Extension Logo
Extension Logo
University of Minnesota Extension
extension.umn.edu

Reducing tillage intensity

Crop residue in a reduced tillage system

Reducing soil tillage intensity presents many benefits, challenges and some required changes to your field operations. Benefits include:

  • Reduced soil erosion, fuel use, time and labor.
  • Building soil organic matter.
  • Improved soil structure.
  • Maintaining options for soil warm up and dry down in the spring months.

Conversely, the challenges include:

  • Learning a new tillage system.
  • Changing equipment costs.
  • Managing residue build-up over time.
  • Patience.
  • Perhaps going against local traditions.

Benefits of reduced tillage

 | 

Changing tillage practices

When considering a change in tillage practice, you’ll need to change many other parts of your system. For example, weed control and fertilizer applications that worked with chisel plowing likely won’t work well for a no-till system, and vice versa.

Changes to the system may not always line up well with family or neighbor traditions and perceptions. Increasing your farm’s efficiency will likely require a combination of traditional and innovative adjustments to field operations in order to achieve the greatest economic gains.

 | 

Authors: Jodi DeJong-Hughes, UMN Extension educator and Aaron Daigh, soil scientist, North Dakota State University

Reviewed in 2022

Page survey

© 2024 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved. The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.