No dig: the farmers are catching on

[Two_Sheds]

Whilst not new news, I've only just heard the phrase "min till" aka minimum tillage, aka no dig.

I was converted to no dig accidentally, by having a really bad back. It pleases me to read of "the low-impact system replacing ploughing"
"In America ... with its old mid-west memories of the 1930's dust-bowl era ...many farms have no ploughs. Eastern Europe ... is the newest convert to min-till."

Instead of the shiny brown roll of the plough's furrow,...worms, Nature's miniature ploughmen, multiply under the ground"

"Min-till results in ... better conditions for wildlife. ..France's top partridge shoots use min-till systems" and "Min-till is backed by science"

Min-tillage grows in popularity - 18/08/2006 - Farmers Weekly

Music to my ears: sweet, sweet music

[Snadger]

I just wonder how the soil structure is going to improve long term without addition of organic matter?

[solway cropper]

Wouldn't the organic matter be added to the soil surface either as slurry or manure and then drawn down by worms. That's how it works on a garden scale.

[Snadger]

Wouldn't the organic matter be added to the soil surface either as slurry or manure and then drawn down by worms. That's how it works on a garden scale.

Yes that would work, but the only reason they are adopting this procedure is to cut costs and that would entail another cost.

[alldigging]

The program about the worms might have mentioned it too. They certainly looked at mulch.

The no dig wheat farmer might have been on countryfile months ago though.

[Bill HH]

Yes that would work, but the only reason they are adopting this procedure is to cut costs and that would entail another cost.

Not really because they have always spread manure on the land, it has to go somwhere after all.

[Kristen]

I just wonder how the soil structure is going to improve long term without addition of organic matter?

The farmers round here don't have any interest in soil structure than I am aware of. Its just used to provide something for the plant to anchor into. Everything else is provided, in the way of fertiliser (and pesticides). The "top soil" in the fields around me wouldn't grow anything by way of a decent crop using the techniques I use in my vegetable garden (well ... not until it had had several years of organic matter adding).

When burning of the stubble was outlawed (thank god, every night in autumn the shy was black and everything stank of smoke for weeks during that period, couldn't put your washing out etc etc) the farmers were in uproar about how the additional organic matter in the soil was going to wreck their yields ... these days the straw is chopped (out of the back of the combine) and tilled back into the soil, but crops like Wheat have been bred to be much shorter since the 60's, and there isn't a lot of straw these days - and not a weed in sight either

[solway cropper]

That's the price we pay for this obsession with supermarkets and 'cheap food'.

Personally I'd rather eat 'good food', the sort I grow myself.

[Rob the Radish]

Min till has been happening for many years, a lot longer than people realise, we were practising it over 20 years ago, some crops favour it a lot more than others, especially OSR, whereas beans still prefer heavy cultivation, they need to be buried deep, organic matter is added by most farms in some form or another, every acre of land has been catalogued and has a rating on how much manure can be spread, unfortunately some farms simply do not have the acreage to spread all the manure they generate, and therefore tend to do deals with neighbouring farms, we were predominantly arable, our next door was all cattle, so as he could not spread all his muck, we got the lot for nothing, but in return he had as much straw as he needed to bale to see his cattle through the winter, things have changed and a big market product now is human waste, you may have seen heaps of black manure in gateways, it is human waste that has been treated, stinks like hell when spread, but an excellent conditioner and fertiliser, another thing they do is inject it, law states that manure has to be incorporated into the soil within 24 hrs, so far easier, quicker and cheaper to inject if it is not too dense, obviously loads of straw cannot be done this way, but all the bio plants around here take the liquid waste and inject, as do many pig farms.
Thank god stubble burning was banned, a horrid dirty smelly job, not exactly kind to nature either, the one down side is black grass, burning killed the seeds, over the last 10-15 years black grass has proven to be a major problem, most fields are full of the bloody stuff, it never used to be like that, and now they do not burn the only way to combat it is chemicals, most strains of black grass have become resistant to the sprays, every year agronomists hold trials all over the country to see what will work, every year a new spray comes onto the market to try and keep it in check, all it says to me is we are still killing nature by using all these sprays, the long term effects cannot be measured yet, god only knows what we will realise we have done to ourselves and the planet in another 30 or 100 years.

Sorry went a bit off track then, bottom line is, min till is not anything new, although with new methods of farming and varieties of crop it does seem to have gathered more pace over the last 5 or so years.

[bananamelon]

min till has been around various guises since 1950's. As for worm pull down organic matter or dressings into soil. I believe there was and article in last couple years in Grow Own mag that went into subject in detail but can't remember details or issue it was in.

[Two_Sheds]

Thank god stubble burning was banned

They burned not just the stubble, but any ground nesting chicks too, plus anything else eg beneficial insects, that couldn't get away

[Two_Sheds]

min till has been around various guises since 1950's.

... and even before that. Fukuoka grew excellent yields of rice with no dig, no paddy flooding, no additional additions except a mulch of leftover rice straw and weeds

Permaculture Ideas: 'The One Straw Revolution' by Masanobu Fukuoka (eBook)

[sequoia]

Or have they fed the ground with mycorrhizal fungi, and then not wanting to disturb the growth,by plowing etc,just feed the top. I am doing 3 trials this year on Autumn onions,garlic and crimson clover. The onions and garlic are having a 3 fingered pinch of mycorrhizal about half a teaspoon,on planting out,the crimson clover will be sown indoors under lights with mycorrhizal and vermiculite expecting the roots to take up the said growth aid and then planting out accordingly. I have a bed with just crim clover already in for the next years brassica but they do not benefit from mycorrhizal treatment.

[Feral007]

You had to post this Twosheds, just after I had two paddocks ploughed! Broke my heart doing it, but needed to. It was that or spray and had to choose the lesser evil in my eyes.

Will be putting in seed, but also seeded hay spread out to help it recover quicker. It's a nightmare trying to live between traditional farmers and their council laws.

[pigletwillie]

I dont dig and only have a border spade which is an ideal size for planting or lifting plants bushes. I cant see the point in digging something and destroying the soil structure then walking all over it. I use no dig beds in my pottager and my allotments before that, which get top dressed with home made compost every year and what cant get planted by poking in a hole with my finger gets at worst a trowel. My soil is alive.