Conservation farming
it hosted practical learning days for Nicholas and his colleagues, and visited the forum’s members individually to give them personalised advice on implementing and maintaining conservation agriculture practices. “What first appealed to me about minimum tillage and no-till is that they save time, conserve soil and water, and can increase yield,” Nicholas explains. Better results when ploughing with oxen To prepare their 1,8 ha land for maize, he and his family have always used oxdrawn implements. Conventional tillage needed three passes for ploughing, disking and planting, and ploughing alone could take a week because of the heavy work for the oxen, which needed regular rest breaks. Then Nicholas started using minimum tillage methods – shallow ripping to 15cm depth. Now he needed only one pass followed by a hand-hoe to dig and cover holes for planting the seed. When he started using no-till methods, he only needed the oxen to make one pass for planting. This only took a day, saving time and reducing strain on the animals. “With an ox-drawn no-till planter, the time saved allows me to focus on other work,” Nicholas explains. “Planting all the seed in one day also makes the maize germinate evenly.”
Minimum tillage and no-till also improve soil condition. With traditional tillage, Nicholas found that crops planted into land where heavy rain had washed away the topsoil remained stunted and yielded poorly. Now he prevents the problem by conserving topsoil and incorporating as much organic matter into the soil as possible. Nicholas shares the R 17 100 planter with around 29 other local no-till maize farmers. Crop residue on the soil surface reduces weed growth. Organic material in the soil improves the soil structure and encourages soil microbes and earthworms. Earthworms are especially good because they eat the decomposing crop residue and carry the nutrients down to the crop root zone. With traditional tillage Nicholas never saw earthworms in the soil, but now he sees them regularly on the soil surface, especially when it rains. Their tunnels help rainwater penetrate deeper into the soil. Soon after he started leaving crop residue on the soil surface in winter, Nicholas noticed an improvement in the performance of summer crops. Livestock graze only a portion of the maize and sugar bean residue before they’re removed from the land. To reduce soil compaction, he never lets them onto the LAEVELD Autumn/Herfs 2013 - 31