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Tillage (ANY and ALL tillage operations through the soil... including my "no-till drill"... which I call a" vertical till tool"... the more aggressive the tool, the more effective and complete will be its impact) destroys the soil aggregative structure, (same way it does if wanting to build a road... you "till it/shred it/mill it" so it can more effectively be compacted with compressive pressure... getting the air spaces out of it). So you've temporarily (or should I say momentarily... in soil time) "fluffed it up", but you've destroyed the supportive soil structure and carrying capacity.

Beyond that, tillage also destroys the HOME of the biology that builds this structure..., AND it physically destroys the biology itself as well. So not only have you removed the "frame of the house"... the studs that are absolutely essential to support it...................... but you've also killed a high percentage of the actual workers that built and were actively working to maintain and rebuild that house in the first place.

So it all "collapses"... literally... into what we call "compaction".

Grazing too short, and/or returning to regraze too quickly to a pasture before the grass has had ample opportunity to recover and "mature enough" so it has fully developed its root structure, will produce a similar result (even without tillage).
Vertical does retain soil structure better than conventional. I'm like you, I like minimal disturbance. For those of you that haven't already look up Ray Archuleta and a slake test to see what working ground does to structure and water absorbing capacity.
 
Vertical does retain soil structure better than conventional. I'm like you, I like minimal disturbance. For those of you that haven't already look up Ray Archuleta and a slake test to see what working ground does to structure and water absorbing capacity.
Ray Archuleta Slake Test and Rainfall Simulator Test

Ray Archuleta Rainfall Simulator... Larger Scale Demonstration This second demo is done on "slices of soil" cut right from the various fields, rather than using a "table top" scale. Very impressive demonstration.

The slake test primarily shows you the impact that tillage has on the structure part of it. The rainfall simulator demonstrates the impact on water absorbing/infiltration. Both are "negative impacts" as a result of tillage. Both demonstrations are very eye opening. There's more to it than just the impact of tillage... but both demonstrations DO accurately compare the difference between the various "systems of operation".

If you don't have enough "roots" in the soil, the biotic glues provided by roots, which are required to build the aggregates, will be diminished... and so you'll have a more difficult time building and maintaining aggregation. Less roots also = less soil microbes/soil life... these are the "workers" that build the aggregates are dependent upon those root exudates to survive. Row crop mono-crop farming, with a single species of "roots every 30", for example, = less roots, and less diversity of roots. This automatically means less "soil life", and less diversity of soil life.

It's not just about avoiding tillage, ...or "keeping the soil covered with residue", ...and it's not just about using a "cover crop", ...and it's not just about adding livestock to the rotation... it's about incorporating all of these "soil health principles and practices", as much as possible, all the time. THAT'S how nature works at its best, and how it was intended to function. It NEVER functions optimally with a mono-crop, or with "only annual plants", or with "plants only in 30" rows with the rest of the soil kept bare chemically OR with heavy use of tillage. It simply CAN'T function optimally within those parameters. These all go completely against the way that the system was designed to function.
 
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