July 04, 2009
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July 04, 2009 |
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Conservation tillage is the emerging technology of the day in California agriculture Driving a powerful tractor as it rips, cuts and tills under plants after harvest is a satisfying fall ritual for many row crop growers. However, farmers may be willing to give it up for the economic and environmental benefits of conservation tillage. Conservation tillage, in addition to saving money, may conserve water, reduce dust, suppress weeds, improve soil quality and even cut down the farm’s release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The practice already has a strong following in other parts of the United States, especially in places where summer rain erodes soil loosened and exposed by traditional tillage methods. In research conducted at the UC West Side Research and Extension Center, at UC Davis and on commercial ranches, scientists are finding that conservation tillage may have a future in California. "This may be something that will become more popular once successful systems are developed under California’s conditions and farmers are aware of the benefits,” said Jeff Mitchell, the UC Davis vegetable crops specialist based at the UC Kearney Agricultural Center near Parlier. Conservation tillage comes in many forms. The systems – no till, strip till, ridge rill or minimum till – dramatically reduce the number of times tractor implements disturb the soil. A cover crop may be grown during the off-season and later killed. The desired crop is then planted within the dead plant material. Other farmers may go directly from tomatoes to small grain, alfalfa to wheat or cotton to cotton by tilling a small strip of earth to create a seedbed or drilling seed into the soil. Bob Prys, agromanager for Borba Farms on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, says he’s sold on conservation tillage. “At Borba Farms, we’re always looking at new, innovative ideas to reduce our input costs,” Prys said. “Everybody knows that the prices we receive are not going up. The only thing we have control over is our inputs. Anything we can do to reduce inputs means we’re going to make more money.” Conservation tillage at Borba Farms began on a 400-acre ranch that consistently performed poorly. “This is sandy river-bottom soil. After you irrigate it a few times, the ground just locks up. It was like concrete,” Prys said. “In the (conservation tillage) test plots last year, in the middle of the season just by walking around without any technical analysis, you could tell the ground was more mellow.” Prys said conservation tillage improves yields and reduces inputs to result in savings of as much as $50 per acre. “You can buy some new equipment pretty fast with those savings,” he said. Conservation tillage is not without challenges, however. Plant residue can slow the flow of water in the furrows, make it more difficult for seeds to germinate and limit farmers to certain planting bed configurations. “There may even be issues that we are not aware of yet, such as pest and disease issues that might appear over time,” Mitchell said. “There are not slam-dunk automatic easy rules that are going to absolutely insure success, but some farmers are already using conservation tillage successfully.” The UC Conservation Tillage workgroup, chaired by Mitchell, has been invited to Georgia in February 2003 for an introduction to its conservation tillage programs. In addition, the workgroup will initiate a series of Western states conservation tillage conferences, involving farmers, researchers, consultants and private industry in California, Arizona, Nevada, Washington and Oregon. (October 2002) |