Healthy Soils: Stories and Resources

No-Till Farming

The role of agriculture in absorbing and storing CO₂

For over 25 years, John Aeschliman has been farming the rolling hills of eastern Washington with a no-till drill. No-till farming, also called direct seed or conservation tillage, has increased his yield, stopped erosion, and diversified the type of crops he is able to grow. Because of its minimal impact upon the soil, no-till farming practices retain significant amounts of carbon in the soil. Carbon storage in soil is beneficial for both crops and the atmosphere.

In the 1980s, the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere surpassed 350 parts per million. James Hansen, a scientist with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), writes, “If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that...which life on Earth is adapted, CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 parts per million to at most 350 parts per million.

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No-till farming is viewed as a significant carbon storage and reduction strategy. In short, the less soil is disturbed, the more carbon is stored and the less carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. Conventional tillage has been shown to increase carbon dioxide in two significant ways: (1) it requires more passes across a field, directly releasing carbon dioxide through increased use of fossil fuels by machinery; and (2) it turns over the soil, releasing stored carbon to the atmosphere. Conservation tillage plants seeds directly into the soil.

Aeschliman is the third generation to farm on his land in the Palouse. His grandfather first settled the land in 1883 at the age of 21, having emigrated from Switzerland. Like his grandfather, Aeschliman describes himself as an innovator, and is proud to be one of the first farmers in the area to practice no-till farming. His rotation includes winter wheat, spring barley, spring wheat, peas, lentils, garbanzos, corn, canola and mustard. The initial impetus for switching to no-till was to reduce the annual erosion that occurred during the Spring rains. The Palouse is an area of rolling hills; from the air it looks like a used sheet of aluminum foil.

“Every Spring, the fields used to flow through the house,” Aeschliman recalls. “The mud would hit the back of the house, break a window, and my mother would just open the front door and let the mud flow through the house.”

Given the challenging topography, it is no surprise the area is known for its dry-land  farming, and farmers like Aeschliman do not irrigate. 

Although Aeschliman initially turned to no-till to solve the erosion problem, he has seen immense additional benefits from the practice. He notes the prevalence of earthworms on his land, a rare occurrence in the dry climate of the Palouse. After decades of no-till farming, his land has high levels of permeability. There is no more erosion, and the absorption of precipitation has allowed him to grow corn -- a rare accomplishment in the Palouse, an area that receives, on average, 27 inches of rainfall a year. Average rainfall in the Willamette Valley is 40 to 45 inches per year, and corn typically requires 32 inches of rainfall per year . Aeschliman built a ditch near the house 30 years ago to divert flooding; after switching to no-till, he has only seen water in the ditch once. Aechliman now sends silage corn to local dairies including Cougar Gold cheese and Ferdinand’s Ice Cream, a favorite in Eastern Washington.

Chad Kruger, director for the Washington State University Center for Sustaining Agriculture & Natural Resources, and project director and principal investigator for the Climate Friendly Farming Project, notes, “I don’t think within 20 to 25 years there will be a whole lot of conventional tillage systems here (in the Northwest) due to factors such as fuel costs. Farmers are going to have to makes changes in order to stay in business. No-till has become more and more successful as time goes on, enabling them to mange more acres. If we can do something to shift the switch to five to 10 years, which I think is realistic, we can gain 15 years head start with the carbon.”

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For more information on the Northwest Biocarbon Initiative
contact Rhys Roth, 360.352.1763 x23