Eco Farming: A New Farming System for the 21st Century
27 December 2011
US - Everyone has an opinion about conventional tillage versus no-till. Ohio State University Extension, in conjunction with the Natural Resource Conservation Service and the Ohio No-Till Council, has developed a third tillage system for farmers to consider.
"ECO Farming stands for Eternal
no-till, Continuous living cover, and
Other best
management
practices,"
said Jim
Hoorman,
assistant
professor with
OSU Extension.
"In other words,
absolutely trying
to eliminate
tillage as much
as possible."
Hoorman,
along with
Ray Archuleta
of NRCS's
East National
Technology
Service Center,
Ohio Notill
Council
President Dave Brandt, and Mark Scarpiti,
Ohio NRCS agronomist, collaboratively
defined the ECO Farming concept.
The team introduced ECO Farming to
producers through a series of field days
in August.
"Continuous living cover means that
farmers try to keep a living crop on the soil
100 percent of the time," Archuleta said.
Examples include grain crops followed by
cover crops, pasture or hay systems, or
perennial plants. "The goal is to protect
the soil from soil erosion, increase water
infiltration, and decrease nutrient runoff."
Other best management practices
(BMPs) include the concept of controlled
traffic, water table management where
applicable, manure management, and
integrated pest management (IPM).
"This system closely mimics natural
cycles in virgin soils by feeding the
microbes," said Hoorman, who also
is an agriculture and natural resources
educator for OSU Extension. "You have
1,000 to 2,000 times more microbes
associated with live roots."
Plants supply 25 to 40 per cent of their
carbohydrate reserves to feeding the
microbes, which in turn recycle nitrogen,
phosphorus, and water back to the plant
roots. This natural process improves soil
structure and increases water infiltration
and water storage.
The ECO Farming innovators insist
that for farmers to accept this system, it
must be economically viable, and in the
long run should also be ecologically sound
and environmentally sustainable. They
say this system appears to have all three
attributes.
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