Poor old Jethro Tull.
I am sure he never said ploughing was the thing to
do,especially to the Africans/Asians & S. Americans who used oxen
donkeys etc.and a wooden 'ploughs' and still do with the sole object of giving
the person planting the ability to cover the seed with soil to enhance
germination and hide the seed from birds ants etc. Ploughing did put the
previous crops trash and weeds that had grown out of site so the planter,by
hand, had a clear soil to place the seed in.This also applied when machines, in
some parts of the world, replaced planting by hand.
Thirty /forty years ago people notice that the trash they had
ploughed under did not decompose and was partly ploughed up the next year.
Minimum till was the pioneered with the aid of the Ag. engineer who started to
develope machines to plant into partly weathered and decomposed crop waste. The
problem was that volunteer plants and weeds grew in the period between
harvesting and next planting which meant more cultivation to kill these
plants and these cultivations had to be repeated to the detriment of the
soil structure and loss of moisture. When a knock down herbicide became
available this was applied and so could reduce the number of
cultivations,enhance the amount of organic mater on the surface of the soil as
in a forest situation and improved the physical properties of the soil and
increase yields.
Then no till was introduced but in my experience Min. till is
the better of the systems particularly when used with a deep narrow ripper that
acted as a tree root allowing water and air to peculate the soil and leaving the
crop trash on the surface mixed with a little soil and the 'critters' that would
brake it down.
IMHO it is in this situation that ACT will have its
maximum effect on large scale crop production with two soil drenches and as many
foliar applications as required dictated by experience in local conditions.
All this use of ACT will depend on the likes of the SFW and private individuals
who take up the local challenge in providing suitable brewers and the local
knowledge in producing the required crop compatible compost to use in the
brewers.
Bill H.
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