No Till Drill

Watching the documentary “Common Ground” left me with great feeling!

From that movie I learned that American farmers had the knowledge and skills to heal the land and help combat climate change. Regenerative farming techniques like not tilling the soil before planting were discussed and I knew it was just a matter of time before word spread among farmers and those practices adopted.

But are these practices used locally? Is there a group of local farmers that is spreading the word on regenerative farming??

The Kootenai Shoshone Soil and Water Conservation District (KSSWCD) is just such a group! With a grant from the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, the KSSWCD has purchased and is now renting out an Esch No Till 5612 drill.

I had to look this up, but a no-till drill is a very heavy piece of farming equipment that cuts through soil and plant residue, places a seed at the correct depth and then presses the soil back over the seed for good soil to seed contact.

"Instead of tilling then planting, seed can be directly planted into a grazed field," a KSSWCD press release said. "A no-till drill allows landowners to make at least 4 less passes which has a major economic benefit."

The district says it believes no-till planting is restorative for soil health with five goals: minimize soil disturbance; introduce diversity into our cropping system with cover crops; have a living root in the system to feed soil microbiology; keep the soil covered to reduce erosion and improve water quality and get livestock back on to lands that are cropped.

Sounds like the practices shown in “Common Ground” are coming to a farm near you!