Development and future of conservation tillage in America
2002
Morrison,jr., J. (USDA, Agricultural Research Service (USA))
Conservation tillage farming systems started in the USA after the terrible wind erosion problems of the 1930's. Conservation tillage started in the 1950's with research experiments and very limited adoption by farmers of methods to seed crops without soil-inversion plowing, or at least to reduce the number of field procedures required to till and seed a crop. In the early 1960's, more weed-control herbicides became available and researchers from universities and farm machinery manufacturers started to design "minimum-tillage" and "no-tillage" seeders for both row crops and cereal grains. The 1990's development of residue-raking devices for seeders, to clear residues from the paths of the furrow openers, has been a significant advancement allowing the practice of no-tillage seeding of row crops into soils with thick crop residue coverage. Modern fertilizer applicators are equipped with low-disturbance coulter blades and depth-control wheels to place fertilizers beside crop rows or between cereal grain rows. For the future, there are anticipate the union of conservation tillage with "Precision Agriculture" for site-specific management and control of the important elements of conservation tillage, including residue management, soil compaction, seeding rates, fertilization rates, weed control, tillage depth, and seeding depth, for both drylands and irrigated regions
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