Why Has No-Till Cropping Use Increased in the Northern Great Plains?
The main reasons have been decreased fuel usage, less required farm labor, and reduced time required to plant fields for no-till systems. The other significant benefits have been reduced wind and water erosion, and better conservation of soil moisture. It is observable that there is more no-till compared to reduced till in the more arid areas, and often the reverse in the more moist regions. For example, in the arid regions of Montana, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and North Dakota, no-tillage is used on as high as 80% or more of cropped dry-land acres. In the more moist areas such as the Red River valley in North Dakota and Manitoba no-tillage is used on less than 10% of the cropped acres. The same low no-tillage use is observed on irrigated lands in the arid portions. However, in both the arid and more moist areas, the use of intense inversion tillage that buries all crop residues is rarely used. The use of reduced tillage that retains at least a portion (e.g. 25%) of the previous crops res
