https://acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.2134/cs2018.51.0603
Jerry Grigar, State Agronomist at USDA-NRCS, East Lansing, MI and Randall Reeder, Retired Extension Engineer from The Ohio State University, recently co-authored an excellent article in the Crops & Soils Magazine, published by the tri-societies for certified crop advisers, agronomists, and soil scientists. The article talks about “Transitional no-till” that is rarely thought of as an important phase when converting a conventionally tilled farm to “true no-till”.
I highly encourage you to read this article that elaborates the differences between a transitional no-till system versus a true no-till system. Grigar et al. further question the validity of some of the published studies that report to have conducted no-till research in a short-duration. According to the authors, the early years of no-till should be treated as “transitional no-till”, until the system matures and becomes a “true no-till”. This is an interesting take that may be important for researchers as well as producers.
Here is a link to Jerry’s article. If you cannot find a copy of the article, please contact me or any of the authors.
Transitional no-till: What is it and how does it differ from ‘true’ no-till?