The Problem With Tillage

In our opinion any farming system that relies on tillage is unsustainable, in order to understand this statement one must ask is why we believe this?

The most obvious reason erosion. The goal of tillage is to destroy residue which is primarily what is keeping soil from eroding. Wind and water erosion are one of the most obvious reason not to till.

The next reason is moisture conservation, in many regions tillage is used to dry out the soil. In southern Alberta moisture conservation is very important and translates directly into yield and a better ability to improve the soil through increasing the amount of biological activity present.

Less obvious reasons that tillage is undesirable include

Tillage leads to more oxygen the soil profile, soils have developed under anaerobic conditions and adding air into the soil increases the rate of organic matter decomposition. This leads to soil depletion and lower microbe and earthworm numbers. Tillage induced soil decomposition releases a lot of nitrogen and other nutrients for a few years and the crops can look relatively good but it is only a matter of time before the banked nitrogen and precious soil organic matter disappear, and then the farmer and owner of that land is truly in trouble.

It is well documented that tillage is best minimized in order to build soils. Tillage over a long enough period will degrade any soil.

Tillage in an organic system or in a conventional system is unsustainable. When the plains of North America where first settled we basically had a tillage dependant organic system. The dirty 30's and to a smaller extent the dust storms of the 80's and the widespread soil degradation that occurred while this system was in use is enough proof that this type of system is unsustainable and needs to be avoided.

By eliminating tillage Lamb Farms has been able to improve soil, while improving yield, soil samples from the last 20 years help prove this.