Top 15 No-till and Conservation Agriculture Research Articles Selected by Panel at National No-till Farmer Association!

January 9, 2022

During the past couple of months, Randall Reeder, retired Extension Agricultural Engineer with the Ohio State University, (and legendary professional speaker who “brings to life the warmth and humor of Will Rogers as he speaks to business and agriculture audiences, and a variety of other groups”), who is also a recognized No-till Research and Education Innovator by the National No-till Farmer Association, and Don Reicosky, retired USDA ARS soil scientist from Morris, MN, who many of you in CA already know from our having hosted him here on at least a couple of occasions in the past (Don is also a past No-till Research and Education Innovator recognized by NNTFA),  worked on a survey and compilation of the top 15 research articles of all time in no-till and in conservation agriculture.  A committee was created and voting took place to come up with the final lists of works that were announced at the annual meeting of NNTFA last week in Louisville, KY.  Both Randall and Don are pretty amazing folks in terms of their decades-long dedicated service to the fields of no-till and conservation agriculture.  I think the idea for the lists came from the organizers of the NNTFA and they then asked Randall and Don to coordinate things.

The lists are attached.  Perhaps you'll recognize some of the titles as they are pretty well-known and highly respected items.

All the best,

Jeff

December 28, 2021

KMJ580's Don York, who produces the daily “Ag Report” on the Fresno-based radio station, interviewed Alyssa DeVincentis and Jeff Mitchell about work they and a larger team of researchers at UC Davis conducted on water-related impacts of winter cover crops throughout the Central Valley. The interview aired at 5:05 AM on York's Tuesday, December 28^th, broadcast and can be heard by clicking on the link here below.

The work that DeVincentis and Mitchell summarized with York involved ten almond orchard and tomato field sites in which side-by-side comparisons of soil water content during the winter cover cropping period from November through March were conducted from 2017 through 2019.  The study sites spanned San Joaquin Valley sites in Arvin, Shafter, Five Points, and Merced, as well as Sacramento Valley locations in Davis, Durham, Orland, and Chico. Basic conclusions stemming from the work include the finding that cover crops grown in the winter growing window do not lose more soil water than fallow bare ground despite considerable dogma about the likelihood that they deplete soil water reserves during the winter growing period.

 This finding adds important information that may help local Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) create groundwater management plans that are required for compliance with SGMA, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. If remote-sensed imagery is used to determine a farm's overall water use, winter cover crop vegetation may appear on satellite images as a net water loss, while in actuality, because cover crops perform other functions such as improving soil water infiltration from rain, increasing soil aggregation and water holding capacity, and reducing the energy available at the soil surface by providing shade by the cover crop canopy, the net effect tends to be no additional water loss relative to a bare soil surface during the winter period.

The team that worked together on this research included then UC Davis PhD student, DeVincentis, her major professor, Samuel Sandoval-Solis, Daniele Zaccaria, Anna Gomes, then an undergraduate student at Davis and now a PhD student at Stanford University, and CASI's Mitchell.

The project is summarized in a manuscript that will be published in an upcoming issue of UC's quarterly peer-reviewed journal, California Agriculture, in 2022.   A pdf copy of the research article is also available below.

A group of relatively new NRCS hires including Kareem Adeleke, Elena De La Torre, Breana Garcia, Jacob Wright, and Mikhael Kazzi received an exceptionally valuable introduction to state-of-the-art regenerative agriculture orchard management systems in a tour that was organized by Area 3 Agronomist, Rob Roy on December 21 at a pistachio orchard of Inbleby Farms near the tiny San Joaquin Valley town of Burrell.  The tour was very graciously hosted by Gary Smith, General Manager of Ingleby along with Steven Strong, the Agronomist who works with Smith.  Together, the two of them laid out the remarkable story and history of Ingleby Farms worldwide (https://inglebyfarms.com/) as well as the specific and principle-guided goals and approaches that are being pursued in Ingleby's California farming operations.  To say that the new NRCS conservationists received  a wonderful and information-packed orientation to soil health and sustainable orchard management would be a great understatement as Smith and Strong stayed with the eager group of NRCSers for over two full hours and showed them the many innovations that are being implemented at Ingleby.  These include the use of carefully planned cover crop mixes at various planting times throughout the year that serve multiple purposes including adding carbon to the soil, capturing and cycling nitrogen in the crop's rootzone, improving soil function, and providing a trap crop for aboveground pests.  Ingleby Farms is a true leader in the development of improved performance crop production systems here in California and this they provided a generous, once-in-a-lifetime introduction to their approaches.  Kudos to Rob Roy for coordinating the tour and special thanks to Gary Smith and Steven Strong for so graciously hosting this group of new NRCS conservationists!

Recently hired Area 3 NRCS Conservationists along with Area 3 Agronomist, Rob Roy, and Gary Smith and Steven Strong of Ingleby Farms in pistachio orchard near Burrell, CA.  From left to right, Kareem Adeleke, NRCS Conservation Agronomist, Hanford Service Center;  Gary Smith, Ingleby Farms;  Elena De La Torre, Soil Conservationist, Visalia Service Center;  Breana Garcia, Soil Conservationist, Bakersfield Service Center;   Rob Roy, Conservation Agronomist, Fresno Area Office;  Jacob Wright, Soil Conservationist, Fresno Service Center;  Mikhael Kazzi, Soil Conservationist, Fresno Service Center;  and Steven Strong, Ingleby Farms.

November 10, 2021

Sobering findings in reduced soil disturbance organic vegetable production farm evaluations

For the past three years, a group of experienced organic vegetable farmers along with several University and private sector partners has been evaluating a host of reduced tillage or soil disturbance approaches for the highly-prized crops that they grow at several California farm locations.  To date, the group has come face-to-face with several sobering realizations about just how hard it is going to be for them to alter too much the tried-and-true tillage practices that they have come to rely upon over the years to produce their healthy vegetables.

In a recent project progress discussion get-together, the group gathered to hash out how things have been going and several sources of trouble were identified.  Terminating winter cover crops using a roller-crimper and without herbicides, having seedlings devoured by a host of insect pests, uncertainties regarding whether nutrient (particularly nitrogen) availability needs are being met within reduced disturbance systems, and other as yet unspecified causes of yield drag were all identified as challenges that have not yet been overcome.  The 'hits' that these farmers have had with respect to low yields have been considerable and are not seen as something that can be taken on as replacements of their traditional tillage approaches.

Farmers and partners in the group are now gathering their thoughts in preparation for a daylong pre-conference workshop as part of the 2022 ECOFARM event on Wednesday, January 19, in Asilomar, CA. Information about the pre-conference and registration materials are available at the ECOFARM website

https://eco-farm.org/conference/2022/session/till-or-not-till-question