Benefits Of No Till Farming

1812 Words4 Pages

Due to many benefits of this practice, no-till farming should become the most common farming practice all around the country. To even begin to describe the benefits of no-till it would first be beneficial to know exactly what no-till is and, where it came from. After the basics of this practice are understood it will make more sense when it is explained how it will impact the earth, what physical changes one will see on the ground that is no tilled along with how the farmer’s equipment handles it, and finally you will see that financially you are better off no tilling all of your ground rather than the “old style” tilling it.

The exact definition of no-till farming is defined as “farming where the soil is left undisturbed from the time you harvest until you go to plant again the next season”, according to the HRWC website. No-till relies on all natural processes to break down residue from the previous years crop. Residue is all of the crop that is left after the actual crop is harvested. Residue can be a difficult thing to deal with when planting but with technology on the rise people have invented new styles of planters and attachments that can handle the residue economically. For all of the knowledge that this practice holds, somebody had to be very dedicated to get this system of farming out into the world. The studies had to start somewhere with all of the no-till farming that is going on today all around the world. The first person to really understand and study this type of farming was a man named Rolf Derpsch. Rolf was born in Chile in 1937, he then studied agronomy at the University of Chile in Santiago where he learned the value of the soil and the need to keep it safe and healthy. After those studies got out into the ...

... middle of paper ...

...ense that you will save money, and spending that extra money every year could be the make or break on your operation. Though most farmers don’t even blink an eye when they just write a check out for $20,000 in a single day, at the end of the year they could run into problems if they cant pay that off. One of the things farmers will see financially when they start no tilling is that they wont have as many expenses as they did when they were farming the conventional way. That means when at the end of each year the no-till farmers will have a significant larger amount of money. The Washington Post states that on average a no-till farmer is 52% more profitable that any other.

To achieve positive results with this farming practice, all of these factors have to be successfully accomplished, and with time and patience the ending results will be positively astonishing.

More about Benefits Of No Till Farming

Open Document