- crop diseases. Roger Jones, University of Minnesota extension plant pathologist, says that although not a cure-all, plowing will reduce the inoculum of residue-borne diseases including scab, tan spot, septoria leaf and glume blotch, speckled leaf blotch, and bacterial leaf streak.
It's the goal of the Minnesota Association of Wheat Growers to urge regulators, environmentalists, lawmakers, media and farm educators that farmers need the flexibility to choose the type of tillage practices that work best on their farm in given situations.
I believe the growing season conditions should be the guide. When it's dry, reduced tillage methods are warranted. In wet conditions, when field residue is a virtual breeding haven for crop diseases, the moldboard plow and tillage should not be looked upon as dirty words. Rather, as appropriate tools for cropland management.