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What Is Conservation Tillage?
The term "conservation tillage" is an umbrella classification for several crop production systems, including no-till, reduced-till, minimum-till, direct seeding and other names. To put it simply, all these methods leave c and crop mulch covering the ground between growing seasons, providing a protective cover that holds soil in place, minimizes runoff and dramatically decreases erosion.
No-till has not been kind to maize farmers who tried it during the 1980's due to the Diplodia cop rot epidemic. However the deregulation of the crop industry and the high input cost/producer price squeeze has forced crop farmers to consider alternative farming practices. The door to conservation tillage, including no-till is once again open as a respectable crop production technique. One of the reasons is the availability of no-till planters today, which was not available a few years ago and the increase in the knowledge of the no-till farming system.
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