IAMP—No tillage from a more intensive tillage (NRCS Code 329)
Description: Seeding directly into or through previous crop residue without any other mechanical soil disturbance and managing residues on the soil surface year-round.
Benefits: Reduce erosion, improve soil health, stabilize soil organic matter, reduce off-site losses and availability of easily transported nutrients, reduce pressure from some pests, reduce expenses associated with tillage operations.
Soil Health Benefits: Improve soil carbon retention by reducing exposure of soil organic matter (SOM) to O2 and allowing soil organic matter to stabilize. The breakdown of crop residue will over time increase SOM.
Considerations for Success:
Requires equipment that may not be readily available. Ask your soil and water conservation district if direct seeding equipment is available for rent.
This practice is not applicable to potatoes, sugar beets, and hops.
In some soils, contributes to acidification caused by injected N fertilization without tillage.
Will likely require additional weed control and associated costs.
Where soil compaction is present and significant, may experience issues with infiltration and fertilizer applications. May consider beginning with reduced tillage and taking additional measures to address compaction, such as planting tap-rooted cover crop mixes.
IAMP Preferences/Considerations: The IAMP project incentivizes practices that improve soil health and long-term agronomic productivity. To sustain improvements in soil organic matter, no-tillage should be adopted permanently throughout the cropping rotation.
Specific Details: IAMP has several requirements to document that the no-tillage practice was implemented correctly and to document the effectiveness of the practice from the current cropping strategies employed in the field. For an overview of all sampling for each IAMP practice, see IAMP Crop/Soil Sampling Matrix. Practice requirements are described below:
Erosion Limits: Planned tillage activities must meet the following NRCS criteria.
a. The soil tillage intensity rating (STIR) value equivalent calculated using RUSLE2 shall be no greater than 20.
b. Soil erosion rates predicted by RUSLE2 are less than soil tolerance levels (T).
c. Crop rotation and residue management must result in a positive trend in the soil conditioning index (SCI). SCI change simulated with baseline and proposed plan using RUSLE2.
Producer Supplied Field Management Information:
a. Annual operation data including crop yield.
Soil Carbon Sampling (optional): Producers may choose to collect soil samples from the enrolled field at the start and end of the project to track changes in soil carbon over the project period. See the IAMP Soil Sampling Protocol for details.
Soil Nutrient Sampling (optional): IAMP encourages producers to measure the effects of converting from more intensive tillage to no-till. Producers who choose to participate may collect soil samples from the enrolled field before planting and after harvest, in one-foot increments to a depth of two feet. This sampling shows how the practice affects available soil nitrogen and can reveal nutrient deficiencies or benefits, which may be useful marketing information. IAMP technical teams can help analyze the data and prepare a report that can serve as a value-added product for the commodity. See the IAMP Soil Sampling Protocol for details.
Verification Required Prior to Payment:
Geo-located photo from the producer, or a location-verified photo or site visit by the field planner, after planting. From the photo or site visit, the planner certifies:
a. Residue is uniformly distributed over the entire field.
b. Ground cover meets the planned residue level.Confirmation that field operations matched the planned ground disturbance in the RUSLE2/WEPS run. If operations changed from the plan, rerun RUSLE2/WEPS with the actual operations and confirm:
a. Crop interval STIR (RUSLE2) is no greater than 20.
b. Predicted erosion (RUSLE2 for water, WEPS for wind) is below T.
c. The cropping system’s SCI (RUSLE2) shows a positive trend from baseline.
Incentive Payments: $60/acre/year of implementation.
Stacking or Companion Practices: No-tillage is compatible with other incentivized IAMP practices: Biochar, Cover crops, Conservation crop rotation (>2 crops), Intercropping, Nutrient management (Basic, Enhanced and Precision), Prescribed grazing, Soil carbon amendment.
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