Many farmers in the UK have only just started considering systems of reduced tillage in the past 5-10 years, but worldwide research has been going on much longer. No-Till Farmer Magazine in the USA has been published for over 20 years and John Deere have been selling direct drills in North and South America for the same period.
While looking for information on water run-off we found an article published in the Soil Science Society of America Journal in 1976 which was based on research between 1970-1975 (Lal, R. 1976. Notillage Effects on Soil Properties under Different Crops in Western Nigeria1. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 40:762-768. doi:10.2136/ sssaj1976.03615995004000050039x).
That’s nearly 50 years ago when proof of the benefits of systems of reduced tillage started to be documented. So when you are considering taking the leap, remember it’s really not that new! The paper compared soils that were no-tilled for 5 years versus soils that were ploughed for 5 years in Western Nigeria. It found the no-till regime had significantly affected the physical structure of the soils and also its chemical make up.
You can read the abstract here: https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/publications/sssaj/abstracts/40/5/SS0400050762#
In summary they found:
• no-tilled plots had higher organic matter content
• no-tilled plots had higher concentrations of nitrate-nitrogen, available phosphorus, and ammonium acetate extractable cations such as Ca2+, Mg2+, and K+
• Water infiltration rates in the reduced cultivation plots were higher than those of the ploughed plots
• Rain water runoff and the effects of soil erosion were lessened in the notilled plots
• maximum soil temperatures were higher in the ploughed plots
• no-tilled plots had higher soil moisture content
• no-tilled plots produced yields equal to those from the ploughed plots
• reduced tillage led to greater earthworm activity
• no-tilled plots had reduced compaction and crust formation
Does this all sound a bit familiar?
If you want to read the whole article you will need to buy a subscription to the Science Society of America Journal, however there are lots of articles on there that you would find interesting, so it maybe worth the investment for more in-depth reading - https://dl.sciencesocieties.org