During my 2024 visit to America to work with Dale Strickler from Regenerative Wisdom , we stopped by a great example of the difference between no-till and tillage. These two paddocks are at the same location, receiving the same rainfall, planted the same time and contained the same soil parent material, expect there is a massive difference in soil and plant characteristics. You can see this pronounced effect in the photo below:
As you can see, the diference between the no-till corn and the tilled corn is massive! Here are eight of the main features I noticed:
- Soil Colour: Notice the significantly darker soil of in the no-till soil. This dark colour comes from an increase in soil organic carbon, in particular an increase in humus (To learn more about humus and soil organic carbon, check out our free soil carbon course HERE). Darker soils, due to an increase in soil carbon, have a greater water holding capacity, microbial activity and greater ability to hold and exchange nutrients. A number of studies show that tillage reduces soil carbon by more than 50%, this is usually the fraction of the soil carbon pool that is most biologically and chemically active.
- Root Zone and Size: The root of the no-till corn is effectively 8 times larger than the tilled corn, that reaches twice as deep into the soil. What could this mean to the plant’s ability to access nutrients and water? With 8 times as much soil, the corn plant can assess 8 times as much nutrition and water!
- Increased Root Hairs: From my observations and to some extent seen in the photos, the root hairs on the no-till corn are longer and more frequent than the root hairs of the tilled corn. This could be due to the plant having more energy for root hair develop, participation in the rhizophagy cycle, or potentially were stronger and so when we pulled the plant out of the soil, they didn’t break off. Either way, this is a sign of a healthier and more vigorous plant.
- Darker, longer and wider leaves: The most important function of a plant is it’s ability to photosynthesis, therefore having a large surface area full of chlorophyll is important to increase photosynthesis and hence carbohydrate production. The no-till corn would be capturing and fixing greater amounts of carbon when compared to the tilled corn. The darker green colour is due to an increase of available nutrients required for chlorophyll synthesis, these include N, Mg and Fe, all of which is likely to be in greater supply in the no-till soil.
- Stem Diameter: Stem diameter is important for transporting water and nutrients from the soil into the leaves, as well as transporting carbohydrates from the leaves to the roots and corn after photosynthesis. With the increase in photosynthesis from the no-till, it is understandable that the plant needs to build a larger transport pathway to move resources around. The larger stem is also likely to support a larger corn yield as the transport pathway can move greater amounts of nutrients into the corn ear and hence the kernel.
- Aerial Roots: These are the roots that form above the soil and grow downward into the soil. A study from 2022 found that the aerial roots on corn have the ability to produce mucilage which support a nitrogen fixing community of microbes that can supply the corn with large amounts of nitrogen. This would suggest that the no-till corn has greater ability to fix carbon to produce mucilage, form symbiotic relations with microbes and hence fix nitrogen.
- Corn Hight: This is somewhat obvious, the no-till corn is a lot taller than the tilled corn. This is likely due to an increase in nutrients, water and carbohydrates.
- Soil Structure: It might be difficult to tell from the photos but the soil under no-till were a lot softer, more porous while maintaining better structure. This is important for water and gas exchange, which is essential for root and plant development. Soil structure is also important for accessing paddocks after a rain event as water moves faster into the soil and the soil strength increases to support machinery.
I would expect that the no-till corn will be out-yielding the tilled corn with less soil erosion and effort from the farmer. Coming from Australia where 92% of our farmers are no-till it has been quite interesting to see the significant impact that tillage has on soil health, it is still shocking that 70% of US farmers use tillage.
If you are a farmer in Australia and want to go no-till or want to further improve your soils with regenerative practices, get in contact with us at Agresol for a free 30 minute consultation.
