well that's scary

Dear Sir:

I own/ operate a 2K commercial farm on the high plains and this article reflects the lack of knowledge that exists outside the working farm community and the swindle being laid on the naive/ unknowledgable people of the cities (Organic frequently means swindle).

That is not no-till. You are talking about minimum-till in which some of your conclusions are absolutely right about conservation. Your presentation reflects about one percent of the required knowledge to reflect the overall watershed conservation, level verse slightly roling soils, ridge no-till planting, and on & on.

You have mixed carbon sequester into this incorrectly. Mold-board plowing actually sequesters the most carbon into soil, but the unprotect soil lost to high plains wind or uncontrollable flooding before a protective cover crop is effective can not be tolerated.

Please establish/understand the 25 other factors involved with ag before generating documents that will be read by many more people without a clue of the overall picture.

This entire picture is so dymanic and interesting that I suggest that you continue this involvement with the same passion that many of us enjoy. The entire profession is frequently saturated with many uneducated operator/leaders that are in for the greed, naive heritage, continuing traditions that make no sense, some absolutely incompetent inplementation of new tech (ie. failure to rotate crops, herbicides, continuous roundup ready, GMO w/o impact analysis, farm integration of commerical livestock management, etc...)

Try developing a model of a high plains or further east farm community (let me and some others reflect on your model) and then start writing with the passion of the next 50 years of family farming. (Understand the evolution of people doing the farming and the nature of many who remain verse those who take college and professional careers in the city. I am a retired Chemical Engineer.)

@ Wm Strasburg -

thx for your comment. Farmers do indeed have a long tradition of husbanding their primary resource, the fertility of their land. And as you make clear, that's a lot harder to do than most outside that industry will ever know.

Still, I expect market distortions such as European farm subsidies that were long based on production volume alone or, corn ethanol subsidies in the US, do skew the incentives. Farmers whose children show no interest in taking over the family business might decide to maximize their short-term profits rather than protect the soil. Eventually, they have to sell the land to a much larger corporation that may view it as a resource to be exploited rather than husbanded.

But back to green vehicles: does anyone know if minimum-till and similar philosophies save significant amount of tractor fuel compared to conventional practices?

Wm. Strasburg,
I think the people here would be receptive to farmers input on this. I think though that lashing out at the writer of this article suggests that you might have a chip on your shoulder for reasons that go way beyond this issue.

For one, the article is simply relaying the findings of agricultural scientists who we all have assumed are experts in this matter. If you want to pick a fight with agricultural scientists please do so, but attack them directly with well founded arguments not by discounting the qualifications of the web journalists and web audience of this blog.

I am interested to hear about your characterization of organic as a "swindle". Please elaborate.

I come from farming stock.Small farming in Ireland and then in Tuscany,which I think qualifies me to speak on this. Shooting the messenger is always a bad tactic,and I agree that referring to organics as a swindle does suggest a certain agenda.
No-Till and Low-Till methods are part of the solution,and suitable for certain situations.
It should be obvious that what works in the high plains won't necessarily work in other situations.
I can report that this works; our big field was below a dirt road,which regularly washed down on it.It was covered in a layer of sand and gravel . We used goats first, then put pigs on it,and soon the land was clear enough to see.We put down straw and compost,leaf-mould from our small stand of trees. We brought seaweed from the beach and any manure we could find/afford.And we mulched like crazy to save water and to reduce weeding. The worms loved the mulch and we grew crops for the market niche we occupied.We found the system works
But it best suited to the small farmer,perhaps. Big Farming is less loving of the soil,which few of them have had under their finger nails. Remember there are a lot of small farmers all over the world,and anything which makes them more productive will surely be a good result,reducing famine risk. It may also involve us in a big change in thinking, and a new model of the world. Perhaps even learning from the ancient farming lore common amongst the locals.(This can be difficult if you have exterminated the previous owners.People get attached to land,and has led to an 800 year war where I live.)
However,green investors will be glad that soon the products will be made from non-food sources and avoid palm oil.

Someone said:
"Modern agriculture is the use of soil to turn oil into food"

Shades of Faulkner's "A PLOWMAN'S FOLLY" (1943) and "A SECOND LOOK" (1947).

As I understand it, farm subsidies in the US require low or no till methods, which until recently were extremely difficult for many to implement without the use of a product like MONSANTO's Roundup.

Intuitively, I want to disagree with the argument that moldboard plowing will sequester more carbon, but I need to give it more thought, as there are thousands of things happening in healthy soil.

@ Raphael,
yes, there are energy savings with no till.

A site that I like with no till info is: http://www.newfarm.org/depts/notill/index.shtml

I believe Strasburg in his comments, got heated up over the statement attributed to Montgomery: "No-till agriculture uses disking to turn only the top layer of soil."

Strasburg is correct in saying that this is "minimum-till, not no-till." His tone however made it difficult for some, including me, to see his point.

I grew up on the plains of Alberts. During the thirties we ploughed the land every third year. The result; sandstorms carrying the ploughed fields away leaving a desert.

A farmer by the name of Noble develoed the rod weader which ran under the surface destroying the roots of weeds: mainly wild oats.

This was followed by the development of the one-way disc which left most of the trash on the surface.

Today the fields are no longer tilled. Grain is seeded with fertilizer with an injeator type seeder. Herbicides and pesticides are sprayed. Combine harvesting leaves all straw on the surface.

Studies show substantial CO2 sequestration. Non till farmers are expecting to augment their income with the sales of carbon credits.

Then plant switch grass and mow it to provide biomass for bio fuels. Soil preserved and problem solved.