When farmers consider switching to no-till or reduced tillage, the No. 1 pitfall is thinking about which new equipment they need, University of Vermont Extension specialist Heather Darby says.

“It’s always about getting some more steel that will accomplish that job, and really it doesn’t start with the equipment,” she said. “It starts with laying out that plan and where you want to, or where you can, integrate no-till or reduced tillage.”

Darby spoke May 6 during a panel discussion of no-till organic farming research as part of Grains Week, a program sponsored by Cascadia Grains, the Culinary Breeding Network and Washington State University’s food systems program, among others.

No-till farming reduces soil erosion and improves soil, air and water quality compared to conventional farming, but advocates say the time and cost involved in switching are hurdles for growers to consider.

Each crop should prepare the soil for the next crop, said Klaas Martens, an organic grain farmer in Penn Yann, N.Y.

“We need to learn to think backwards,” he said. “We tend to think forward, because that’s the direction we work in and the direction our lives go, but we really need to reverse that and think, ‘What would I like to have in the field before I’m planting?’ and ‘What do I need to have in the field before that?'”

The organic market gives farmers the opportunity to increase biodiversity and to use new practices and ideas, he said.

In corn and soybean crop rotations, Martens said, a crop is grown for four months and the soil is left idle for eight months.

“A real goal in a farmer’s mind should be to always have green things growing on a field as much of the time as possible,” he said. “Not just for the armor it gives above ground, but for the food that the root (secretes) from our crops are supplying to the biology in the soil.”

Martens said his farm is experiencing longer seasons due to climate change, which has allowed him to add such crops as winter lentils, winter peas and malting barley.

But climate change also added longer and more intense hot spells and droughts and more intense flooding. Martens said the increased diversity allows him to “roll with the punches” easier.

He used the term “bio-till,” using a crop or cover crop as a way to help farmers avoid what he called “recreational tillage.”

“Tillage is an expense no matter how else we look at it, in terms of money and biology, and a very compelling reason to reduce tillage is to save money,” he said. “If we’re going to spend the money on tillage, what service is it providing? If we can provide that service through another means … it’s a win-win situation.”