Tillage Methods Essay

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Recommended: Importance of tillage in crop production

As you may or may not know there are many types of farming. For those farming types, there are many tillage methods used. Depending where the farm is located is how the farmer knows what method to use. The methods used are No Till, One pass, Conventional, Conservation, and chisel plow plus. Let’s start out with No Till.
No till is the act of not working the ground. It seems simple, but it’s also very confusing for farmers or other people who have not used the No till method. Many farmers around the United States are slowly, doubtfully changing over to No till or increased crop residue tillage. The farmers that have good yield and luck with older tilling methods usually tend to stay with that certain tillage method.
The reason farmers have concerned about high residue or No till is because the water holding capacity and soil moisture. In the cold spring season if soil moisture is high, it can delay the growth of the crop. Corn gets delayed the most since corn is planted very early in the year. With …show more content…

The main tillage tool is the moldboard plow. The moldboard plow was made to turn soil over and cover all crop residue and add air to the soil. Once the plowing is done in the fall then in the spring secondary tools are used. Secondary tools include disks, harrows, and cultivators to even out the soil. A disk has round disks that breaks up the dirt clods and then the farmer would use a harrow or cultivator to make a nice smooth seedbed (economics of conservation tillage).
There are many pro’s and con’s to conventional till. The pro’s are, the plow breaks up compaction in till layers, adds the most amount of air to the soil, cuts down a lot of weed growth. Also breaks up insect cycles such as corn rootworm, cutworm, and several other plant harming insects. That will cause the farmers yield and money in their pocket(Economics of conservation

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