The no-till treatments also generally had more water runoff than the tilled treatments. The answers to this question are evident in the descriptions of the studies just given. If you didn't recognize those answers, stick with us to the end of this course and you will not only be able to answer the questions, but also have a better understanding of what to recommend for the particular soils of your clients' fields. The word conservation is used because such practices are designed to reduce runoff and erosion from fields, which thus conserves soil and rainfall, plus any inputs added to that soil. Consider the earthworm.
Earthworms hang around under crops, munching their way through the soil and crop residues.
As they do, they leave little tunnels or channels behind them. The channels left by nightcrawlers, for example, are vertical and can go down several feet into the soil. Annual tillage destroys these channels, and the worms have to start making them all over again. Worm channels cannot become very extensive when the worms have to start making them anew every year. When there is little or no annual tillage to destroy channels, though, they can become extensive.