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mazemeister 10-09-2012 17:26:51 24.187.98.163 Report to Moderator

good to question these things, lots of people have a "i've made up my mind, don't confuse me with the facts" attitude about chemicals and tillage. the bottom line is, the soil is such a complex ecosystem and so variable, that the answer is probably different in each zip code, maybe each farm. if it's even possible to draw a definite conclusion. i (try to) make a living farming, so i make decisions partly on what equipment we have available, what experience has shown to work, and what my education would suggest. and i end up doing very different things for different crops. and if i farmed a lot more land, i'd do lots of things very differently. for example, we no-till transplant about 3 acres of pumpkins into killed rye. so from fall of the previous year till spring of the following, zero tillage; the soil is covered. that "should" be a good thing. when i disk in the straw the next spring, the ground is very soft and works up very nicely. but it only works with herbicides. and transplanting is slooowww.... so it wouldn't work at all for 50 or 100 acres. so... it depends. [Reply]   [No Email]