Soil Health
Think Different: No-till and cover crops are natural partners. If you are transitioning to no-till, plant cover crops on the same ground, suggests Dan Gillespie, an experienced no-tiller and cover-cropper from Meadow Grove, Neb. Early in his transition to no-till, Gillespie's soybean yields dipped 2 or 3 bu./acre due to the rapid buildup of corn residue. But that turned out to be temporary. The soil's biological activity hadn't yet ramped up fully to cycle the extra surface residue, he says. Keeping living roots in the soil from thaw to freeze-up is the best way to stimulate soil microbial activity and expedite the soil's transition to a no-till system, he says. Just be careful not to overburden a new no-till system with a cover crop that has too high a carbon-to-nitrogen ratio until you've built up the soil's biological activity.