Conservation tillage catches on in California

Farmers in California interested in trying conservation tillage practices have a new resource available with the launch yesterday of the UC Conservation Tillage and Cropping Systems Workgroup website, said an article in the Sacramento Bee. The story also appeared in the Merced Sun-Star.

Reporter Carol Reiter picked up the story from an ANR news release about the new resource.

No-Till Farmer magazine also ran a story this week about California efforts to encourage the use of minimum till methods.

“The practice is particularly well suited to dairy silage production in California where dairymen typically rotate from winter wheat or triticale right into spring corn,” the story quoted Jeff Mitchell, UC Davis Cooperative Extension cropping systems specialist based at the Kearney Research and Extension Center in Parlier.

The new website, created using the ANR Communication Services Site Builder 3 web content management system, will help farmers investigate cropping management systems that have been shown in research and in practice to increase profits, reduce dust, conserve water and sequester carbon on the farm. The site includes research reports, a photo gallery, a video library, an audio podcast and much more.

Currently, about 2 percent of California farmland is managed under conservation tillage techniques. The rest continues to be managed with systems that have changed very little since irrigation and cropping intensification began in the region more than 65 years ago.

The new website is designed to arm farmers with information that will help them set aside the common conventional practices of annual plowing, disking, ripping and chiseling.

New conservation tillage website.

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