I no-till for 3 reasons: Increase profits, save soil and reduce
pesticides. This is done successfully by using cover crops, intensive
crop rotation, and long-term no-tillage. I can't say enough how cover
crops are the key to make this system work.
In the last 10 years on our farm:
Soil erosion has been cut from 14 tons per acre to almost nothing.
OM has gone from 2.7% to 4%
Herbicide use for corn and beans has dropped from $25 bucks/A to$18/A (I
quit using insecticides on corn unless rescue treatment is necessary.)
Total pesticide use on tomatoes has dropped from $200/A to $75/A
Beneficial insects have increased
Soil aggregate stability in fields tilled recently (less than 10 years)
is 16% and fields that have not been tilled for over 10 years is 67%
Water infiltration has increased.
Soil microbial biomass has tripled.
Yields have increased 10%
Total pesticide usage on the whole farm has decreased 50%
If your interested in more info on this, look up our website:
http://www.cedarmeadowfarm.com Also, Janet mentioned the video I made
on "No-till Vegetables". Info for that is on the website.
I know some organic farmers who are no-tilling tomatoes. I think it can
be done on a small scale.
As Steve Diver mentioned, soil erosion is the most detrimental aspect of
agriculture. We can't turn our backs on soil erosion and call ourselves
sustainable! SOIL WAS MEANT TO BE COVERED! No-till has some very
attractive "sustainable" attributes especially when combined with cover
crops.
Let's not debate "no-till vs. organic", but rather discuss the positive
benefits from each system and how they can be integrated with one
another. This is what sustainable agriculture is all about!
Steve Groff
--
"New Generation Cropping Systems": the cutting edge of sustainable
agriculture
http://www.cedarmeadowfarm.com
Steve Groff
Cedar Meadow Farm
679 Hilldale Rd
Holtwood PA 17532 USA
Ph. 717-284-5152
To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with "unsubscribe sanet-mg".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".