Re: soil erosion/no till

jwright@telusplanet.net
Tue, 22 Apr 1997 19:22:33 -0600

Steve Groff wrote: <snip>
With the
>use of cover crops and crop rotation, commercial fertilizer and
>pesticides can be SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCED by using no-tillage . This has
>great appeal where
>cash for imputs is scarce and for those of us who want to make a decent
>living while working with nature as it does its part in helping to
>produce a healthy food product. It's time we as sustainable advocates
>stop turning our backs to soil erosion!

>Ray R. Weil wrote: <snip>
Doing this completely without
herbicides is a tremendous challenge, one that our research has only
partially accomplished. Until that goal is realized, I truely believe that
the trade-off between the possible ecosystem disruption of careful herbicide
use and the certain, major disruption of tillage is positive one. Ask any
earthworm!

Hello all,

I'm curious about how/why you would grow a
cover crop in a no tillage system? Are you
talking about land at extreme risk of water
erosion in the non-cropping season?

I agree that soil erosion is one of the pervasive
and and permanent treats to sustainability.

Are there any large scale no-till cropping
systems that minimise herbicide use? Or are
you talking about using a "little" less
than conventional systems?

Jim Wright

Jim Wright
Box 129
Lougheed Alberta Canada
T0B 2V0
403 386-2479