Time and Tillage

Time saved as a result of reduced tillage is one of the factors we have difficulty measuring in a research setting. This is due to the small size of the research used in our studies, most plots are less than an acre in size. For example a tillage treatment might be 300 ft long and 50 feet wide. The small plot size means that we spend a lot of time turning around. The picture below shows some research plots. Its a bit hard to tell the scale of the plots (75' x 40') but it is possible to see the small area devoted to each crop, dry beans towards the front followed by sweet corn.

Experimental design can complicate matters even more. Components of an experiment are typically assigned at random; this increases the amount of time for field work. For example tillage treatments might be assigned like this: Conventional tillage, Deep Zone Tillage, Chisel Plow, and Zone Tillage in one replicate. In the next replicate the order might be: Deep Zone Tillage, Zone Tillage, Chisel Plow, and Conventional Tillage. To till the deep zone tillage treatments I’d have to till the first plot, then skip two plots to till the second area. The other three tillage treatments would be the same. As a result a lot of extra time would be spent driving to till a small area.

Now let’s consider commercial production, say a 40 acre field. If this field was exactly square (1320 ft x 1320 ft) a person could then drive for roughly that distance without having to turn around. Or if the field was rectangular say 500 ft wide by 3,500 ft long then it would be possible to till more area with less time spent on turning around.

The amount of time spent on field operations is also influenced by the size of equipment the larger the implement (plow, zone builder, strip builder, grain drill, planter, cultivator, combine etc.) the more surface area covered in one pass. There is a disadvantage to this (besides cost) and it is larger equipment typically takes more time to turn around. It wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense for me to use a twelve row zone builder if my biggest field was only 10 acres. This would be a bit like buying a semi (tractor trailer) to drive to the grocery store. Sure I’d have plenty of space for the week’s groceries but realistically I’d never need all that space and horsepower.