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Agren Projects
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Tillage Affects on Soil Quality
The Challenge:
The use of no-tillage systems for corn and soybean production stagnated in the late 1990s. While academic research confirmed the benefits of conservation tillage for improving soil health and preserving natural resources, crop producers continued to cite a number of reasons for their reluctance to implement conservation tillage systems long-term.
Agren's Solution:
In 1997, Monsanto Corporation initiated the Centers of Excellence (COE) program with the goal of disseminating information on the impact of different tillage systems on various soil and crop production properties, including system profitability. Agren was contracted to conduct research on two sites in Iowa and one in Minnesota. Data collected from these three corn/soybean sites included production inputs and costs, earthworm counts, percent residue coverage, percent crop emergence, water infiltration rates, and weather. The standard operating procedures that we developed to ensure quality control on our three sites were adopted by Monsanto for use across all sites.
We also developed a spreadsheet to record and analyze all of the data we collected. Monsanto then contracted with us to review, summarize and develop reports for all of the data collected on the corn/soybean and cotton sites across the United States. Our staff took the lead in writing and distributing two scientific papers based on the tillage studies for both the corn/soybean and cotton Centers of Excellence. |
