Is your soil management philosophy “to work smarter, not harder,” or is it “to beat the soil into submission?"  Is your soil management philosophy moving toward being kinder and gentler to your soil?  Are you trying to improve soil health?

The bottom line is, farmers want to be good stewards of the soil, they want to be profitable, and they want to do what is right for the land. The challenge is that being profitable is sometimes at odds with being a good steward of the soil and doing what is right for the land. But that doesn’t necessarily have to be so, and with the current tight grain-production margins, this might be a great time to make some changes in how you approach working your soils.

Note, though, that there is a difference between being productive and being profitable. A farmer can win the yield contest but lose the profit contest. If you consistently lose the profit contest, you can’t stay in business for very long.

Profitability and yield
So, what might tillage have to do with profitability and yield?

Most everyone can agree that soils with a higher organic matter content are easier to work with and are usually more productive. So what can a farmer do to improve the soil’s organic matter content and its productivity?   

First, you need to understand how tillage reduces the organic matter content of soils. Simply put, tillage provides oxygen to the soil. Bacteria, in turn, use that oxygen and organic matter as a food source to multiply and grow. When the bacteria consume the organic matter, it is lost. Think of tillage like a poker to a bed of hot coals in a campfire. When you stir up the coals, you add oxygen to the fire, and the fire burns faster and brighter. The wood (organic matter) is burned up faster, and you need to add more wood. When you till your soils, the organic matter gets "burned up" faster, as well.

Next let’s consider the benefits of tillage and compare them to the costs of tillage.

Benefits of tillage include: improving seed-to-soil contact at planting time; controlling weeds; incorporating manure, lime, crop residue and plant nutrients into the soil; reducing compaction; and drying out the soil to allow earlier planting in wet conditions.

Costs associated with tillage include: time and labor, fuel, equipment costs, soil erosion, breaking down soil structure, and loss of organic matter content. Many of these costs are much larger than people are willing to admit. What is the value of 3 to 5 tons of soil per acre lost each year on your farm? What is the value of lost soil organic matter each year? These are not out-of-pocket cash expenses that can be easily identified, but rather are long-term costs to the farm.

Save organic matter
The take-home message here is to do your best to reduce your tillage practices to save organic matter content. Tillage cannot improve organic matter content; it only reduces it. This is not to say you should not do any tillage, but it does mean many farmers need to take a look at their current tillage practices and determine ways to reduce tillage. Consider zone or strip tillage, or no-till, if you are not doing so already.

Other things a farmer might do to improve soil organic matter content in his or her soils is to apply and lightly incorporate organic matter such as crop residues, animal manure, compost, cover crops, and perennial grasses and legumes. Include grass and perennial legume crops in the cropping rotation to reduce erosion and build up organic matter. Establish cover crops to protect the soil surface, sequester nitrates and build root organic matter in the soil.

None of these practices is an easy, overnight fix, but they do move soil organic matter in the right direction. It is important to keep in mind that increasing the organic matter content of your soils will be the best thing you can do to improve the long-term health and performance of your soils. 

The tools are available to do less tillage. No-till planters, and vertical-tillage and low soil-disturbance tillage machines help maintain soil organic matter. Learn how to use them more effectively to increase organic matter content. Reducing tillage requires a change of understanding, a change in attitude and a change in management. You must also realize that you cannot improve the soil overnight — it takes time and practice.

Here are some publications that might help you understand organic matter in more detail, and help you make some good tillage decisions:

• “Build Soil Organic Matter to Improve Your Crop Production,” sustainablecorn.org/doc/publications/Building_Soil_Organic_Matter.pdf
• “Tillage Can’t Improve Soil Health,” no-tillfarmer.com/articles/6184-tillage-cant-improve-soil-health 
• “Organic Matter Management,” extension.umn.edu/agriculture/tillage/soil-management/soil-management-series/organic-matter-management
• “Soil Organic Matter,” yates.cce.cornell.edu/resources/soil-organic-matter-fact-sheet

If you are using no-till or a minimum-till system along with cover crops and crop rotation, give yourself a pat on the back. If you are not using these techniques, think about how you might change your practices to include more soil-friendly management systems. If you continually think you must beat your soils into submission with tractors and steal, you will lose in the long term. We have the science, technology and knowledge to work with the soils so they will increase in organic matter content and remain productive for years to come.

Contact your local county Extension agriculture agent for help in understanding and putting new soil-friendly practices in place.

Koepp is the Columbia County, Wis., Extension agriculture educator.