Earth-friendly farming could lower costs, energy use

Earth-friendly farming:
by Ben Ready -- The daily Times-Call -- 11/22/2005
"'This will save me on (planting) costs, easily,' said Elmquist pointing to a till. 'And if you consider wear and tear on equipment and driving time, I'll save even more than that.'
Strip tillage cuts precise furrows for planting and leaves organic trash such as dried corn stalks lying undisturbed on fields year-round. In traditional tillage, every inch of farmland is plowed and organic trash is buried underground.
Conventionally, the ground is then disked to break up clods of dirt, mulched several times to prevent erosion and control weeds, and then repacked into a seed bed before planting can occur.

Pete Dillan, a strip till distributor from Nebraska, says a strip till farmer in his state spends only $360 per acre to produce corn compared to the $420-per-acre cost for a farmer using traditional methods."