No Till Notes: Water Conservation, Part 2

In my opinion any serious discussion about water conservation has to start with the soil. If you are going to conserve irrigation water pumping, the first order of business is to make sure your soil is performing at a high level. The soil has to be able to infiltrate the water where it falls and have the capacity to store the water away from the soil surface as much as possible.

The ability of the soil to infiltrate water at a high rate where the water falls is critical to water conservation. This process starts with minimum soil disturbance and leaving the previous crop’s residues attached an...