- Author: Jeffrey P Mitchell
Harvest data are now in for a 2015 garb crop that was no-till seeded in January in the longstanding conservation agriculture systems study field in Five Points, CA, and these data indicate that there was no difference in yield between the no-till with and without cover crop treatments and the standard till with and without cover crop systems. Garb yields for the four systems averaged about 3,600 lbs / acre with no statistical differences seen between the four experimental treatments.
Other than an herbicide spraying in the fall of 2014 to knock down weeds, the no-tillage systems relied on zero tillage prior to seeding that was done with a John Deere 1730 6-row 30” planter. Conventional tillage consisting of several passes of a Wilcox Performer bed-shaping tillage implement was done to prepare planting beds in the standard tillage plots as would be commonly done in the region.
There is now a growing list of several crops that both in research studies and on California farms that have been successfully produced with economically viable yields using no-tillage seeding.
Additional information about this study will be available at the CASI (Conservation Agriculture Systems Innovation) Center's website (http://casi.ucanr.edu/) and by contacting Jeff Mitchell at jpmitchell@ucdavis.edu.