Tillage Methods, Soil Erosion, and Air Quality on the Columbia Plateau

Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, one of the premier earth- science journals, has just published an article comparing tillage methods for winter wheat-summer fallow rotations on the Columbia Plateau. Quoting:

Undercutter tillage resulted in a 15% to 65% reduction in soil loss and 30% to 70% reduction in PM10 loss as compared with conventional tillage at our field sites. Therefore, based on our results at two sites over two years, undercutter tillage appears to be an effective management practice to reduce dust emissions from agricultural land subject to a winter wheat-summer fallow rotation within the Columbia Plateau.

An economic comparison of these methods can be found in a recent Working Paper from the School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University.