Instead of leaving fields bare after corn silage harvest, adding a living mulch may help no-tillers prevent costly soil erosion and improve soil health.

While many of our readers certainly recognize the positive impact no-till has on their farm’s profitability, most haven’t recognized the environmentally-friendly value it also brings to America’s non-farm population. By combining the extra cropping value enjoyed by growers with the climate-friendly environmental benefits of this practice, it’s apparent to me that we’ve been underselling the overall worth of no-till.

While research on soil microbial health has mainly been done in a lab, greenhouse or in short-term field experiments, University of Illinois crop scientists have captured valuable crop rotation and tillage data from a 20-year field experiment.