Conservation Tillage Protects Soil and Nutrients for Long-Term Productivity

Mar 30, 2026

By Carol Brown

The 1930s Dust Bowl is a familiar lesson in U.S. history books. But dust storms have occurred in central Illinois as recently as 2025. A 2023 dust storm near Springfield caused accidents involving more than 70 cars and resulted in seven deaths. History examples like this don’t need to be repeated as agriculture experts have learned how to keep soil in place and protected from wind erosion.

Reduced tillage and no-till, or conservation tillage, are common practices that guard topsoil, but many farmers have not adopted this practice, mainly due to perceived lower crop yields. According to the USDA, approximately 15% of Illinois corn acres and 35% of soybean acres are no-tilled.

In 2023, Giovani Preza Fontes, assistant professor of crop sciences and extension agronomist at the University of Illinois, began a research project evaluate whether growers can maintain soybean productivity and profitability while using reduced tillage and cover crops.

“We started this project as a response to the dust storm events that took place that spring,” he comments. “There is a body of research that shows reduced tillage can decrease erosion, suppress weeds and disease along with other benefits.”

Soils under conservation tillage have crop residue from the previous year, which can delay drying and warming, Preza Fontes says. This in turn, delays planting and lowers nutrient availability early in the season. Colder, wetter soils can limit organic matter mineralization, therefore nutrient availability to the seedlings.

Click here to see more...

Video: Root Exudates, Soil Biology, and How Plants Recruit Microbes | Field Talk Friday

Field Talk Friday | Dr. John Murphy | Root Exudates, Soil Biology, and How Plants Recruit Microbes

Most of us spend our time managing what we can see above ground—plant height, leaf color, stand counts, and yield potential. But the deeper you dig into agronomy, the more you realize that some of the most important processes driving crop performance are happening just millimeters below the surface.

In this episode of Field Talk Friday, Dr. John Murphy continues the soil biology series by diving into one of the most fascinating topics in modern agronomy: root exudates and the role they play in shaping the microbial world around plant roots.

Roots are not passive structures simply pulling nutrients out of the soil. They are active participants in the underground ecosystem. Plants constantly release compounds into the soil—sugars, amino acids, organic acids, and other molecules—that act as both energy sources and signals for soil microbes.