Ask an Agronomist

Answer: Tillage helps you manage water. For successful crop production, water must move up and down through the soil in a vertical format. If you fail to view tillage as a way to enhance water movement, your tillage tool can actually build a barrier to maximum yield (If you no-till or strip-till, we’re talking about the tillage that occurs before transitioning from conventional tillage or to fix problems afterward.). Water works its magic by moving upward from the soil through the plant, where most of it eventually transpires into the atmosphere, starting the entire cycle over again. Tillage is critical to this process because it lifts water upward through the soil to the plant roots. 

 

To learn more about how water moves in various types of soil, go to www.FarmJournal.com/water_management.