Soil Quality Changes with Organic No-till Production.

The establishment of organic no-tillage systems has been hindered by the difficulty in controlling weeds.  Residue from the rolling and crimping of winter-cover crops as a weed control component has been explored in a multi-state comparison across the midwestern and eastern United States.  We hypothesized that no-tillage and cover crop residue inputs would improve soil quality in these organic systems.  We observed increases in soil microbial biomass carbon with implementation of no-tillage in the majority of the six locations tested. Differences in microbial community structure using fatty-acid methyl ester (FAME) profiles were also evaluated. Within sites, preliminary evaluation showed that total FAME content differed between the first and second years, however profile structure was not yet conspicuously altered by tillage or rotation management.