Conservation Tillage

Conservation tillage refers to using a cover crop and intentionally leaving plant residue from a prior crop in the field. This modifies plant rooting structure and physiology to enable more efficient water use by crops, and water holding capacity in the soil improves. Water infiltration rates increase. Soil temperature, evaporative loss, and field runoff decrease. Converting from conventional tillage to conservation tillage can reduce water use by up to 15%.

Conservation tillage refers to methods of crop cultivation that leave the previous year’s crop residue and/or residue from cover crops on the fields from one crop season to the next. There are several types of conservation tillage methods including no-till and strip-till. No-till methods plant crops directly into residue that has not been tilled. Strip-till methods plant crops into residue that has been tilled in narrow strips while leaving the rest of the field untilled. Crop residue shields soil from rain and wind reducing soil erosion by as much as 60-90%. As the crop residue decomposes, organic matter is added to the soil improving the quality. This also allows for better water infiltration into the soil reducing runoff. Water is conserved through a reduction in evaporation and enhanced soil water holding capacity. In some cases, conservation tillage optimizes soil moisture allowing for enhanced crop growth in dry periods.