Farming, just like anything else in life, is done differently by every farmer.  They all have their methods, favorite equipment, ideas of when things need to be done, etc.  Believe me, when I worked in the USDA offices I heard all extremes of opinions on every farming subject.  So I thought I'd do a basic discussion on one type of tillage method popular around here: no till.

The term "tillage" means to prepare the ground for crops.  Conventional tillage is what most of us non-farmers think of when we think of farming, which involves turning the soil.  The idea behind turning the soil is to kill the weeds by disturbing their roots.  We've all seen old pictures of farmers on a plow.  Well a plow is one way to turn the soil.  It can also be done by disking, ripping or chiseling.   To some extent it mixes the weeds into the soil, which will decompose and eventually provide nutrients to the crops. 

I'm a soil scientist by education and a healthy soil needs organic matter, such as the weeds I mentioned above, but a soil is healthiest when its not disturbed.  I'm sure you've all seen the pictures of dust storms during the Dust Bowl.  Well, part of that was due to drought, but a lot of it was due to the way we worked the land.  In fact, we have had droughts since then, but our improved farming techniques have kept the soil from blowing away.  Before the Dust Bowl they used plows and a disk called a one-way (it turned the soil just one way).  Since that time, it has become more common practice to limit soil disturbance as much as possible to keep the soil from blowing away, which brought about the use of chisels or sweep machines.  It has helped that we also have more powerful tractors now that allow us to pull a variety of different machines.

"No till" is a style of farming where the ground is not turned and it is disturbed as little as possible.  Roy's family has been strict no-tillers for quite a while.  It takes some special equipment, but it is well worth the effort.  Weeds are killed with herbicides instead of turning the soil.  The herbicides are precisely measured and applied with use of satellite guidance so there is minimal overlap.  When a crop is harvested, stubble is left to help protect the soil from wind - the roots hold the soil together and the stubble lessens the wind's impact on the ground.  The next crop is planted directly into the stubble, which provides organic matter and protection.  The roots degrade and the voids left behind become passages for water.

No-till stubble	New crop growing in stubble.

Dryland farming is a term you'll also here a lot out here.  It's very expensive to put up a sprinkler system for a crop, so most farmers do without irrigation and that's called dryland farming.  There's not a lot of rain here and we've been in a drought for many years, so it would seem like a hard business to do without irrigation.  Since I've lived here we've worried almost every year about the moisture until we're sure the crop is going to make it.  Climate is the big reason that only certain crops can be grown in certain places  because they have to be able to survive on the amount of precipitation, temperatures, and days of sunlight that mother nature provides.  Mostly grains, corn, and sugar beets are grown in northeast CO.

Dryland farming and no till go well together.  Leaving stubble after a harvest is a good way to conserve water for the next year.  The shade from the stubble keeps the temperature down and reduces evaporation of soil moisture.  A rule of thumb that Roy told me is that every time the soil is disturbed you lose at least 0.5" of moisture, maybe more depending on the weather.  No tillers plant their next crop right into the old stubble, so the moisture beneath the surface is never exposed directly. 

There are also arguments to be made against no till, mainly because of the herbicides that are an essential part of the practice.  Many of you have noticed organic products becoming more and more popular.  Organic farming is done without use of pesticides or herbicides it's true, but the trade-off is the necessity to return to conventional tillage methods.  I'm biased as to which is better because I believe soil is most beautiful when not disturbed, but also because I don't think my husband's family would grow and sell a crop if they believed it was dangerous in any way.  Roy tells me that for grain crops the no-till herbicides are applied to the crop before the crop is planted or before the grain is exposed, so the grain never comes in contact with the chemicals.   I can't say for all farmers, but I have faith that the grain you get from this family is safe. 

I've mentioned before that I didn't grow up around farming, so this entry has come from knowledge I've gained since moving here and some coaching from Roy.  I really want this to be educational for any other non-farmers out there, so feel free to send us any questions you have either by submitting a comment or by emailing susan@ourhaxtunlife.com.  And for any farmers reading this who may have differing opinions, I invite you to submit them so that we can show a well rounded discussion.