Local farmer touts benefits of no-till farming

Aug. 17—HERMITAGE — Tilling often seems like an integral part of farming, but one group — the Pennsylvania No-Till Alliance — is trying to change that for the benefit of farmers and the environment, with a local farm attracting statewide attention.

Bill Cannon, owner of East Hill Farm in Hermitage, said his farm has been family-owned since his grandfather purchased it in 1910.

Aside from being passed on through the generations, a major change since the farm's beginning has been a transition to no-till farming.

Instead of plowing up the top several inches of topsoil, Cannon plants a series of crops and then alternates with cover crops that help preserve the various nutrients and microorganisms in the soil.

Nowadays, the farm produces corn, beans, soybeans, wheat, and some hay, with rye used as a cover crop.

"We haven't had a plow in the ground in 25 years," Cannon said.

One example of the many microorganisms that can be affected by tilling is mycorrhizal fungi, which Cannon said forms a "spider-web" network among the root system that can help share nutrients among the different plants.

"If one plant needs phosphorous and another plant says 'I have more than I need,' the system can transport that from one plant to another," Cannon said.

Mycorrhizal fungi also produces a glue-like substance that helps bind small clay particles together. This increases root infiltration and water infiltration, which helps prevent rainfall from washing away the soil and crops.

This fungi, and plenty of other microscopic species that help create healthy soil, are lost or disrupted when farmers till, plow or chisel the soil, Cannon said.

"When you have healthy soil, there are more species in it than there are walking the Earth," he said.

Another benefit to the soil comes from the cover crops, since planting the cover crops further diversifies the nutrients in the soil and creates an "armor plate" on the topsoil, which further prevents possible damage by rainfall.

In the case of rye, which Cannon uses, the plants create a strong root network while also preventing weeds from growing.

"Some say 'why plant a crop that you're not harvesting,' but you are harvesting something — you're creating a healthy soil," Cannon said.

However, there are also plenty of benefits for farmers on top of the environmental benefits.

By using cover crops, farmers can save money on weedkillers such as Roundup, which have gone from about $12 or $14 a gallon last year to about $25 to $30 a gallon this year, Cannon said.

The "armor plate" created by the cover crops allows the soil to support more weight, which means farming equipment such as combines can harvest crops after rainfall without sinking into the mud and getting stuck.

Cannon was first introduced to no-till farming by a friend at the Canfield Fair in Ohio more than a couple decades ago. After inspecting his friend's no-till farm, Cannon later took his father to see a guest speaker in Cortland, Ohio.

Upon learning about the process and inspecting some of the equipment designed for no-till farming, Cannon and his father decided to give the new method a try. With about a year's work of practice, Cannon said the farm was able to successfully transition to a no-till farm, and has remained that way ever since.

"I had some major screw-ups, and my friend in Ohio was the only one to help me, and of course he had his own farm to worry about," Cannon said. "But after a year or so, it looked like everyone else's farm."

Cannon later became a member of the Pennsylvania No-Till Alliance, which promotes the benefits of no-till farming in an effort to encourage more farmers throughout the state to try no-tilling.

About 70 percent of Pennsylvania farms continue to till, with those remaining no-till farms located in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, where no-till farming was pushed to help clean up the water, Cannon said.

However, Cannon had a chance to display the methods used at East Hill Farm during the alliance's Summer Soil Health Field Days in late July, which was attended by 80 to 90 farmers from across the state and elsewhere, along with Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding.

"I saw him (Redding) at a meeting in Harrisburg and said, 'Do you want to take a detour out west?'" Cannon said. "He told me, 'Yeah I'll be there.'"

Redding and the other attendees seemed responsive to the idea of no-tilling, and a "rain simulator" from the Chesapeake Bay area was even brought in to demonstrate the effects of rainfall on different types of soil.

After a few trials at about 15 minutes each, the results were clear for those present to see.

"The tilled soil had some mud because of the runoff, but the soil from the corn and beans had no water runoff, it had all run through," Cannon said.

More information on the alliance and no-till farming can be found at panotill.org.

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